Firefox explorers

The Age (AU) ^ | March 22, 2005 | Nigel McFarlane

[zeugma]

It's been almost a week since we've had a good Firefox thread. This is a better article than most.

[Calpernia]

Anyone else experience Firefox as a resource eater?

[newsgatherer]

Firefox is often paired with its open source sibling, Thunderbird, a

How is Thunderbird? Have you used it? Are the flilters as good or better than Outlook?

Thanks
Jake

[LeeHarvey]

Yes. Try removing the unnecessary clutter, and it'll run at peak performance. Start with a clean install, and only install plug-ins, extensions, themes, etc. that are absolutely necessary. Like anything else, the more crap you pile-on, the worse it gets -- so keep it lean and mean! ;)

[WSGilcrest]

I tried Firefox and wasn't impressed. If you're used to IE but must have your tabbed browsing, try http://www.avantbrowser.com/

[SengirV]

I use Camino(www.caminobrowser.org) on OS X, and only really experience resource hoggins when I have multiple windowns up, each with multiple tabs. Or, there are tons of flash/banner ads on a page. I also close and restart it every so often, no one is perfect and non freed up resources happen.

[Wuli]

Whenever any of my friends or clients bitch about MS-IE-Explorer, I download and install Firefox for them, clean IE out of the machines and out of the Win-registry entirely and I never hear a browser complaint from them again. Now they just want their DSL and T1/ 1/2 T1 / 1/4 T1 connections to run faster.

[TomGuy]

I have used FireFox for about 4 months, as a secondary browser. I have another tabbed browser for FR that I've used for 4 years, so it is difficult to leave it.

FF is ok. Some of the extensions are great, as add-ons. However, sometimes an extension installation fails, at which point it will neither install nor uninstall. The only way to clear it up is to uninstall everything FF and reinstall from scratch. Also, some of new/updated extensions seem to have some compatibility problems with the FF 1.01 version.

I now use IE only for those strange websites that won't load with any other browser.

[TomGuy]

I don't see how anyone can FReep without a tabbed browser. lol.

[macbee]

I tried Firefox and wasn't impressed.

After far too many hours spent dealing with IE and Outlook security patches and pop-up blocking that just wasn't cutting it, I switched over to Firefox and Thunderbird a few months ago and haven't looked back. YMMV.

[zeugma]

However, sometimes an extension installation fails, at which point it will neither install nor uninstall. The only way to clear it up is to uninstall everything FF and reinstall from scratch.

That kinda depends upon your level of computer nerdiness. I'm not sure how it works on windows, but with Linux, you can delete the directory where the extension is installed, modify the Extensions.rdf file, and it's gone for good.

[The Great RJ]

I'm using Firefox on an older Pentium 3 machine running Windows 98 and have no problems with resources, crashes or lock-ups.

[zeugma]

From most reports, Thunderbird is very good. I don't use it myself, as I use either Evolution or Kmail depending upon where I am. I figure most people would benefit from using just about anything other than the virus/worm magnet that is Outlook.

[SouthernBoyupNorth]

There are some people who will not be swayed away from the Microsoft name. Internet explorer is a useful tool but like all tools it can become obsolete. Avant is nothing more than an overlay for IE with some added feature. In my opinion it is even slower than I.E. Firefox has advantages in the fact that it is customizable. If you want the IE type interface and feel all it takes is a little work to get it there. There you go the crux of the matter. Most people don't want to "work" to get the software right.... That is where Microsoft gets its targets... from the people who are either afraid of or to lazy to try something new.
I use Thunderbird and Firefox at home and even got my IT guy to load Firefox for me at work. (I don't have admin access to the windoze). I have seen an increase of net speed and information access from our intra net of about 10-15%. So Yeah I LIKE Firefox. I recommend that everyone try it to see if they like it. If they don't then by all means go back to I.E. I don't particularly care for M.S. products but what are you going to do when they control about 80-90% of the market share.

[kellynla]

I finally had to trash Firefox.
It got to the point that every time I used it my 'puter would crash?
for whatever reason???

[Shadow Deamon]

"I'm using Firefox on an older Pentium 3 machine running Windows 98 and have no problems with resources, crashes or lock-ups."

I use Firefox at home on XP and at work I use it running from my usb flash drive/mp3 player.

I've been using FF for years when it was named something else. I never have problems that I can directly relate to FF.

I recommend it.

[Podkayne]

Firefox on Mac OSX isn't too good. You can't do SBA web site interactive work. The govt. doesn't support apple let alone non-windows based products. And this is the SBA.... They just aren't into innovation at the SBA.

[Archytekt]

I used it for two months and dumped it, its a pig!

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=237820&highlight=memory+leak

[rose]

Also use FF for over a year, no problems, very good.

[greasepaint]

Firefox seems to have less useless baggage than IE.
Everyone should take a look.