Firefox, bah humbug

ZDNet ^ | November 4, 2004 | John Carroll

[BigSkyFreeper]

Commentary--Firefox has been getting a lot of press lately. Firefox is free software in the Stallman-sanctioned sense--released under a GPL license and built atop technology developed for the Mozilla project. Everybody LOVES Firefox. Not only is it a great browser, but it will make your teeth whiter and secure you a date with Carmen Electra.

Okay, perhaps I exaggerate, but on that note, I haven’t seen ANYONE criticize Firefox. To a certain extent, this is because it is the best alternative in a world dominated by Internet Explorer (cue Opera/Safari/Konqueror fans to go into a frothing rage). On the other hand, as I can personally attest, it is politically incorrect in the extreme to criticize anything stamped with the open source moniker.

In short, though Firefox is a good browser, political considerations have allowed it to escape some deserved criticism. Firefox supporters make some rather costly demands of Web sites, particularly given that it commands such a small, albeit growing, share of the browser marketplace. Recent feverish Firefox support pieces aside, I still think that ignoring IE’s non-standard features will prove a large, and unnecessary, barrier to the success of the best alternative to Internet Explorer.

My Experience providing support for Firefox
As a certain square-jawed actor might have said had he been abducted by aliens and forced to write software, "the experience of one programmer doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." Even so, for a browser that touts its support for HTML standards, I was surprised to find that it had difficulty with standard HTML.

[Knitebane]

Errr, I think the guy's full of it too, but MS doesn't own ZDNet - C-Net does. They bought Ziff-Davis from Softbank of Japan a few years ago, and Softbank is now the largest shareholder in C-Net.

You are correct, but I don't think that anyone would deny the fact that zdnet has been quite the fan of Microsoft over the years.

If I want cheerleading I can get it for free at www.microsoft.com. Why pay an annual subscription for it?

[BibChr]

Yes, it's a snotty 'tude.

The mouseover features on this page --

http://hcsb.broadmanholman.com/crossmain.asp

-- work on IE/Avant, not on Firefox. Let them know of the bug, they informed me that it wasn't a bug, it was improper coding. So they wouldn't fix it.

I. Don't. Care.

I just want to be able to use the page. Avant lets me, Ff doesn't.

So show me whether YOU're in a listening mood.

Dan

[BigSkyFreeper]

Haven't used Netscape since version 3.02Gold. That takes me back to Win 3.11 days.

[BibChr]

Yeah, but why, when Avant works so well? I can't see one thing Ff does that Avant doesn't do better.

Try it out.

Dan

[BigSkyFreeper]

Never used ePrompter. If it renders HTML encoded e-mail, I won't use it.

[sdcraigo]

Has anyone tried an email program called ePrompter? If so, is it any good?

[BigSkyFreeper]

I view PDF files on the 'net through IE.

[chinkshady]

I have used Mozilla from way back when they split from Netscape....

The only complaint is the POSTDATA error where you lose all data in data fields like this if you go back/forward

If they fix that.. which I have posted bug fix requests for.. then they could topple Opera and IE which do not have those issues.


In general... I use it for email and web and find it more stable than IE/Outlook/Eudora etc...

[Revel]

Mozilla Still has composer. It is a lot like netscape communicator. Just highly updated. I still miss a few things from 4.7, but I don't think Mozilla will ever include them.

1. Long bookmark files executing into columns when accessed(instead of that disfuncional scrolling which you can't control)

2.Right click on a page and save a shortcut to the desktop.

3. Right click and "Set As Wall paper"

The old Netscape user interface was simply way ahead of its time.

[Bommer]

I'm using slimbrowser from www.flashpeak.com. Its alot more user friendlier then Firefox and you can beat the built in seach and dictionary tools. Very small. Bommer gives it 4 stars.

[Stellar Dendrite]

Thanks for suggesting Foxyvoice! Although I'm not visually impaired, just downloaded it and it's not bad!

[Terpfen]

Assuming you're referring to the navigation features at the top, well, it just worked for me. The page navigates fine using both the arrows and the options such as "Search Results" and "Search Help." I'm using Firefox 1.0RC2.

Complaint listened to.

[Norski]

"Just like the much-ballyhooed open office software, which coughed up a whole bunch of #NAME's when trying to digest my Excel 97 spreadsheet. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, there's no free lunch, and read the fine print."

I just tried to do the same thing, but with a works 98 ss. Did you ever get it open?

[Dubya]

Firefox is a winner for me. Much faster than IE.

[uncleshag]

www.avantbrowser.com

[JoJo Gunn]

I use FF, but I'll not put IE out to pasture for a long while.

After all this time, they can't even make it where you can save a web page. No matter the title of a thread, it only shows as "posts". That's a simple and basic necessity of a browser. Instead of trying to rush a release candidate they need to stop right where they are and fix the simple and basic things.

[FreeManWhoCan]

I made it to NetScape 3.00 Gold... You at least got farther than me!

[Rubber_Duckie_27]

Never tried it. I like Safari better than IE, though. Come to think of it, the only reason my iBook has IE at all is because my fiance likes it.

[Revel]

Fire fox and Mozilla work fine with PDF files if you have have adobe acrobat installed. Maybe you have and old version of Adobe. I use Firefox all the time for pdf. It even embeds in web pages.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT