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If you have made the change to FireFox

Locked

What do you like to not like?

Has it made a difference to your system?

Has it made a difference to the systems of your users?

Have the end users accepted this in your organization?

Number of incidents of Virus/Trojan/Worm/Malware/Spyware/blahblahblah gone up, gone down or stayed the same?

Find any features you like about it?
Find any features you don’t like about it?

Topic

Short-cut to open new tab

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Press your scroll button on top of a URL and it will open that in a new window.

Press your scroll button on top of a tab and it will close it.

I have changed over half of my users so far, so it is too early to tell the trouble they will get into.

Seems to be accepted well accept for a few sites for our bank that will not work.

Link to Firefox advocate site

In reply to Short-cut to open new tab

http://www.spreadfirefox.com/

Love it!!

In reply to Link to Firefox advocate site

Have been using FF for about a year… I NEVER get any adware or spyware while using it. On the rare occasions I must use IE I have to delete 20 -30 adware and/or spyware applications when I’m done.

The tabbed browsing is a big benifit.

breezygirl

Fire Fox- Saviour from spywares!!!

In reply to Love it!!

I have been using fire-fox for about 8 months now and I am very much satisfied with it. I have lesser spywares,lesser pop-ups & the tab browsing feature is a big help. You can tweak this browser for the optimum performance.

The Fire-Fox themes kind of enhances the whole web browsing experience also.

Amit Puthran.

Great

In reply to Fire Fox- Saviour from spywares!!!

i have tried many web browsers but i have totally discarded them but firefox i have deployed to all my clients and so far enjoying results and less time spent trying to help users how to get around the web

Yea, Right

In reply to Love it!!

I felt the same way until I realized that FireFox was getting the same amount of spyware as IE. The catch is that when you run IE you notice that your system slows down, that just happens to be when you realize that there is spyware. I have a good method, I have not had any problems in over one year. You have to create a user with no permissions then add Norton AV and enable that firewall instead of XP SP2 firewall,,, no problems.

FF > IE

In reply to Yea, Right

I’ve been using Mozilla for years and most recently Firefox when it came out – I use Thunderbird as well – all in conjunction with an AV (AVG in this instance) and ZoneAlarm Pro – I was spoiled also for 6 years since I used Earthlink and they included a built-in pop-up blocker and also been using Spybot’s Search & Destroy – every once in a while I dabble with Opera and a few others but that’s just out of curiosity as I prefer the ease of use and uncluttered interface and tabs of Mozilla-based Browsers (with the exception of Netscape when Mozilla released it to AOL). I don’t see the need nor use for IE nor Outlook.

Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox

In reply to FF > IE

I have been using Firefox since it was Phoenix and at version 0.4. I have never had any problem with Firefox and adware. It has only been when using IE that I have ever had any problems. One person mentioned getting adware on his machine after he installed Firefox and Macromedia’s Flash Player. I don’t see how this could have happened unless he already had one of the more robust copies of adware on his machine already or he was browsing a questionable site after installing Flash. I admit that Firefox is not the Holy Grail of the browser market, but it is better than the alternative. There is nothing that can replace caution and common sense.

A little unfair I think but…………….

In reply to Yea, Right

I have been using Firefox for a while and not had a single problem. I have been deliberately using administrative rights when browsing (obviously being careful about what is on the machine) with AVG, Spybot S&D and ZoneAlarm covering me. I have had no problems so far and as we speak this is the same machine I am using now.

The problem will be when Firefox becomes so popular as I expect it to, unethicals out there are going to attempt all the tricks they did with Explorer.

All anyone can hope for is that Firefox receives the same support that Explorer does and moves are made to help us out.

Vey true

In reply to A little unfair I think but…………….

But I think the differenc ewill come in support. Forefox, being globally used by so many techs, will be fixed mush faster than MS.

It seems MS lets problems amalgamate until they require addressing and becoming cost effective enough to fix. FF on th eother hand has a global community of people working to make it the best browser, not just a select group of techs hired by Mozilla to debug proprietary code.

try

In reply to Short-cut to open new tab

same shortcut that mozilla and netscape use
control t

thatopen new tab as control n opens new window

edit the .css config files and add a specific mouse gesture if you want, to make a mouse click open a tab.

shortcuts

In reply to try

I use ctrl+t all the time. I often use ctrl+w to close tabs, too, and ctrl+tab to cycle through tabs. I also use ctrl+enter for opening .com sites, shift+enter for .net, and ctrl+shift+enter for .org sites.

Lotsa good keyboard shortcuts for Firefox.

You do know that IE has many shortcuts too right?

In reply to shortcuts

http://www.obs.org/cheatsheet/ieshortcut.htm

Of course without the tabbed browsing abilities.

You can add a WWW or a .com, no org or net though that I’m aware of.

There is always one in a crowd

In reply to You do know that IE has many shortcuts too right?

Your as bad as my wife.
It is all about you, you, you.

Yes, we know they have shortcuts.
Been there, done that, won the cuppie doll.

: >

LOL

In reply to There is always one in a crowd

Yeah it’s ALL about me!

Actually, I noticed the post ws about what you liked about Firefox, as opposed to another browswer, we’ll just say IE.

So when apotheon mentioned keyboard shortcuts, it implied that this was unique to Firefox.

Wasn’t trying for ANY comparison

In reply to LOL

Just a simple “I like this” or “I don’t like that” about FireFox ONLY.

If people had found features they felt like sharing that they thought were cool was also part of the idea.

Wasn’t trying to get a “my browser is bigger than your browser” arguement going.

And Apotheon was just stating he uses these in FireFox, and never mentioned IE at all.

I think you were just walking around today looking for a dog to kick?

Not at all

In reply to LOL

I can go kick my neighbours dog any time. I don’t pick fights on the internet, nobody wins. In real life at least someone wins, and you get to go for beers together afterwards.

Lets jus accept that PERHAPS i got the wrong impression from apotheons post as mening it was a unique feature.

Perhaps this was also why my reply was very unimposing and merely brought up that the features were also in IE.

Was it worth three or four posts though?

I didn’t think so, but we can analyze comments all day and pick apart ech others comments until we have two sides and then we shall all bear arms and …..right, the internet issue again!

worth three or four posts?

In reply to LOL

yes.

Cheers.

IE

In reply to LOL

One thing you will never hear thou is a IE user moaning ‘Your site will not work with IE, when are you going to spend lots of money to make a small percentage of your users happy?’ I love this one from the coprate side of things its… Sure we are going to put out all that money? HA HA. Ya sure and the world is going to become MAC compliant just because it would be nice. Ok so they do it and then you know they will pass on the price to all thier users. Why should I pay for your choice to use something that requires someone else to spend money to make it work. Think! Two free programs will keep you spy ware free….

Yeah right

In reply to LOL

How many times have I heard people say IE won’t load a page or run a script or plugin on the web? FAR too many to even begin counting.

Firefox has a greater W3C complaince than IE does so scripts aren’t an issue. Cross browser coding costing mroe money? No, this should be a standard for ANY web design team,it alwys has been why not now?

WHy should YOU Rocmpany pay more to become complaint with web changes? Because IF you don’t you don’t keep up. IF for example, your company sold Network Administration software or hardware or anything IT related, do you not think it is in your best interests to become Mozilla compliant? THAT’s where the majority of users are changing, IT moves first, then users.

IE can’t even handle some SIMPLE script commands, as we’ve seen many times in Tech Q&A.

Reducing your visibility in an internet age is YOUR company’s loss or gain, your choice.

Re: IE

In reply to LOL

One of the things that I like about IE is the ability to apply policies on the browser. That is one of the key factors that keep it alive on the corporate side of things.

Now not being able to view websites on the other hand, is poor development on the part of the web developer. We test our sites on IE, Opera, Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox, MSN Explorer, and a few others. It is important to meet the lowest common denominator during development – so drop that Frontpage garbage, and do some real coding. CIW’s know this well. It is one of the first things that you need to understand and is also one of the ‘golden rules’ of the web.

Web site testing – Wake up zombies

In reply to LOL

Not only do we test multiple browsers, but we even connect with a modem and check from off site to see what the load times are like.

