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.

[TomGuy]

I quit using Netscape around version 4.7. I was on dial-up. It would hang up, glitch, burp, stall out, and I noticed it sending a lot of info back to Netscape.

I could load the same webpages (that caused Netscape to crash) in IE and had no problem. I migrated to IE. For the last 3 years I have been using an IE based tab browser. Tabbed browsers are great for FR to open article links, etc. IE has been slow to change and update--still no tabs.

[CCCnative]

Mozilla has lotsa stuff in it that Firefox doesn't. For instance I use Eudora for email so I use Firefox cause I do not need Mozilla's email functions.

[NCSteve]

I take it Firefox is kind of like the trimmed down version of Mozilla.

Yep. Firefox is essentially just the browser part of Mozilla. A little less geeky (and hence a little less control).

[BigSkyFreeper]

Nope. I'm using Acrobat 6.0, and have been using 6.0 since the initial release of Windows XP.

[general_re]

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

Bias never bothered me, but what did was that ZD's content typically broke down like this:

10%, interesting
10%, informative
40%, wrong
40%, stupid

...and after a while, it wasn't worth it to pick through the acres of wasteland in search of the one or two gold nuggets.

[Revel]

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

Are you sure that problem is still there. I don't usually have that problem. Although I do remember getting and error before where it needs to recover the data.

[arbee4bush]

I found the same problem with Mozilla. I found out that I had to make IE my prime web browser in order to check my webpage before uploading. Mozilla would have my text all over the place. I use Mozilla to surf, just wish I could use it for checking html.

[familyop]

"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."

That's not true. I admin several webservers and do nothing special for firefox. Some of the MS special, resource and time wasting crap is a pain for webserver admins, though.

Firefox is alright for UNIX systems, if you get a release version and not an alpha or beta. It's really remarkable for the work of a teenager. I don't know how it works for China Bill's Windows, though. MS is too insecure for anyone who wants to keep their identities and credit card numbers to themselves.

[rivercat]

Agreed, avant browser works fantastic.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I've been hand coding HTML in Notepad since 1995, and I spend more time trying to get my pages to render properly in every other browser, yet even where neatness is the only thing that counts as far as I am concerned, IE still kicks everyone elses a$$.

[Revel]

Did you try to Re-install Adobe after you installed firefox...Because a lot programs have to install browswer plugins and they don't do it if that browswer does not exist when they(IE adobe) are installed.

[Khurkris]

I have switched to FireFox and Acrobat is no problem. You might remove it from your system.

Throughly clean & defrag yr system, restart you system, download FF, disconnect from the internet, close everything, then install FireFox and reconnect to internet and do the Firefox update search.
This clean install should make it work. If your system can handle it.
Yeah..its a lot of work, but when you do things right the first time you have a baseline to start from.

I do a clean up every time I shut my system down. Since switching to Firefox the crap left on my computer is almost nil. When using IE I have a lot of crap to clean up.
With a bit of tweaking Firefox is doing a better job with less security hassle. Also I am able to turn off certain security features thast were mandatory with IE.

[BigSkyFreeper]

There was no need to reinstall Adobe, it installs plugins even if you don't need them.

[Knitebane]

Nope. It is forgiving, believe me.

Sorry, but too many people disagree with you.

Let's face facts, shall we?

IE is broken, unsafe and full of unpatched bugs.

There are two dozen unpatched bugs., some of them months old.

There are regular, debilitating security problems, so much so that the US Department of Homeland Security recommends that people use something else.

It is a sucker for spyware, popups and malicious code.

It doesn't conform to standards and introduces new and broken "features" with every release.

Even if Firefox/Mozilla aren't perfect, anything is better than IE.

[familyop]

"...workarounds?" LOL! See the World Wide Web Consortium for writing webpages and the W3C Markup Validation Service for checking HTML, CSS, etc.

[familyop]

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave $8.8 million to the Planned Parenthood Federation.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/women/12/11/health.women.gates.reut/

"Microsoft offers source code to China"
http://itmatters.com.ph/news/news_03032003a.html
(removed from major news sites)

Gates: Buy stamps to send e-mail
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/03/05/spam.charge.ap/

Bill Gates against repealing the inheritance tax
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_inheritance.html

"Soros, one of the wealthiest men in the world, promised $15.5
million to defeating President Bush. Also on this list are
Bill Gates,..."
http://www.americasvoices.org/archives2003/CoxJ/CoxJ_112403.htm

The Left-Wing Billionaire Collectivist Pigs
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/9/25/191020.shtml

Billionaire Collectivist Pigs on a Roll
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/10/11/171315.shtml

"Gun-Control Group Changes Name, Keeps Agenda"
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5C%5CNation%5C%5Carchive%5C%5C200106%5C%5CNAT20010615a.html
(and Bill is a contributor)

"Is Bill Gates a closet liberal?"
http://archive.salon.com/21st/feature/1998/01/cov_29feature.html
(Bill Gates for gun control, pro-abortion, etc.)

http://vikingphoenix.com/news/madminute/1997/mm970040.htm
(Gates on gun control)

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/july-dec97/guns_11-4.html
(more money for gun control from Gates and his father)

"Bill Gates Is No Free Market Hero"
http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2000/12/000046.html

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/datelinedc/s_176864.html

Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going
http://www.hevanet.com/peace/microsoft.htm

"the changing politics of Bill Gates" (national review, john j. miller)
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1282/2_51/53662235/p1/article.jhtml

2002 Feb 2, In NYC protesters of the World Economic Forum turned
out in large numbers. Inside foreign economic leaders criticized
the US for protectionist policies, and Bill Gates and U2 rock star
Bono pushed for increases in foreign aid by rich countries to poor
countries."
http://timelines.ws/days/02_02.HTML

"Software, soft money, and Libertarians"
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0039/news-anderson.shtml
[Bill gives money to both sides--whoever supports Microsoft and extreme social left policies. ...includes Barney Frank.]

Client testimonials, Bill Gates in China, Bill Clinton in China
http://www.beijinghighlights.com/testimonials/testimonials.htm

"State-owned Software Firm Ties up with Microsoft China"
http://fpeng.peopledaily.com.cn/200107/07/eng20010707_74398.html

[BigSkyFreeper]

Tell the creators of FF to look at those pages, not me.

[Revel]

I will tell you that with IE you are taking a huge risk with security. It does work well because all webpages are written to accomidate it. Its plugins work better. But Everyone I know who has used it has ended up with hundreds of spyware programs and trogens. I have even picked up a few myself while using it to view pages. Those people I set up with Netscape or Mozilla never had a single problem with Spyware. So IE is really a very bad security risk.

[BibChr]

Nope; I'm talking about the mousover events -- the footnotes. If you're using Ff, you don't even know they're there. In Avant/IE, mouseover a footnote, and the contents pop up without a click.

Dan

[BigSkyFreeper]

I Don't Use IE

Just in certain instances. I know all about the security risks. I've probably used a computer a lot longer than most on this forum and probably in this thread.