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Firefox Limitations?

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7 replies

by dotxen

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I have found that Firefox takes a little longer to load then IE. There is also the problem of those web sites that 'demand' IE to present their content appropriately and correctly.

Fact is simply that we allowed ourselves to become comfortable with IE and so much has gone down over the years that Firefox will take much longer to become a mature and globally acceptable/usable browser.

I actually like Firefox and use it as much as I can, but the limitations exist and until web designers address Firefox, or Firefox developers get a handle on the IE-type requirements of millions of web sites, it is going to be a slow progression for this new browser.

I have heard the claims about Firefox being more secure than IE. I don't actually believe these claims. It's just a matter of scale, in my opinion.

It's not healthy to have one product dominate any technology, so I support Firefox and over time I am sure that it will provide a very competent and equal competitor for IE.

7 replies

by icy_to

Browser Comparing
---------------------------

Customizing toolbars
----------------------
Menu items as: File,Edit,Vieuw,Bookmarks,Tools,Windows,Help
Sleipnir is the only brower where those items can be moved,
all can be moved in a submenu to gain place, this is unique

Move toolbars:
Sleipnir: any toolbar can be moved
greenbrowser : any toolbar can be moved
Maxthon : any toolbar can be moved
K-Meleon : any toolbar can be moved
FIREFOX : could not find it ?
Opera : could not find it ?

Big Icons :Sleipnir,greenbrowser,Maxthon

Drag & drop menuitems
Sleipnir unlimited
greenbrowser,Maxthon,Firefox & Opera possible

Statusbar Switches

Sleipnir: on/off line browsing
progress bar
on/off javascript
on/off Java
on/off Active X
on/off Active X download
on/off Load Images
on/off Play Sounds
on/off Play Video
Show Privacy Policy
SSL State
Zoom Magnification
Number of Ad Blocked Pages
greenbrowser : Collector of text,url's
on/off Filters + Menu dito
on/off line browsing
on/off Activate New Window
on/off Open Links in New Window
on/off Mouse Drag Page
on/off Mouse Gesture
Maxthon : Number of Ad Blocked Pages
on/off line browsing
on/off Filters ,no Menu dito
on/off Activate New Window
on/off Open Links in New Window
Collector of text,url's
Bytes transfered via Dialup Connection
K-Meleon : only progress bar
FIREFOX : not available
Opera : shows useful information if available, on object pointed to by the mouse

Tabs
Sleipnir: when leftdoubleclick on a tab :
tab is locked and can not be deleted or changed
all links in this window open in new window,
this is extremely handy

greenbrowser & Maxthon
Alt_X to lock a tab
confirmation is asked before being deleted
all links in this window open in new window

K-Meleon ,FIREFOX & Opera : no special options

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Restore Previous session
--------------------------
Sleipnir: restore can be done anytime, anywhere
greenbrowser only at startup
Maxthon only at startup when closed unexpectedly
also option to contunue next time when leaving maxthon
K-Meleon not possible
FIREFOX not possible
Opera at startup when closed unexpectedly
or when cofigured to show menu

Zooming
---------------
Sleipnir CTR+ "+ or - keys " to zoom, CTR+ 0 key to restore ,
greenbrowser CTR+ "+ or - keys " to zoom,
Maxthon CTR+ "+ or - keys " to zoom,
K-Meleon CTR+ "+ or - keys " to zoom,
FIREFOX CTR+ "+ or - keys " to zoom,
Opera + or - keys to zoom,* key to restore , those keys are only usable for zooming and restoring , it is impossible to use those keys for anything else

---------------------
Mousegestures

Sleipnir : any operation, even those without icon,
can be performed by mousegestures,
you will have to limit them as nobody is able
to use that many mousegestures
all mousegestures are chosen from the following menus:
File,Edit,View,Favorites,Favorites&Groups,Security,
proxy,scripts,tools,window,help,user defined,and a few more
each menu has his options to choose from
NO OTHER BROWSER CAN PERFORM MOUSEGESTURES LIKE SLEIPNIR

greenbrowser & Maxthon :
Mousegestures can be the same as Sleipnir,
but due to the lack of a menu,those are very poor

K-Meleon only 6 Mousegestures available

FIREFOX not available, mayby plugin ??