I don’t know how many times I see some clown on a killer system marveling at the monster of a page they made, running it locally the whole time. But once you put it up it is maddening to try to use.

Wake up zombies, MS does not set or follow internet standards.

What would happen if you lost 1/4 of your clients because they couldn’t view your page to see if you carry what they want? Lots of AOL’ers out there with a lot of money to throw around and if you don’t want their business we will take it. Then you can join with the people saying how IT is drying up because you put yourself out of business by locking out your customers.

Poetry

In reply to There is always one in a crowd

For some reason, that post looks like a poem. Wise words.

I noticed that

In reply to Short-cut to open new tab

…with SSL, it tends to open in a new window. Doesn’t bother me much though.

Firefox added Adware

In reply to Short-cut to open new tab

The Firefox or macromedia plugins added AdWare immediately on installation of firefox (from cnet). I thought it was supposed to help fight this. I immediately deleted it. I’ll use Opera. It shows ads but doesn’t install a separate Adware engine

It definitely did add adware; was related to macromedia. I got it from download.com. I’ll re-install & write down what it says. I’m using ca.com’s online free adware scanner. We have a computer in our printer room and adaware shows no adware but ca.coms’ pestpatrol online shows 5 including one dialer. (alot of browser usage).

I think someone below has correct adware it installed: it added ‘coolwebsearch’ parasite from the quick time plugin. I installed it all at once so in a way I’m correct that firefox added adware.

[edit note:]
I’m not nuts, senile or mistaken, I did see this. However I tried re-installing and did not see it again. It is possible that pestpatrol online signature flagged it as adware then was changed. This happened to Microsoft’s spyware scanner with it wrongly identifying the site in Netherlands.

Adware?

In reply to Firefox added Adware

Ya think maybe Macromedia might be responsible for this … or something else? I’ve installed FF many, many times and have never had this problem. And I’d be curious to know what ‘adware’ it added?

I run all MM software

In reply to Adware?

I run Fireworks, FLASH, Feehand, Dreamweaver and other but NO adware.

Nor have I ever seen it with the FLASH plugin, OR FIREFOX.

Lets lok at it this way.

Run IE for a week and you will find large amounts of crao instaled in the background.

Run FF for a week and it you only find one or two entries, in my case BIOTH from my homepage.

But I wouldn’t say FLASH or any MM product installs ANY adware or spyware, that’s not how they pay for their products.

IMO

In reply to I run all MM software

Yeh .. I think you’re right. I have flash coming out my arse here (I’ll post pictures later), and I use FF, and I don’t have any adware from it.

WOW could you!

In reply to IMO

I bet you could sell the ‘FLASH Arse’ extension on MM with NO problem! Probably get top (or bottom) downloads!

I would help offer free support for females if needed, I know, I know, I’m just nice guy what can I say.

Maybe I’m lucky

In reply to IMO

I know a lot of people infested with ad-ware/spyware, even help them remove it, but I don’t seem to catch it. Maybe it’s the sites I go (or don’t go) to. I used to run ad-aware now spybot, but it never finds anything.

Could be ?!

In reply to Maybe I’m lucky

This may be the case. I have a friend who used to worry about his virus scanner because he never caught any viruses (back in the days before the mass mailer worms). On the other hand, because I have an email address tied with my business I was seeing 300+ emails a day, and lots of these were infected.
He was worried his wasn’t working, but the fact is, he just wasn’t getting any bad email sent to him.
So, you might just be one of the lucky ones who surfs in safe waters 🙂

MM Flash and adware

In reply to I run all MM software

I think that the executable could be prone to an exploit… either that, or registry scan are misinterpreting the Flash exe. I’ve had Flash detected as a suspicious file a long time ago, but It doesn’t seem to be doing anything at all. It is also not being registered as suspicious after a reinstall.

Flash, or not to Flash

In reply to MM Flash and adware

I removed IE from my system (have had it with the Microsoft product)and I have been running Firefox for about a month, and have found the following problems:
1. The EBay toolbar does not work with it
2. I cannot install MSN Mesenger
3. I have installed the Flash plug-in like, 5 times, yet I cannot get it to work with Yahoo Messenger since I removed IE
Apart from these annoying little problems, I have found it to be a stable, easy-to-use browser that suits (most of) my needs.
I have NEVER had any more adware problems since removing IE, and I browse ALL day on a broadband connection. I use Adaware Pro with automated Ad-watch installed, as well as Spy-Bot 1.4 beta.

I use both too

In reply to Flash, or not to Flash

As well as ‘Hijack This’. I still have IE installed for an alternate profile, but Firefox remains the default. You will not be able to use the Windows or MSN messenger without IE. I recommend moving to GAIM or Trillian to manage your MSN accounts/chats. I used Trillian for about a month and then went to GAIM. GAIM is ideal for multichat purposes (with tabbed conversations too) but once in a while, MSN fails to auto-connect when starting… I simply retry to conect – a small price to pay for such a great proram.

http://gaim.sourceforge.net/

Your problems

In reply to Flash, or not to Flash

MSN Messenger,Yahoo Messenger ?

Damn if you allow THAT garbage in your OC, then no wonder secure products don’t work!

You couldn’t pay me enough to install those free messengers on my systems. It’s like saying software doesn’t work with Webshots running in the background. 😀

hold it a second..

In reply to I run all MM software

by my definition, flash itself is adware.

~grin~

so your statement is inaccurate to me.

it was ‘coolwebsearch’ I believe

In reply to Adware?

Some below mentioned this and I think I remember that was what it was, and it came for a ride on the quicktime plugin installed with firefox at same time. ca.com online scanner (pestpatrol) found it while I’ve noticed that adaware did not detect 5 spywares including one dialer. (could we have an old copy?)

CWS

In reply to it was ‘coolwebsearch’ I believe

You didn’t download CWS with Quicktime … unless you grabbed it from an “unofficial” website. I’d guess it was probably came down with SmileyCentral or Incredimail, Kazza, ….. or something else you inadvertantly clicked ‘Yes’ to.
The current version of AdAware is Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.05, and the definitions are currently 16.02.05.

As a side note – I make it a habit NEVER to use online scanners (I don’t care who’s website it is on: CA, Symantec, Panda, …), as they are/were one of the biggest sources of BHOs at one time.

Wrong

In reply to Firefox added Adware

I have installed FireFox on about 30 systems now.

I also run a few adware scanners after I am done.

NEVER seen this.

What was the name of the AdWare?

Better confirm the plugin that you were looking at, or make sure you didn’t already have it on your system.

It DID NOT come from the firefox.

I hate to say this, however…

In reply to Wrong

Could he be mistaking flash as an adware engine. The rendering of flash objects as adds. I’d hate to think if this was the case. It means some re-education for this lad.

It could have been some new exploit with flash? But it wouldn’t have been in the firefox install itself.
I’d be interested to know more if you could reply back and clarify things.

so sorry

In reply to Firefox added Adware

I did not recieve any adds what so ever other than it not being conpatable with some sites I havent had any problems.

Opera Ads

In reply to Firefox added Adware

They go away if you actually purchase it.

I like Opera but Gmail…

In reply to Opera Ads

I was recently invited to Google Gmail and it made
me MAD when it could not work on Opera because of Active X!!! Gmail does work on Netscape.

Opera 8

In reply to I like Opera but Gmail…

I know it’s a bit annoying to do this, but the Opera 8 Beta does work with Gmail – I’ve been using it successfully, though the site does talk about unsupport browsers, blah blah.

Reply To: If you have made the change to FireFox

In reply to Firefox added Adware

Just put in a hosts file that blocks ALL ads. It works with IE or FF. I don’t even get ads in the web pages I visit.

OT:>)

and a batch file to lock it!

In reply to Reply To: If you have made the change to FireFox

I have a hosts file, plus a couple of batch files which lock the hosts file to prevent any compromising changes being made, this can be unlocked temporarily to hash out a particular entry if you need to see something it’s blocking (like my web sitemeter).

adware not from FF but…….

