New features aplenty in Firefox 2.0
Firefox 2.0
Mozilla Firefox 2.0 introduces a variety of compelling new features. Familiarize yourself with the leading alternative Web browser's latest edition inside this gallery.Firefox 2.0, the leading Internet Explorer alternative available free, introduces many new features. Windows, Macintosh and Linux users can download Firefox 2.0 directly from Mozilla.
By Erik Eckel
About Erik Eckel
Erik Eckel owns and operates two technology companies. As a managing partner with Louisville Geek, he works daily as an IT consultant to assist small businesses in overcoming technology challenges and maximizing IT investments. He is also president o...
Full Bio
Erik Eckel owns and operates two technology companies. As a managing partner with Louisville Geek, he works daily as an IT consultant to assist small businesses in overcoming technology challenges and maximizing IT investments. He is also president of Eckel Media Corp., a communications company specializing in public relations and technical authoring projects.
Autodidact here on computer knowledge - feeling my way, I keep both IE and Firefox up-to-date; usually using Firefox/Thunderbird. Talk to me about this!
Each has its strengths and weaknesses. I would prefer to use FF for everything but I cannot. FF is better than IE for saving web pages without hassles. However, if I open too many tabs in FF, eventually my machine will go to near-100% CPU Usage and PF Usage of 400MB or more, causing an inevitable "Not Responding" entry in Task Manager, and forcing me to shut down FF. That's where the SessionSaver Extension comes in handy -- after a reboot I fire up FF and all the tabs and windows are open just as I left them. Now, I don't know if that's the fault of my machine (maybe I need more than the 256 MB RAM that I have in it), or an inherent flaw of FF. If that problem were solved once and for all I would probably abandon IE for good, except for sites that are impervious to the charms of the User Agent Switcher and IE View Extensions :) All I can tell you is, for sure, when I get my long-desired Apple MacBook, I will use Firefox 100% of the time :)
I have a used laptop that I added more RAM to. It came with 256 MB which is the barebones for XP to run on. I added 512 and it just flies. Interested Amateur
With a title like "New features aplenty in Firefox 2.0," I sort of expected... I don't know, maybe a description of the NEW features. Most of what this article describes are NOT NEW.
There were a couple of new features mentioned, like the anti-phishing behavior, but nothing to justify the title. I feel misled by TR.
Check Opera. You can download form www.opera.com. As you can see firefox is a cheap copy of Opera
I on occasion use both IE, Opera, and Firefox. On my computer at least the screen in Firefox is the most pleasant to work with and at least appears much more "expensive" than Opera.
Open your own discussion about the virtues of Opera. Yes, I'd like to try it too, so I would be interested.
on every upgrade I make with FF it knocks out my Roboform so I resist upgrading until they fix this problem. I am certain FF could upgrade without eliminating the Roboform which I use on a regular basis. When IE upgrades it does not lose its Roboform. I cannot figure why FF makes you jump through so many hoops and IE does not.
Although Roboform does have some security features built-in, casual users who are not aware of them are at risk. To quote from the Mozilla newsgroups, a post by Ron Hunder: "Consider that a website can display text boxes off the visible screen that ask for, say your credit card number. If you have entered that at some prior time, then it will be automatically entered into the form, possibly without you realizing it. Such things are VERY insecure. The Firefox way of doing this is to remember the data, but NOT to fill it in except when you start to enter something into the field, and click on the entry. This saves typing, while preserving user control, and privacy/security." To read more on this subject, go to news.mozilla.org/mozilla.support.firefox, search on roboform, read the 11-06 posts.
quite true but just as a matter of habit, I never post any personal info like SS # or bank number, credit card number and the like. It is mainly used for all those short forms which ask for address etc. as well as the different sites with different passwords--just hit button "fill forms" and the whole page is done---pretty handy but not so handy as to handle sensitive info.
Having downloaded and used previous Firefox version on 3 PCs, I thought it would be seamless to download/install Firefox 2.0. However I couldn't access any websites after the install. Bell Sympatico (my ISP) doesn't support Firefox because it is open code. Much investigating of firewall settings, Symantec settings, etc. Turned out to be the Port settings which had to be added. Why this didn't work seamlessly from the previous Firefox I do not know. Also....one has to then search the Firefox website to download the old version of Firefox (which I did until I could sort out the mystery of not being able to access any websites. P. Mikichak Guelph, Ontario
spotted that the exe had changed and treated that as suspicious. It's the default behavior, so people can't dump another exe onto your machine and it impersonate the one you thought you were running. If your ISP said they don't support it because it's open, get rid of them, they are know nothing muppets who don't deserve your custom.
I have problems with FF2 however, these comments will be in another thread. Overall, I like FF2, I use it to surf TR, but I also keep an IE6 window at the same tme to help me. Once I switch to Linux, IE won't be available....... (unless an Aussie sends me detais of his "port") [i]I offer you my first born, she is almost 19[/i] oh..... and no sheep, you have enough. ;-)
I must use IE instead of FF for the task of printing out a copy of my payroll check information. IE provides a means to print (within the Print Preview function) only the frame containing information I want to print. With FF, I have no such choice and must be resigned to printing out the entire web page. The web page is created by the PeopleSoft application, so doubt if it can be changed easily. Other than this one feature, I use FF v1.5 99.5% of the time and really enjoy it. Hope to upgrade to 2.0 ASAP.