Opera :Mousegestures available , only combination
of 2 directions possible, poor

Left_Right Mouseclicks combinations
------------------------
Sleipnir only

Mouseclicks in combination with Keys
-------------------------------------
Sleipnir + Alt,Ctr,Shift only
greenbrowser,Maxthon,K-Meleon no
FIREFOX + Alt,Ctr,Shift only
Opera + Ctr,Shift only

Close Buttons
-------------
Close : all Browsers
Close Tab : all Browsers
Close All : Sleipnir,greenbrowser,Maxthon
Close All but Active : Sleipnir
Close All Browsed : Sleipnir
Close All to the Left : Sleipnir
Close All to the Right : Sleipnir
Sleipnir,greenbrowser,Maxthoncan be configured to ask confirmation when closing

Refresh/Stop
------------
Opera :1 button for both
Sleipnir,greenbrowser,Maxthon,K-Meleon,FIREFOX have separate buttons
Stop All : Sleipnir,greenbrowser,Maxthon
Refresh All : Sleipnir,greenbrowser,Maxthon
Refresh without using cache : Sleipnir
Refresh All without using cache : Sleipnir

save icon
---------
only Sleipnir,greenbrowser,Maxthon,Opera

find icon
---------
only Sleipnir,greenbrowser,Maxthon,Opera

global icon with submenuicons for
---------------------------------
Favorites,Favorites Group,Closed Url List,Window List,History,Collector
only Sleipnir

Closed Url List
---------------
to reopen Closed Tabs
only Sleipnir

Collector
---------
to store urls,text etc
only Sleipnir,greenbrowser,Maxthon

Extract Url(s) from Active document
-----------------------------------
only Sleipnir ,this is very handy

Extract Urls from Selected Area
-------------------------------
only Sleipnir , this is very handy

Menu delete usage information
-----------------------------
- Address bar history
- Search bar history
- Recently closed Pages History : only Sleipnir
- Temporary Internet Files
- Internet History
- Cookies
- Visit Count : only Sleipnir

All browsers can clean Temporary Internet Files = Cache
All browsers can clean Internet History & Coocies ,
K-Meleon has no history & no permanent Coockies

Access to Internet Options
--------------------------
Yes for Sleipnir,greenbrowser,Maxthon as they are IEclones

Use the Gecko/Mozilla Rendering Machine
---------------------------------------
Sleipnir can use both at the same time
greenbrowser,Maxthon can use it,but there is
no easy switching around ??

Favorites
---------

In Favorites Sleipnir can set&store all those options when opening the url
these individual settings can or cannot be applied to any favorite
on/off javascript
on/off Java
on/off Active X
on/off Active X download
on/off Load Images
on/off Play Sounds
on/off Play Video
on/off Navigation Lock
time of automatic refresh
a comment can be added

this can also be applied to directories and subdirectories,
is this is set to a directory then this applies to all
Favorites in this directory, exept for the ones with
individual settings

a special Favorites Editor is forseen
there is a visit count

THIS IS UNIQUE TO SLEIPNIR
---------------------------
Disable Cache , when refreshing : only Sleipnir

Sleipnir,greenbrowser,Maxthon,K-Meleon,FIREFOX,Opera
all of them are good browsers,
some of them have exclusive options , other not

but for me SLEIPNIR is a ROLLS ROYCE compared to all the
others , and i did only mention the features i use on
a regular basis

by rgk

Most issues with sites that require IE is that they have strayed from the W3C standards. If the standards were followed, for the most part it would not matter what browser was used.

by jaqui

are sites running malware.
and yes, an activex control or vbscript on a website is malware.
there is no good reason to use this on a website as there is no good reason to access clientside system for more than setting a cookie or reading a cookie.

both of which all browsers do with no extra clientside scripting.

by thechas

Firefox does have 2 security advantages over IE.

First, the code is different. The same flaws that are in IE if present in Firefox would require different code to take advantage of them.

The big reason that Firefox is more secure than IE is the fact that the hacker community has a grudge against Bill Gates and Microsoft.

Sure, as Firefox becomes more popular, more hackers will attempt to crack it. Still, there will continue to be more prestige for hacking into Microsoft programs than open source software.

Chas

by tony hopkinson

which is why it takes longer to load. Still the extra 2 seconds on my bog standard windows box is well worth the piece of mind.

by jeff_spock

Visit Tom Mochal's www.tenstep.com and scroll down the page--it's not pretty. I mentioned this to him and he apologized, admitting that he uses FrontPage and doesn't have enough staff to handle site presentation details.

I'm not knocking Tom (at least not intentionally, his stuff is brilliant--he does Project Management columns for TechRepublic). This is merely an example of the fact that even with the best of intentions a site built with MS tools can be Firefox-hostile.

I have a pretty full hard disk and I admit that Firefox does do some thrashing when it loads. However, I feel that the use of tabs alone far outweighs any other negative features of the browser. Add to that the lack of viruses, malware, spyware,...

Finally, the fact that Ffx is open source is great--you can get add-ins for things like management of Unicode characters to ensure that a pirate site is not spoofing a real one. Don't even ask when IE will have the same functionality.

I'm a convert.

This discussion is closed to new replies.