In reply to Firefox added Adware

havn’t seen any adware in the firefox program but have had a coolwebserch parisite installed into my start menu from the quicktime player plug-in. (check the spy-bot start menu tool!!) seem to me that the blame lies on the distributors of the plug-ins rather then mozilla.

more Info!

In reply to adware not from FF but…….

After contacting the people at mozilla they clamed that it was not the coolwebserch parisite. but when the quicktime entry on my start menu was active the program tried to hijack my homepage! Purged the bugger and the hijack stopped. coincedence?

Get the Extension to help open IE

In reply to Short-cut to open new tab

I’ve seen a few pages not work properly in Firefox (usually due to ActiveX controls or because the page isn’t coded to standards). There’s an extension to Firefox called “ieview” that allows you to right-click a link or a poorly-displayed page and select “Open this link in IE”. Don’t recall its name but I have found it useful as I’ve switched to FF.

Why not Opera???

In reply to Short-cut to open new tab

I have downloaded and tried Firefox and it is a tremendous improvement over IE. But then, what isn’t? I’ve been using Opera as my defaule browser for a number of years (since version 4) and have enjoyed all of the features in Firefox that people have been raving about. There are few pages Opera won’t load and for those I grudgingly use IE. With each new version of Opera, though, the number of unloadable pages becomes less and less.

I started with the free version but soon switched to the paid version and have never regreted it. What is the big deal about spending a small abount of money for a pleasurable, faster and less “buggy” web experience.

Almost 100% Satisfied with FF

In reply to Short-cut to open new tab

Have been using FF for about a year. I love the popup blocker.
I would be 100% satified if FF had the ability to log into Microsoft’s game Zone without having to use IE.

What apps are 100%?

In reply to Almost 100% Satisfied with FF

I don’t know about you, but everytime I sit down I always wish an app would do something that just seems so obvious to me, but of course it doesn’t.

Till then, I just use the best app for the job. At work we switched over to FF, but our bank’s site will not work with FF, so HR uses IE for that and FF for everything else.

Yes, my wife and kids use IE at home for the game zone. (sigh) I just added that as a trusted site, and cranked up the settings to lock it down as much as possible. Sites not trusted can’t do ANYTHING and trusted is where most people set their internet settings.

100% apps

In reply to What apps are 100%?

apt, ls, clear, mv, cp, less, cd, date, pwd, vim, man, mkfs, scite, bash, perl, et cetera

Don’t forget my favorite

In reply to 100% apps

format c:\

This single command needed to stop your windoze system from crashing.

Why don’t I ever see this on the Windoze “tweek” tips TR sends out?

actually . . .

In reply to Don’t forget my favorite

I didn’t mention “format” because “mkfs” works so much better.

Two more…

In reply to actually . . .

‘Delpart’ (kinda redundant after mkfs) and ‘killdisk’.

Mine was a WINDOWS tip

In reply to actually . . .

Not a *nix tip. How to fix a WINDOWS system to keep it from blue screening.

I was just trying to do my part, ya know?

for Windows

In reply to actually . . .

mkfs will fix Windows, too. Just insert your LiveCD Linux distribution . . .

Heh.

My experience as well – and another thing

In reply to Short-cut to open new tab

I like FF, but there’s no doubt that some sites seem to be just constructed for IE and nothing else.

I’ve never managed to get the autofill extension to work as well as the google autofill either.

One thing that does irritate me with FF on this PC is when I click on the drop down box to type in a remembered URL, it flashes very quickly with the list then disappears and I have to make a second attempt to get it to stay open. No idea why.

My Experience

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I made the switch to firefox a few months ago on my Home PC and Work Laptop (Both XP) and on the whole I prefer it. Page downloads seem to render faster and I find it much more enjoyable to use. Spyware etc. is massively reduced which is a real bonus. As for stability, i find it crashes at least as often as IE.

Crashes?

In reply to My Experience

I have yet to encounter a Firefox crash, but anything’s possible I Guess.

Mind you, IE rarely crashed for me either, very bugy and slow though.no mater how thoroughly you secure, patch and clean it. With IE it seemed I spent more time cleaning my browser than actually using it.

Crashes on me…

In reply to Crashes?

When closing multiple tabs with a pdf involved.

PDFs

In reply to Crashes on me…

I’ve also found quirks with PDFs. Have you noticed how saving a copy of a PDF opened in FF causes the filename to be prefixed with the location of the temporary copy?

Make sure you are running the new reader

In reply to PDFs

Adobe has a new reader out and it seems this is a problem for SO many poeple now.

Upgrade to Adobe Reader 7.0, anything previous seems to have issues.

Also you may want to set it to open outside of the browser.

Acrobat 4.0

In reply to Make sure you are running the new reader

Just kidding… I have 6.2 or something like that. I will get 7 and see if I have the same issues.

Acrobat 7

In reply to Make sure you are running the new reader

My issue was resolved by V7. Thanks

Firefox just got even better…

Extension broke it

In reply to Acrobat 7

I managed to break FF last night by installing the syncmarks extension.

FF would start up then exit straight away. Worked OK in safe mode, but removing the extension did not fix it.

Ended up deleting profiles and reinstalling FF.

Works OK now.

I don’t know why

In reply to Make sure you are running the new reader

The latest version of Acrpobat seems imperative these days, even for documents made to be backward compatible. Or well, a free fix/upgrade is usually not a bad thing.

Glad you got it!

Acrobat

In reply to Make sure you are running the new reader

I was wondering about all this PDF jazz … I never have a problem closing anything, but I’m also still running Reader v5.05 or v5.something.
I’ve never had the need to run any other version, so I’ve just left it … and I never have closing issues with FF tabs. Connection??

I’m not the only one

In reply to Acrobat

Who has had errors closing multiple tabs at the same time with pdfs. It is a common issue with Firefox and Acrobat Reader – it may be an issue with Acrobat 6.x only, as everyone I know who has had this issue is running a 6.x version.

Works like a charm

In reply to Make sure you are running the new reader

Thanks Oz. I didn’t even know that there was a 7.0 available. I don’t use acrobat reader often… I prefer “htm” reference/chapter format with links. The load is quite significant with pdfs.

We use pdf a lot

In reply to Works like a charm

We have replaces almost all of our pre-printed forms with pdf’s on our intranet. No more paying for boxes of forms to sit around on shelves for a year until you either use them up or need to make changes.

I have found on older systems if you go above 5.05 it is sssslllooooowwwwww. Maybe thay fixed that with 7? It also didn’t help that they have different downloads for XP than for other flavors.

How does everyone like 7?

Reader 7.0

In reply to Works like a charm

It seems to be quite a bit quicker than 6.x, then again, I just cleaned out my machine pretty good, so it’s hard to judge.

…no actually… it is faster. That was my major issue with pdf files before, but the situation seems to have improved.

7 is a LOT faster

In reply to Works like a charm

If you go to Adobe’s site you will notice how many users have said just how much faster it is.

I have NEVER had PDF problems, but I used the full Acrobat too all the time so it is not a heavily fragged file that has been bueied on the hard drive.

Full Acrobat

In reply to Works like a charm

I’ve tinkered arounf with it, but I’ve never been able to justify the learning curve in mu line of work. 🙂

Firefox locks up opening PDF’s

In reply to PDFs

I would love to adopt Firefox as my default browser but it completely locks up if I click a PDF link. I have Acrobat 6 Standard with updates. I’m not going to spend another $100 to see if Acrobat 7 Standard will work. I set Acrobat to open outside of the browser but still no go. On another note, I can’t get the back button on my Logitech mouse to work in Firefox either.

I would like to roll this browser out company wide but not in its current state.

correcting PDF locking up firefox

In reply to Firefox locks up opening PDF’s

i had the same problem with firefox. here is what i did.
– i installed the version 7.0 reader (i have 6.x profesional).
– that corrected my firefox lockup problem.
– but it also hosed my version 6 acrobat so that when i start up acrobat i just get the version 7 reader and don’t get the full version 6 anymore.

well isn’t that special.

sooooooo, i uninstalled the version 7 reader and “low and behold!” my version 6 full version came back and firefox doesn’t lock up on PDFs anymore.

go figure.

Gee did you try Acro 7 and THEN installing Acorbat 6?