With my install of FF 2.0 and my 60 some extensions, I am able to bring up print preview and then click print. It is the next screen, where I can access my printer's features [and choose my printer - via a drop down menu] via radio buttons, I can choose to print all [default], the pages - choose a range and selection [highlight stuff on a page and print just that, saves paper and ink]. Hope this is of help. I would be curious, if this did not work. BTW - my O/S is W2k.
Try this - In View Paycheck frame, right click, select "This Frame", then select "Show Only This Frame". After it's redisplayed, print it. Come down to the Mezzanine if you have any questions. >>>DJS>>>
There are a host of extensions for Firefox which make it very useful for my clients in a work environment: -Spiderzilla, which allows them to mirror a web site directly from the browser -IE View, for those ill-designed web sites (say, Microsoft, for instance) that simply MUST be opened in Internet Explorer: one click and the current tab is reopened in IE within the Firefox "shell" -Scrapbook, which is to web pages what "Print Screen" is to screens ... plus you can edit the pages. No more lost content! -Internote, which allows "sticky notes" to be associated with web pages -Noscript, which allows selective disabling and enabling of scripts -Download Them All, a very slick download manager -Colorful Tabs, which dollies up Firefox tabs even more ...and many more. And to top it off, the Compact Library Extension Organizer allows me to package a suite of extensions into a single Uber-extension which I can easily install on a client's computer. In a nutshell, the joy of Firefox is how EASY it is to customize the already capable base browser into a hot working environment ... and know that updates install fast and easily, and incompatibility issues with add-ons are handled gracefully (and usually resolved within days).
For some odd reason it doesn't show up in the Add-ons search, but googling produced it instantly: https://addons.mozilla.org/mozilla/35/
ROCKS!!! My heart's aflutter waiting for FF3. Just my opinion... Interested Amateur
Do you need to have IE installed for the IE View to work? Will it work with vsn 6 or does one need to upgrade to 7.0? I'm sure my MAC will still have issues but my work machine is a PC - we can't upgrade to 7.0 because our apps don't work on it yet.
I believe the answer is yes. You need IE. I checked my extensions 'more info' for the IE extensions I have on my machine and the program path to use an external program, points to: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe There are three extensions that make use of IE, that I use on a regular basis; IE Tab Puts an icon in status bar that can be clicked to change engine to IE within the active Tab. An icon can also be placed on your toolbar. It also is placed in the right click menu. IE View Opens a link or url into IE itself. It too is in the right click menu. Windows Update Allows navigation to the windows update page and runs the update process while not leaving FF. And I highly recommend "Menu Editor" - It allows the customization of what appears on the menu, where it is and I find it really gets rid of clutter. My O/S - W2k and IE 6 and have same setup on W98 machines. Used Extension - "FEBE" to backup profile. There also is a program called - MozBackup 1.4 final to do backups and restorations and you can choose what and where that backup is going to be. Have Fun with FF and its extensions, I know that when I use it, I definitely am able to get more work or fun out of it than IE!
DITTO Ian, I am looking forward to a newer, better FF. I DO miss though some of the older Extensions that no longer work in FFv1.5.0.8 or newer.....
One thing I like in 2.0 is the changes made in the extensions window. We have many more options now. I waited to make the move to 2.0 as I feared broken extensions. But in 2.0 if you have a problematic extension, you can disable it. If I remember it correctly, I could only uninstall an extension in 1.5x. Navigate to tools then extensions in 2.0 and open extensions. Near the top should see "add-on compatibility checking is disabled [ or enabled] depends what was chosen. To the right is a button to enable/disable. I have mine set to disabled and ones that were originally reported as not being able to work, of which I made a note, when I upgraded from 1.5x to 2.0, I tried one by one to see which worked. And when downloading a extension, you are given the option of overriding the checking. I have found some of my favorite older ones to work. Hope this helps.
There isn't a Tools/Extension window. I think it is called Add-ons now. However many add ons don't seem to work, is there a way of activating them? I also downloaded one from CNET, looked good, but M$ didn't recognize the file type, so I could do nothing with it. I deleted it in the end, maybe I can try another time on a Linux system. I wonder if this is M$ fighting back? btw, did you note that spell checkers are case sensitive?
FF2 is fantastic really enjoy the Spell check feature. A work around I use for extensions(addons)is. I have used this method with Winzip/WinRaR 1) Right click on Downloaded xpi (extensions file)Open with Winzip/WinRaR----opens the xpi file 2) In Winzip right click the install.rdf file open in Notepad 1.4 1.4 Change maxVersion (1.4) to 2.5 or 2.0.0.* 3) Save changes to altered xpi extensions file 4) Install the altered xpi file (addon) I have not had a problem with any of the extensions I have altered using this method. Hope this is of some small help.