Can Firefox outfox IE?

Cnet News ^ | 03/14/2005 | Knowledge@Wharton

[r5boston]

Battling browsers are back. Just as in the 1990s, when Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator fought each other for supremacy, today Mozilla's Firefox browser is trying to gain traction over IE.

This latest skirmish, however, goes beyond just browsing the Web. Microsoft's security problems have left an opening for upstarts like Firefox and could lead to other products taking market share from the software giant, say experts at Wharton.

As far as browsers go, customers are disgruntled with Microsoft. The nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, formed in July 2003 with funding from America Online's Netscape unit to promote open-source Web software, recently said it had had 25 million downloads of its Firefox browser in the just 100 days. Web measurement company WebSideStory reports that Firefox had a U.S. market share of 5.7 percent as of Feb. 18, compared with Internet Explorer's 89.9 percent.

While it's far too early to call Microsoft's browser an also-ran, Internet Explorer had a market share of 95.5 percent in June 2004, says WebSideStory. Globally, the trend toward Firefox is the same. On Feb. 28, Amsterdam-based Web analytics company Onestat.com put Firefox's market share at 8.5 percent globally, up 1 percent from November.

[Terpfen]

I can almost hear KwasiOwusu coming straight for this thread.

[Condor51]

In the 'olden days' I used both IE & Netscape - until one Netscape update took absolute control of my 'puter. So I stayed with IE.

But now I only use FIREFOX.

(I just wish someone would come with an extension like IE spell-check)

[usgator]

As a user of IE for many years, I must say that FireFox is a terrific browser and may, someday, be able to compete.

Thing is, I remember a few years back when Netscape was the latest the browser choice of the anti-Microsoft crowd and how it was going to bury IE.

We all know how that ended up.

[trebb]

Thing is, I remember a few years back when Netscape was the latest the browser choice of the anti-Microsoft crowd and how it was going to bury IE.

We all know how that ended up.

From what I recall, the reason netscape dropped from the ratings is that it was a little behind the times in getting itself JAVA compliant - IE was a forerunner. The problem that resulted is that, being a forerunner in allowing all kinds of nifty toys to run in the browser is also one of the reasons that IE became so full of security holes. I find it ironic that the biggest complaint against IE is also a result of what gave IE prominence.

[backhoe]

Browser Wars, take two

[Abathar]

I agree, but because the coders who write the virus's want to infect as many machines as possible they will almost always spend all their time going after the largest user base. As Firefox begins to gain popularity more hackers are going to spend more time to crack it, and you will see more and more updates just like IE has. A lot of people went to Apple for the same reason, security. But who wants to write and attack a system that only has 5-10% of the user base compared to 85+% that run windows? They may think that its because apple writes so much better code, but in reality its because nobody wants to waste their time on something that can't be easily spread.

[beaver fever]

"I remember a few years back when Netscape was the latest the browser choice of the anti-Microsoft crowd "

Yeah well I attended a web design/multimedia school in 2000 that adhered to the dual browser philosophy. I never managed
to build a page that worked in IE and Netscape.

I became fascinated with the idea of using layers to load content rather than use multiple pages.

Netscape at the time used their proprietary layer tag which IE didn't support. IE supported the DIV and SPAN tags which Netscape seemed to choke on.

The long and the short of it is, I was only able to use layers reliably in IE.

When my layer pages failed in NS, (I found out after many frustrating hours), was because I didn't close a P tag.

Hell in IE I could run a page without closing a Body tag.

From then on I concluded that Netscape was the browser that said no. No you can't have this, I won't let you. Javascript belongs to me and not you. Go away and die.

Well I'm still alive and Netscape is dead. There is a just God in the universe.

[Marauder]

I switched to FireFox a few weeks ago. It rocks.

[Wonder Warthog]

I like Firefox a lot. The ONE thing it doesn't do that IE does that irks me is when I open a new tab or window, it doesn't default the new window to the previous URL, but to home page. Is there any setting in Firefox that can be changed to make that happen???

[brewcrew]

I love Firefox save one thing: sometimes it stays resident without being visible. I think I'm shutting it down, go and do something else, then come back and open it - BAM! It's still got ahold of a chunk of my processor and won't open. I have to CTL-ALT-DEL, terminate the application, and launch it again. Kind of a hassle.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The only gripe I have so far with Firefox is the lost bookmarks and settings bug that appears whenever my system shuts down due to an OS stop.

On rare occasions, my Win XP has a problem with what I am assuming is a driver or hardware compatibility issue and issues a system stop and blue screens with a "bad_pool_caller" message. I have learned that this means something has tried to free up a memory pool that is already free.

No biggie...the system can be started back up with no problems...except for one. My Firefox has lost its bookmarks.html file and all settings are back to default. Luckily I keep regular backups but it is a pain when it happens, having to reset my particular prefs.

Other than that...I love it. Imagine trying to restore IE from such a calamity. I think not.

[marvlus]

for later read.

[Condor51]

***when I open a new tab or window, it doesn't default the new window to the previous URL, but to home page. Is there any setting in Firefox that can be changed to make that happen???***

That's odd. When I open a new tab from the file menu, mine is blank. But yes when a new window is opened it's the home page. I never changed any settings, except to setup my default home page.

[jashhub]

My firefox shuts down my computer when I try to load. Do you know why??

[Condor51]

***I love Firefox save one thing: sometimes it stays resident without being visible. I think I'm shutting it down, go and do something else, then come back and open it - BAM! It's still got ahold of a chunk of my processor and won't open. I have to CTL-ALT-DEL, terminate the application, and launch it again. Kind of a hassle.***

I just checked that with mine. It doesn't happen.
When I close Firefox, its closed. Doesn't stay running resident. My OS is 'ME', maybe that's the difference?

[ShadowAce]

I haven't seen Kwasi around for a while. I wonder if he's been banned?

[Clara Lou]

If I understand your problem correctly, I would suggest downloading an extension: Tabbed browser preferences. I'm almost sure it will help you. If it doesn't, you'll like the new options it gives you. An extension is easy to uninstall anyway if you don't like it. The extension works like a charm on my FF 1.01.

[capt. norm]

At first I liked Firefox for its ability to filter out ads and avoid popups, but now I have become totally spoiled on the "bells and whistles" (extensions)

If Microsoft had decent competition, they would have offered goodies like this long ago. Reminds me of back when Ma' Bell owned all the telephone lines, equipment, etc.

[Wonder Warthog]

"That's odd. When I open a new tab from the file menu, mine is blank. But yes when a new window is opened it's the home page."

You're right. But in either case, I would prefer that the newly opened tab OR window start out with the "parent" window's contents, as what I typically want to do is branch from that parent in the one tab/window, while keeping the original open in the other tab/window. Having to copy/paste the URL is a PITA.