In reply to correcting PDF locking up firefox

That’s what I did, upgraded the Acrobat Reader to 7 then reinstalled Acrobat 6 full version, NO probs.

I have the same at home

In reply to correcting PDF locking up firefox

Same problem with PDF’s locking up. must try that fix as see what happens with it. Ta for the info

post at the help site

In reply to Firefox locks up opening PDF’s

firefox has a help section that has a lot of people crawling over each other to be the first to answer your questions.

Will have to post this there and see what they have to say for themselves.

Patch Acrobat 6

In reply to Firefox locks up opening PDF’s

I too had problems with Acrobat 6 standard locking up (not just in FF but IE also). The latest patch to 6.0.3 has made a huge improbvement in stability of acrobat but it is still slow.

I’ve also heard that 7 is much faster but I too cannot justify the upgrade price so for now I just wait.

Acrobat READER 7

In reply to Patch Acrobat 6

AR 7 is a LOT faster, but not at a price, the reader is free and that’s what everyone is raving about.

For Acrobat Pro FULL edition, I haven’t seen any speed improvements over 603

Acrocrap 6.x is terrible!

In reply to PDFs

Uninstall 6 before installing 7, which is a MUCH better product. Or just stick with 5.5. 6 is a slow, fat resource hog!

Acrobat ‘7?’ freezing

In reply to Acrocrap 6.x is terrible!

I went to adobe site and installed ‘7’; it installed 6.xx instead. (tried this twice, maybe because im on win98se?). Also downloaded fill in forms from IRS, and it froze whole computer solid when I try to save form. (repeated this and happened again). This is under IE

Acrobat 7.0 only for WinXP

In reply to Acrocrap 6.x is terrible!

What about those users with Windows 98?

Same thing

In reply to Acrobat 7.0 only for WinXP

You go to the Acro 7 downloadand it installs 6.2.3 (I believe tht’s the version) for Win98.

I’ve had the same issue…

In reply to Crashes on me…

Exactly the problem I’ve had; 3 tabs, one of which is looking at a PDF, and if I close out of Firefox entirely I get a crash. So, I’ve had to remember to close the PDF tab, and then FF.

The spy/adware has been reduced tremendously; so that is definitely a big plus. In terms of broswing speed, I haven’t noticed too big of a difference either way.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with FF. If they can do so well with an initial release, I can’t help but look forward to any future versions!

Upgrade Adobe Reader

In reply to I’ve had the same issue…

Not Acrobat Reader anymore, just Adobe reader.

V. 7.0 is faster and removes that issue with closing multiple tabs.

Thanks…

In reply to Upgrade Adobe Reader

I’ll give it a whirl and see what happens.

pdf problems

In reply to Crashes on me…

Adobe reader 7 seems to have taken care of that problem for me and the 800 machines that I support.

You’d think Mozilla would have something like this as a hot fix

In reply to pdf problems

Or something, it seems a LOT of people are having this issue.

They do

In reply to You’d think Mozilla would have something like this as a hot fix

http://www.mozilla.org/quality/browser/front-end/testcases/plugins/acrobattest.html

https://addons.update.mozilla.org/plugins/

* I laughed when I saw that one yesterday.

Yeah

In reply to They do

I was referring to the second link. Mozilla has a great site but everyone seems to click download and run away. It’s worth spending some time to get used to everything and checking out all the goodies, then post qquestions on Mozilla Forums too, get a user ID and et into the community as it grows. There is some great info and really helpful people on the forums. Another quality help site, even though product specific.

Comparison

In reply to My Experience

Making a comparison between something that very well known and something that getting be well known should not happen I think.

The browser crash happened to me as well but overall I would say, Firefox still better than IE, in term of its performance, security and other things

my complaints..

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

to access most feature I use in mozilla itself, you have to edit a .css file, after searching to find out which one it is.

the yellow security notice bar, to much like ie for my taste. I would rather have a dialog box with focus than that.

the completely different look and feel from mozilla itself.

I went back to mozilla as my browser after looking at firefox.

My Complaint, too

In reply to my complaints..

I live and work in the great land of Oz (Australia, for those that think I’ve flipped), and have tried FF, and found it very nice.
However, my one big beef about it is the integrated Google search bar.
Installing this Google bar in IE gives me the option to search just Australia, which the FF version doesn’t, it searches the whole world.
Now, when I’m looking for a local supplier of do-hickeys the Aussie ones tend to disappear in the crowd.

Firefox is Great!!

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I love the tab browsing and the reduction in spyware and crap!!
Seems to be pretty stable as well.
Like the choices you have for add-ons or the choice of not having them pushed on you!
Cheers SW

I agree

In reply to Firefox is Great!!

I have been using FireFox as my primary web browser for months, and I love it. It has definitely cut down on spyware and it doesn’t have the overhead that iexplore does. The tabbed browsing is great, and it is a LOT more stable than IE. I have installed it on several PCs at work (support is what I do) and everyone that uses it loves it. The only problem that I have seen is that some web pages do not work with FireFox, (windows update) that is due to the Active-X controls that they use and that is the good part about FireFox….it doesn’t allow Active-X to run by default. That is how most of the spyware/malware/virues are installed into I.E. Hopefully more web developers will design pages around FireFox and not I.E. If they do that their web pages should (in theory) work with any web browser.

Group Policy

In reply to I agree

A simple group policy applied at the domain can keep ActiveX controls from running by default on any browser.

Well, gotta go before I get shot! :-S

Sure it can but most don’t

In reply to Group Policy

I think large#’s of places don’t restrict activex (and they should), or let users answer if ok to run (even dumber)! Who reading this post has activex allowed for end users and who doesn’t?

Reply To: If you have made the change to FireFox

In reply to Firefox is Great!!

Too many people who call me to fix their computers have tons of spyware, adware, malware (redundant, I know) and other crap installed due to IE drive-by installations. After I clean their machines, I make them use Firefox so I don’t have to come back.

Inspiration came from my 13 and 16 year olds. Making them use Firefox was the only thing that kept me from having a full time job just chasing around the crap they attracted.

Good results

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I very much like the tabbed browsing, and the use of the scroll button to open new tabs.

I haven’t noticed any systemic difference on PC.

We are investigating rolling it out to users as an alternative. Good support among the techs.

After a month of using Firefox exclusively, AdAware finds no hits, quite a different result from IE.

The extensions are very useful. I have about 8 or so.

I don’t like the way it can nuke a profile, which happened to me once. But I have learned some ways to recover after reading through the support forums.

nuke a profile?

In reply to Good results

I am not sure what you mean by nuke a profile. I am assuming that you are refering to when firefox crashes and you open it back up and it asks you which profile you would like to open.

I have had this happen to me a couple of times, but the profile isn’t nuked it is just still in use. all you have top do is end the firefox.exe process in your task manager then open firefox again.

Anybody use the Mozilla Suite for windows?

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Simple question. I use Firefox myself.

I notice that more spyware sneaks in on my girlfriend’s profile (she uses IE). Then again, IE can be tweaked… the default installation should apply tighter security and simply prompt for configuration tweaks as the user/site attempts to access certain funtions, customizing your security options along the way. [i]Hint – hint Mr Gates.[/i]

Mozilla

In reply to Anybody use the Mozilla Suite for windows?

I have used Mozilla, and I have it on one of the shop systems here. The looks are a little ‘clunkier’ than Firefox, but the features are all the same. The security of the Mail App over Outlook Express makes this worth the install without mentioning anything else.
The majority of people rave about the pop-up blocking, spam blocker, the ease of importing other mail settings and messages, and the ‘nice’ integration between all the applications in the suite. Don’t really know what they mean by that, but they like it.
Bottom line … I like it.

Suite

In reply to Anybody use the Mozilla Suite for windows?

The more I use it the more I like it.

Sweet mozilla – Gave it one day – No Dice

In reply to Anybody use the Mozilla Suite for windows?

Thanks guys. I suppose that I should try it out. I’ve been meaning to do so, but I’m not a big fan of Netscape and the Mozilla Suite looks way too much like NS.

I’ll give it a go!!!

