Posted on 12/18/2004 6:19:26 AM PST by mathprof
FIREFOX is a classic overnight success, many years in the making.
Published by the Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit group supporting open-source software that draws upon the skills of hundreds of volunteer programmers, Firefox is a Web browser that is fast and filled with features that Microsoft's stodgy Internet Explorer lacks. Firefox installs in a snap, and it's free.
Firefox 1.0 was released on Nov. 9. Just over a month later, the foundation celebrated a remarkable milestone: 10 million downloads. Donations from Firefox's appreciative fans paid for a two-page advertisement in The New York Times on Thursday.
Until now, the Linux operating system was the best-known success among the hundreds of open-source projects that challenge Microsoft with technically strong, free software that improves as the population of bug-reporting and bug-fixing users grows. But unless you oversee purchases for a corporate data center, it's unlikely that you've felt the need to try Linux yourself.
With Firefox, open-source software moves from back-office obscurity to your home, and to your parents', too. (Your children in college are already using it.) It is polished, as easy to use as Internet Explorer and, most compelling, much better defended against viruses, worms and snoops.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Was a Netscape user for many years, moved to IE when Netscape stopped being supported effectively, then migrated to Firefox a couple of months ago. No pop-ups, no hassle, and Spybot "hits" during weekly maintenance are now down to 1 or 0. What a pleasure.
I have been using Firefox for several months at home (I have forbidden my wife and kids to use IE). I also use Thunderbird as a mail reader. I love the security.
The problem with tossing IE here at work is the fact that many of our insurance brokers (we are a small commercial and personal lines brokerage) are insistent on putting ActiveX scripts on their webpages, making it impossible to use Firefox.
I wrote a letter to progressive asking them why did they demand that we do the technical equivalent of leaving our front door open in order to use their products....., no response. Ditto from GMAC, Safeco, Farmers.
Anyhow, does anyone know of a workaround for acriveX scritps that I can incorporate into Firefox? I would love to ditch IE altogether.
For blocking cookies...
You can select to block, but it becomes a real pain. You either have to accept all and sort. Or click to allow/deny. That click to allow/deny can mean having to click half-a-dozen times on each website.
The best way to to allow the cookies and then use a program such as Window Washer (or similar) to clean out the cookies. You can schedule at shutdown, start up, once a week, etc. Those programs also give you an option to list which cookies to keep.
In response/clarification to my own question, I think what I am asking for is an open source version of java that will run the MICROSOFT's java scripts.
IIRC, they paid $50,000 for MS DOS.
I had IE set to prompt for cookies.
Most of the time I only had to block them one time.
Then for some reason it started overriding my comand
and would switch to accept as soon as I closed the window.
bookmarking for future reference :)
Google MS's history to find out why the "$1m contractor got to build the Sear's Tower". You'll see that both Gates' father and mother were involved in stearing the contract his way.
You are 100% correct.
That Xerox GUI was called GEM. You could still see a chunk of it if using early versions of Ventura Publisher running under DOS.
Arrgh. It is not necessary to exerpt the Slimes. Please post the whole article. I refuse to register
Then you've got it blocked. Firefox is simply an application that uses TCP/IP to communicate.
Also, folks should check out the speed thread. It helps.
Posting with Firefox now.......
Okay thanks. I'll check them out.
From what I know (and use) of IE, the ability to set the font properties is limited to the actual font, and the menu choice of small, smaller, medium, etc. You can, however, create your own custom style sheet, and then apply it to IE by going to Tool > Internet Options > (General Tab) > Accessibility. Woks for me!
buy WindowWasher from Webroot is one way
Opera is the fastest and has the most options for better browsing. I am not sure how it compares with security, but I have used both IE, and Firefox, but the first time I used Opera, I was hooked.
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