*

All right, I’ve given it a day. It looks and feels nothing like the screenshots… I thought that the Suite was different from the Mozilla browser that has been distributed with Linux for years. Same old Mozilla… still better than IE, but nowhere near is nice as the Firefox release.

naturally…

In reply to Sweet mozilla – Gave it one day – No Dice

as the distro’s use the suite, just break it into the email news client, browser, chat…. for installing the components you want.

have you looked at the build process for mozilla?
they have scripts on thier site to help create the configure script for your build.

it’s a huge complex build.
without even trying to customise the suite code for yourself.

Full Screen Mode

In reply to Sweet mozilla – Gave it one day – No Dice

This is the one gripe i have with Firefox, Full Screen leaves a little toolbar on the screen. I like it better the way IE has a true Fullscreen mode.

you can get full screen

In reply to Full Screen Mode

Goto the “View” and untick the nav bar,
we use the firefox here for our load system here on a projector and i noticed it to until i took off the nav bar
then hit f11

Unfortunately

In reply to Anybody use the Mozilla Suite for windows?

Tightening up the level of security is not necessarilly the answer. Most click happy browser users will just except whatever the websites they visit tell them too anyway. Its hard to get people to click on the little red X in the upper right hand corner for some reason.

When I get a user whose box gets infected I make them sit down and watch http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/default.mspx while I delete all their files! :~)

re: Anybody use the Mozilla Suite for windows?

In reply to Anybody use the Mozilla Suite for windows?

I do. Mainly because I get a non-IE browser as
well as an integrated non-Outlook/OE mail reader
as well. Occasionally, I have to descend to IE for
some websites – was only one until the BBC’s
latest change (but they’ll probably fix that soon).

-mmkh

Firefox and People

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I’m probably going to be repeating dozens of people, but here goes …
I own a computer sales/service company, and currently we perform 70% service (networks included in this) and 30% between sales, websites, … Of course the largest part of service work is spyware, virus and cleanup. After a system has been cleaned I usually install Firefox on the customer’s system, and then I tell them my 2 minute blurb about it. All I really ask them to do is try it out – no pressure and no scare tactics. I would say 90% of the people continue using it and they can’t rave enough about it.
Personally, I made the switch last year after fighting IE every step of the way. Observations, mine and my customer’s:

Pros (the top few … I’ll spare you the entire list)
– loads much faster than IE
– picks up no garbage like IE does
– pop-up blocking is great
– better security
– ease of use and intuitive layout
– extensions and themes install easily and flawlessly
– tabs
– search bar integration (and customization)
– mouse control (ie: dragging links to open in new tabs and stuff like that)
– the price (free .. in case you didn’t know)

Cons
– doesn’t work with 1% of the websites out there
(I don’t know which person gave me that number or why, but that’s what they said – they also said it was a very small price to pay)

My personal observation is that Hotmail was the only site not compliant, but they are now. I don’t really browse around the web like a trooper, so I’m not a good example for statistics.

I would really suggest giving Firefox a try if you haven’t already, and I’m saying this in the spirit of browsing the web – not bashing Microsoft.

Long, long ago…

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I switched to FireFox about two different names ago. Back when 0.5x was out…

What do you like to not like? I don’t understand your question.

It has made a huge change to my system. I am a lot less susceptable being hijacked or get an “automated” virus.

I have watched quite a few PoC’s hijack IE and infect it with no further interaction from myself other than just visiting “specially made” websites. I have taken FireFox to those same sites and it was immune.

The users that have wanted to try it, love it. Those that won’t try it because they’re afraid of change or don’t want to deviate from “The Microsoft Way” just don’t have a clue.

The end users that have tried it love it. No complaints.

*** Incidents have gone down, but I don’t necessarily contribute that to the browser more so as I contribute that to the fact that we have finally locked down our network and users can’t do jack anymore. They’re lucky we let them power their boxes on still… ;p

I LOVE the tabs, themes, extensions!!!

Not since 1.0 final was released. In the past I didn’t care how certain W3C sites wouldn’t display properly. Though it was really because they were “MSIE” written sites instead. But now the browser interprets those sites properly.

I highly recommend anyone who has no tried it to do so!

Not all users love it.

In reply to Long, long ago…

It wasn’t that great for us.

Some of our users tried it and went back to IE, because of the problems they ran into on some of our Vendor and Customer websites.

For me, it kept showing little odds n’ ends of HTML and scripts from the websites I visited. And eventually would show nothing but the source code with no graphics. I would then have to close FF and restart it.

Plus, I totally dislike those tabs cluttering up my browser window. And, with the abbreviations you can’t really see what website the tab is for anyway. Give me a drop down menu for listing the sites I have visited. My browser space is limited and too valuable for such clutter.

I don’t recommend it for people who like having control of their browser window.

Real estate

In reply to Not all users love it.

Well complaining of FF’s real estate usage is kindsa silly. Tabbed windows is not a forced setting on FF, you can have it look and act JUST like your IE does. As far as script handling, Ihave yet to see a script IE handles that FF can’t, in fact it’s quite the other way around. There are MANY tags unsupported in IE that FF can handle without issue, it is far more W3C complaint than IE has EVER been.

I think perhaps nobody took any time to seek solutions, knowing that they could just use IE instead. It is THIS mentality that has hindered global progresss over time. Impatience and comfort zones, don’t make for progression.

People use what they “like”

In reply to Real estate

And because they are so damn lazy, they “like” the first package they started on. Heaven forbid they have to learn anything over.

For our systems, we removed the pretty E from everywhere except under the Programs pull down and make easy shortcuts for FF.

Also explained the WHY for the switch and so far have met with very little resistance.

As more people buy themselves a clue on web design and more plugins come out, this will swing fast.

I do that too

In reply to People use what they “like”

Leave IE in but leave it in the Programs Folder only. NO shortcut, you wnat to use IE, look for it.

As for Firefox, add a quickstart and a nice shortcut in the Start Menu below WinUpdate and such.

If you do what I do

In reply to I do that too

then you must be really really smart. (because of or in spite of? lol)

It is a simple solution to help direct people towards the desired result, and it amazes me when people (some of my coworkers) look at me like an alien when I tell them that is what I do, and ask why they aren’t removing the shortcuts when we are putting the FF on in an attempt to get people to convert.

Again, a perfect example of why there is no such thing as the myth of “common sense”, or “common” person would just know that.

Anyone know a workaround for this?

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I use Horse Player Interactive to bet on the races. The HPI website is written with nothing special in the code, except a browser check (that I can see).

I amconfident that the system CAN utilize Firefox but during login, there is a browser check that says you MUST use IE 5.1 or greater, would I like to upgrade? LOL!

I actually reinstalled IE JUST to use on HPI. When I close it, there are about four other windows open too. What a mess!

Is there a way to get Firefox to mask it’s identity or change it to appear to browser checks as an IE browser?

User Agent Switcher

In reply to Anyone know a workaround for this?

There is an extension called user Agent Switcher for FF that allows you to switch the User Agent string. Might help? It’s worked for me on a few sites.

Thanks much

In reply to User Agent Switcher

It sounds odd but Ill check it out, thank you!

MCS, I bow to you gracefully!

In reply to Thanks much

You sir, are the GOD of all computing!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! IERADCIATE COMING UP!!

IE6, YOU SUCK!!! TATA NOW!

NO MORE FOR ME HAHAHAHHAHAH!!!! 😀

Another great feature

In reply to Thanks much

I love extensions 🙂
For those not aware … extensions are add-ons to Firefox that give it a function it doesn’t have ‘out of the box’. This is great because we can add the features we need or want, and we aren’t forced with with all the bloat from stuff we don’t want. This allows for a faster browser for one thing, and the ability to add really customized functions a major company would not think (or care) to add.

If only you knew

In reply to Another great feature

I have looked for the extension but had no idea what to look for, that didn’t have browser detection or something in it.

As for MY issue, HPI, lets me access my secured account where I fund my punting habits.

I use Firefox to open multiple browers with various racing forms, and media player stacks up the live broadcasts of the races. So you end up with a FEW windows open.

NOW it is all tabbed! Plus WMP of course, but all the tracks are in my playlist and I just click and move from one feed to the other.

WHen I had IE logging into HPI, after ten minutes there were 10 other stupid IE Ad windows open in the tool bar too, you would end up closing windows madly and find you just kicked yourself out of a bet or from a racing form.

You are fantastic! Long Live MCS-1!

the one to choose

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

First, I love the tabs. Working only with Linux and Mozilla for quite a while I was used to use them, after I had to work on win32 again my Desktop started to be flooded with IE’s. So I started using Netscape and/or Mozilla but before the start of FF ~30-40% of the internetpages where designed especially for IE (with frontpage, I guess).

Before closing, one thing that chould be improved – Some replies mentioned it – closing tabs with pdfs. Closing one of those tabs can take quite a long time and if you get impatient and start clicking with the mouse or typing a crash is is likely

The only drawback I found

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

The only major drawback I found was that Firefox is recognized as Netscape if it is set as the main browser by one program I use. This does create a problem for me. I use Asymetrix Web Publisher to start creating web pages. When attempting to preview web pages, Web Publisher sees Firefox as Netscape and tries to launch it. This action locks the computer up.

Granted, this is minor and its partially my fault for still relying on a Windows 95 era program. The work around is to have some flavor of IE as the primary browser, but never use it except for when making web pages.

look for an “other” setting

In reply to The only drawback I found

Found a similar problem with Lotus Notes.

Had to go into the settings for the browser and select “other”, and then point at the firefox.exe to be launched.

Don’t know if your program will have that same option.

Maybe a sym link pointing netscape requests to firefox.exe?

?

In reply to look for an “other” setting

I too use Lotus NOTES/Domino ver. 6.5.3 but I did not have any problem with NOTES launching FireFox. It automatically put it into the connection profile and I assume it’s because I had FF set as my default browser. By the way, it launches much faster from Lotus NOTES when use FF than when using IE.

I had to manually change on all stations

In reply to ?

We just went from 6.02 to 6.5 and loaded the Firefox as well setting it as default.

Don’t know how or why yours changed but it completely ignores the system default browser on every system I had to update. (30 so far, another 60 to go).

Oh well.

Integration of Thunderbird with Firebox a MUST

In reply to The only drawback I found

Mozilla mail could launch (CTL N) a new browser. In Thunderbird, you must
copy link,
open Firefox,
CTL N,
paste URL,
return.
Why is this better? In Mozilla going between browser and mail was very fast. Why in the world did they unhook Thunderbird from Firefox? I want browser, mail, addressbook all integrated and very, very fast to move among them.

re: Integration of Thunderbird with Firebox (+ Gmail remark)

In reply to Integration of Thunderbird with Firebox a MUST

Yep – that’s why I’ve stuck with Mozilla so far.
(There’s no way I’m going to use Outlook/OE for my
mail).

I understand why it’s been decoupled for size and
speed reasons but they should be integrable for
those who want it.

-mmkh

BTW, about Gmail – I usually hate webmail UIs
but this has to be the best I’ve seen so far.

We’ve Switched

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

We are switching our users over to using firefox, we are at about %60 saturation in the network. Users (as well as me since I pushed it) love it. Scumware has dropped dramatically. At least as fast as IE and once you get used to tabs there is no going back. We are beginning to get some pop under ads, seldom crashes but does do so. Wish it worked with Exchange OWA better but I’ve worked around that. I highly reccomend it. Seems much safer to me.

Oxymoron. . .

In reply to We’ve Switched

Anything working better with Exchange – meaning secure, stable, non-proprietary – is an oxymoron.

But welcome sandman2062 to the brave new world without IE – it will be quite the revelation to all your users.

The next step is to look for open standards/open source compliant infrastructure that does not “force” you into MS everything. I believe MS O/S quite good on it’s own, why does it have to be proprietarily integrated with everything else MS? Food for thought.

OWA, RWW and Active X

In reply to We’ve Switched

I have noticed issues with OWA and RWW through FF. One issue is that some parts of RWW need Active X to run, is there a work around for this? Also, I have noticed that certain links on sites do not pull up in FF, it seems to be in the coding and potentially if there is a space after the URL. FIrefox will say site not found, but you can type the URL in the address field and it will work. IE will follow link or use address just fine.

Some URL’s not working

In reply to OWA, RWW and Active X

I have run into this also, usually seems to be something with spaces or special characters in the url that are literally interpreted as the ascii character instead of the actuall character. I have some “file:///” locations on the own start page and they don’t usually work, but I can very simply work around that until it is corrected.

ActiveX is just prone to transporting adware/viruses/trojans, even M$ states to disable it (or set it to “ask”) for increased security in IE.

I, personally, have a few sites that MUST use IE to open, probably because of activeX or some IIS dependent function/feature instead of just following the long established html standards. If a site is coded following the standards, Firefox works with virutally no problems that I have run across.

If you really need ActiveX

In reply to OWA, RWW and Active X

There is a pulg-in available to use ActiveX with Firefox at http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/windows1.html#ActiveX though it’s use is not recommended (see Known Issues on the site).

Firefox not the total answer but it’s way ahead of IE.Look at ClamAV!!!

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I’m still learning it and discover something new everyday but I’m not too sure of the e-mail program yet.

For the open source crowd try ClamAV and if you insist on being strictly a Windows freak take a look at ClamWin. http://www.clamav.net/ Also if you’re a Lotus Notes/Domino user check out:
http://www.proteatools.com/
One other one an oldie but a goodie:http://www.sosdg.org/clamav-win32/index.php

Good stuff.

Dawg

One Thing Drives Me crazy…

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

the organization of the favorites/bookmarks in FF. I want them organized alphabetically with the folders on the top. Not an option unless I do it manually. ARGH! I have over 10,000 bookmarks, and having to organize them by hand is ridiculous. I do NOT want the sub-folders interspersed through the rest of the bookmarks in a particular folder.

And another…

In reply to One Thing Drives Me crazy…

no search facility in the bookmark manager.

sorting

In reply to One Thing Drives Me crazy…

Open Bookmarks menu or Bookmarks Manager, right click and select Sort by name

No doubt

In reply to sorting

It’s a function within the view menu of the bookmark manager. I’m glad I don;t have 10,000 bookmarks. 🙂

I did that but …

In reply to sorting

All my subfolders are now interspersed instead of sorting separately at the top. So I have URL … URL … folder … folder … URL … folder … URL etc. I just HATE that – and now I’ll have to go back and redo – by hand. Haven’t found any switches or settings to change this.

I did that but …

In reply to sorting

All my subfolders are now interspersed instead of sorting separately at the top. So I have URL … URL … folder … folder … URL … folder … URL etc. I just HATE that – and now I’ll have to go back and redo – by hand. Haven’t found any switches or settings to change this.

Reply To: If you have made the change to FireFox

In reply to I did that but …

I don’t had any problems but i have less tha 2000 bookmarks. It sorted bookmarks has Favorites in IE. Close it and try again. Ask about it in forums http://forums.mozillazine.org/
and if it is bug report to buzilla.

Bookmarks

In reply to One Thing Drives Me crazy…

I’m using an extension called Flat Bookmark Editing, and it does everything I’ve looked for. If you check I’m sure there are other utilities and or extensions to handle what you’re looking for.
10,000 bookmarks? I hope that number was just pulled out of the air. In this case you need a database rather than a flat bookmark file.

Time …

In reply to Bookmarks

Yeah, I do need to make my bookmarks into a database, but I don’t have time. I’m a one-woman-company, and the bookmarks are for the medical research I do. Thus I’m not only the IT dept, but the CEO, and the “drone” who does all the work. =:O

I hear ya …

In reply to Time …

I know what you mean. I run the show here by myself as well, and on most days I wish I was three people – or that we had a 36 hour day.

Database instead

In reply to Bookmarks

No kidding, create a database and create an output that will create some web pages instead,

I agree, I am glad I don’t have 10,000 bookmarks either, that would be just too many for me to manage/remember or use effectively, but that is my problem.

Here’s the fix

In reply to One Thing Drives Me crazy…

Click on “Bookmarks” then “Manage Bookmarks”. In the main screen area there is a “Name” header, if you click this it has 3 states,
1. A-Z with folders and individual bookmarks mixed.
2. Z-A with folders and individual bookmarks mixed.
3. Folders followed by individual bookmarks.
You can also right click in the main area that lists all bookmarks and sort any of the above by name.

Thanks for the fix.

In reply to Here’s the fix

That solves ‘ewriggs’ ordering problem.

Like many people I sort and file my bookmarks in folders and sub-folders and re-ordering only takes place within each level, not through the whole bookmark file.

Alphabetical sorting is only useful if you know which (sub) folder to start looking in. Take a look at Mozilla for an example of how it could be done.

Apart from this gripe, Firefox is great…. Oh one other gripe – not Firefox but those crappy web-sites that don’t display properly in FF and want you to use Billy-Bob’s bloatware.

Folders followed by bookmarks sorting

In reply to Here’s the fix

I didn’t see the option to sort Folders followed by bookmarks, but I did see that you can insert a “separator” and then put all the folders in this new separator and leave the regular url bookmarks below it and then sort and the folders will stay above the urls, so somewhat of a workaround.

TaurusVan

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I like firefox since i install it in my pc i use it as my default browser, i notice it is fast and i have lesser problem except for the connection setting where i prefer the IE, why? becasue in IE i can set up more than one connection setting without changing any proxy setting while on firefox it accept only one connection setting.

SwitchProxy Tool

In reply to TaurusVan

Use this FireFox extension to manage multiple proxies.

Made the change to FireFox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Kind of biased. Been running IE and Mozilla for the longest, that is until FireFox came on the scene. I only ask myself 2 questions now:

1. What Malware/Spyware/Popups?

2. Why do I have IE still functioning? (oh yeah, for the occaisional page that I don’t have a plugin loaded for).

🙂

Malware/Spyware/Popups

In reply to Made the change to FireFox

To answer your question in reverse, you still have IE loaded somewhere because you have Malware/Spyware/Popups. I would just keep using Mozilla, and ditch IE if I were you.
Generally, spyware (and all the other names used to identify it) is garbage on the Internet that your browser, or email app. picks up. Not all Ads are spyware, and many sites use pop-ups for functional uses and navigation and what-not. Head to google and search spyware, grab yourself a few utilities and start cleaning off your system. I think the most popular these days is AdAware, Spybot S&D, and Microsoft’s Anti-Spyware utility.

RE:

In reply to Malware/Spyware/Popups

No, didn’t really have questions…..was rhetorical, with a twinge of sarcasm added.

Thanks for the informative post though.

🙂

My bad …

In reply to RE:

oops. It’s hard to tell on here sometimes if things are serious, sarcastic, rhetorical, …
In that case … good post!!

since using firefox….

In reply to Malware/Spyware/Popups

i’ve noticed that when I run adaware and spybot there are far less incidences of spyware than with IE! Good move Mozilla!!!

Firefox problems with McAfee?

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Has anyone else noticed that Firefox has problems when used in conjunction with McAfee? I have had serious lag problems, freezing and several error messages. All of this only happened after installing McAfee.

I have searched a few of the errors through Google and all of the postings I have found point to a conflict between FireFox and McAfee. Admittedly the finger is being pointed at McAfee and not FireFox.

I have used Firefox for some time and do like the software but I always end up going back to Opera. Its just so fast and the beta of ver 8 looks very promising indeed.

Firefox solves many problems

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Hi,

I am a system administrator of 3 small companies in Brasil (about 25 users) and Firefox saves me a lot of time since I installed it.

1) First of all: The incidence of Virus/Worms decrease to 0%!!! (I?ve install Thunderbird too for email) and I DONT HAVE Antivirus software installed because it?s too expensive for my customers. In the previous environment (IE/Outlook) there are 2 or 3 incidents per month.

2) I deployed business news to customers thru RSS without install any other tools. I just mantain a single XML file and everybody receives updates from the main site.

3) The same bookmark/maildb/address book could be shared between Linux and Windows users.

4) Backup of Mail database is a breeze. Just zip a directory and that?s done.

Problems: some sites just works with IE. On that case, we have a stand alone machine where he/she can use IE. We are mapping those sites and the users are sending complaints to them. Some of them are fixing the bug sites but others don?t understand what?s going on…

The users are very satisfied.

And now they approved budget for a small LDAP structure to share the address book between users and I?m starting to study XUL programming to make some custom made applications.

Firefox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I use FFox at home and increasingly install it for clients + Thunderbird. It has been excellent – for home users they report much less problems than when using IE.

Thunderbird

In reply to Firefox

I’ve seen some strange issues with displaying an alternate date and (I received one piece of mail that was marked as 1969 although everyone else received it as 2005).

My message filters seem to have been ok lately, but previously, they would roll the dice to figure out if they would apply the filter to the appropriate folder automatically.

firefox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Seems to be a lot better than explorer security wise & ease of use, eg bookmarks in catogories etc. However a lot of companies web site’s do not work on it eg banks (also supermarkets for home use)
The securite aspect of it blocks or interferes with there secure pages
Dave

Check again or move. . .

In reply to firefox

Hey Dave, I would suggest you speak to your bank since it appears to be their issue. I deal with four separate banks – 2 regular large national banks, 1 Credit Union bank and 1 supermarket bank – all of them work quite well and I have no security issues.

The only security concern or problem I’ve ever had is working through wireless through to the banks – I don’t – I just take the CAT 5 and plug it in direct when I do my banking. Wireless is where I have the security “bug-a-boo” for this type of secure transaction.

I will admit though that when I first started using a non-IE browswer, the various banks were not accessible. But within a couple of months, they all became “open” to Mozilla, FireFox, etc. Only one original national bank refused to change at that time and allow support for multiple browsers. So I moved my account. IE is not secure no matter what banks and so forth have supported. It is just plain laziness on their part if they don’t support your FF.

Love it, but teeny gripe

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Normally, the auto-form-fill works well. However, some sites refuse to have form info saved. Mozilla allows you to manually capture form info, it works on most of these sites. Firefox doesn’t have the manual capture function. Wish it did.

Extensions

In reply to Love it, but teeny gripe

I’ve seen a few Form utilities in the Extensions list. Could one of these help you?

My Daughter keeps losing her Bookmarks/Toolbar/Settings…

In reply to Extensions

I love Firefox and use it on all of my systems, but my daughter’s PC has lost its custom settings at least three times. I have to restore them (Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox folder) from backups. Why it just picks on her’s and none of my others is a mystery to me. Any thoughts??

Multiple occurence

In reply to My Daughter keeps losing her Bookmarks/Toolbar/Settings…

The only time I have seen FF do anything like this is when I close FF and then fire it up later, but the original occurence is still running (don’t know why). I have gotten the box that wants me to choose a profile. Short visit to my process list fixes this.
Other than that …. I assume the name your daughter is using for her profile is her normal name and not a cryptic ‘Messenger’ style, 100 character name?

I quite agree

In reply to Love it, but teeny gripe

This happens to me too, and it’s one of the few occasions when I will use IE instead!

It is a great downloader firefox, it is

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

what i’ve loved with firefox is downloading..it’s far safer and convenient, and its easy to recover from bad network connections that may break a download. Also popup blocking (by default?) is an added bonus-boy do i hate popups. All in all, yep, i think FF has changed my whole surfing and browsing experience.

FYI

In reply to It is a great downloader firefox, it is

I was downloading a demo copy of Macromedia’s Contribute s/w and FireFox’s download manager somehow screwed up the file and made it unusuable. I checked out Macromedia’s message boards and saw that several other people have had similar problems, so I used IE to download the file and it worked perfectly.

Please don’t get me wrong, I *love* FF and promote it every chance I get; but in order to be the best advocate I can for the product, I need to be realistic about the problems it has too.

KJ

I have NEVER used Internet Explorer…..

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

…except when I used someone else’s computer and that’s all it had installed. I used Mosaic and Netscape before Internet Explorer was inflicted on the world. I’ve tried them all, and Firefox is the best browser available. Period. If you really want to use your computer for getting things done, and don’t want to spend half your time making sure it isn’t infected today, then install Firefox on a decent OS, which I define as almost anything but Windows, and discover how it should be.

Try Maxthon instead.

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

formerly known as MyIE. Switching to Firefox for tabbed browsing alone is not worth it. The unknowns of how fast the vulnerabilites get dealt with DOUBLES your exposure if you include IE.

Maxthon is a tabbed browsing skin for IE so:

1. At least you only have one set of vulnerabilities to contend with.

2. Useful ActiveX controls work (too many in Firefox simply don’t and are too big a hassle to setup to get to work)

http://www.maxthon.com

Left field. . .

In reply to Try Maxthon instead.

Graeme, I believe you’re out in left field on this one. Your response here would have been very appropriate a year ago but not today. Everyone acknowledges, both techies and others, that it’s the ActiveX that causes the bulk of the issues that have concerned us all when on the web. I gave Maxthon a try a couple of years ago but found I still had too many popups, malware, ads, etc. It was not worth going from one bad browswer to one slightly less bad just because FF (or Mozilla at the time) could not render “all” IE designed/ActiveX pages.

With FF, I am more secure. Period. And if this is a fool’s response then so be it. Just because the media is now reporting that FF is as big a target as IE for malcontents and miscreants doesn’t mean I will ever go back to IE – ever! I’ll take my chances with Open Standards/Open Source because I know there are thousands like me who have the opportunity and capability to contribute to such a great FREE product.

Yes Maxthon for me too

In reply to Try Maxthon instead.

When all the security issues with IE started getting to be a serious problem I got a bit paranoid and decided to try the suggested alternative browsers.

I tried Mozilla first and stuck with it for a while and while I liked the download manager and popup blocking it didnt seem to work well when it came to sites with Flash etc..

I then tried Firefox and really couldn’t tell much difference from Mozilla. Then a friend suggested Maxthon.

It uses the IE underneath but it has a lot of good features and it does seem to work smoother that the others above.

Two things I would note.
a. Internet explorer is easy to setup security wise. You can block everything and then enable trusted sites.

b. Any browser running on microsoft windows will probably be vulnerable to security issues.

Make sure internet explorer has all updates.

Reply To: If you have made the change to FireFox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

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

icy

a little biased..?

In reply to Reply To: If you have made the change to FireFox

I wont take the time to pick out all the things you have missed, but you seem to have overlooked a lot of features of some of the other browsers in your “comparison” – leaving you to think that said features are unique to SLEIPNIR

Application Issues

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I love Firefox, I am the network admin, and I use it as much as I can. My only problem is that we user Intuit Track it and sharepoint, both of which do not work fluidly with Firefox.

Tried it TWICE!

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have tried it twice and still don’t like. Too many things don’t work unless plugin and extensions are incorporated. Too many of those don’t work as anticipated. IE6 has become the defatcto standard and I am staying with it until somthing better.

IE 6 is not the Defacto Standard

In reply to Tried it TWICE!

In fact IE6 can’t even handle some commonly used SIMPLE W3C tags. Firefox does.

You don’t have the patience to reinstall plugins, which is usually done when visiting a site the plugin is needed for, yet you have no problem cleaning adware and spyware and other exploits out of your computer daily?

You do realize that the only reason IE does this FOR you (adds the plugins) is because it is tied too deeply into you operating system, this making it FAR easier for exploits to hammer your OS and render your syetem useless.

I am a webdeveloper and haven’t found a SINGLE issue with IE that wasn’t easily handled by FF.

If you don’t have the PATIENCE to secure your system than I can understand you desire to go with IE’s fire and forget simplicity/stupidity.
But it’s about as useful as a front door lock that disables the main alarm system when picked.

Reply To: If you have made the change to FireFox

In reply to IE 6 is not the Defacto Standard

“But it’s about as useful as a front door lock that disables the main alarm system when picked.”

thats the best analogy I’ve heard yet :D!

The best I’ve come up with

In reply to Reply To: If you have made the change to FireFox

I always try to come up with as many as possible until I find one I like, it’s the sales rep in me.

I personally liked that one too, just to toot my own horn a bit. 🙂

This makes it good

In reply to Tried it TWICE!

Personally, this is why I choose FF. It doesn’t have a bunch of options incorporated into it, and I can choose what ‘I’ want – in the form of extensions and plug-ins. Example, I don’t need my browser to control ICQ, Yahoo and MSN – I know how to use the icons in the tray. All the helper icons from different apps – again, if I want a SnagIt pre-load, I’ll do it myself – I don’t need IE forcing the resource overhead if I don’t plan on using SnagIt at the moment.
Some people may find this stuff handy, and that is ok – I personally find it another attempt of Microsoft being ‘too helpful’.
I can also surf and not have to worry about stray toolbars appearing the next time I fire up my browser.
I think the bottom line though … whatever a person uses and they’re happy with – go with it.

FireFox good

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

All our Network tech staff have changed to Firefox. Browser is as good or better than IE, with less exposure to built in vunerabilities. One issue is that MS has made the dump setting that only IE can work with auto update for system updates. This is not a flaw of FireFox but of MS and IE. We still have IE for updates done manually, but use firefox for every thing else.

Good… but not 100%

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have loaded FF and love the speed and reduced pop ups, however, I must navigate to sites that are restricted to access via VPN. FF navigates must of the sites well, for instance, webmail. Timesheet input, however, is a nightmare. The page does not render properly at all, leaving out boxes, lines, etc and making the page unusable. I have tried Netscape for this page also, but I have to use IE for this task.

Anybody got any ideas?

It’s not the browser’s fault

In reply to Good… but not 100%

The issues you’re experiencing are from the web programmers programming to MICROSOFT’s web standards, not the true, generic web standards that were supposed to make the web platform-independant. So, it’s those web programmers that will have to remove the Microsoft-specific elements from their pages.

Same problem on timesheet

In reply to Good… but not 100%

spotts,

I work for a large defense contractor and I also have a problem trying to do my timesheet in Opera or FF so I end up using IE for that.

Almost . . .

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

At home – all my PCs have been moved to FF.

At work, only my own group have “officially” moved to FF. We’re the IT development group and we haven’t got time to dither with IE’s constant patching and fixing the patches, etc. We are doing the majority of our develpoment in J2EE usine Eclipse, IBATIS, Ant, and so forth. FF is well positioned for this development. IE for now is okay but wait until MS makes it proprietary to it’s .NET, Exchange, Shareport, BizTalk, etc. infrastructure.

Many of the company’s staff have seen us using FF and have inquired. They’re jealous that we don’t have to deal with popups, etc. and that we have faster rendering of multiple tabbed pages and that we can download whatever extensions make it personally work for us. However, the corporate browswer standard first was Netscape, 4 years ago it became IE (with nothing but trouble since) and now, I have no doubt that within the next year or so, we’ll change the standard to FF or an FF alternative to IE.

Unfortunately security patches to IE will still need to be applied

In reply to Almost . . .

Even if you do move to FF you will still need to apply security patches to IE. 🙁

Thinking about it

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have a small Solution Providing and Office supply business in northern WI. I spent yesterday playing with Mozilla alternatives. Next month we have a booth at a local home show and plan to showcase alternative options including linux and Mozilla.

Trouble free

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I ran FF three months and found no problematic items with Adaware and Spybot.
It ran trouble free, too. I upgraded to ver 1 and it is fine for me, too.
Open source can’t be beaten.

Only two little gripes after using FF for a year

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

1 – Web-based email sites such as yahoo and lycos, (that I use because I travel a lot), are not optimised for FF.
E.g., on Yahoo ‘Compose’ page, advanced text editor features (B,I,U and font selection) are not present. And on Lycos, some navigation buttons, such as sign-out, are hidden (although the link remains active, if you can find it!).
SOLUTION – my own solution is to download the IE5 extension from Mozilla and switch to IE mode when absolutely necessary. I have already tried emailing the site operators to persuade them to optimise for FF and the rest of the world, rather than empoying IE-specific code.

2. I don’t seem to be able to edit html source-code if I access it via View/Page Source(Ctrl+U) in FF. Editing keystrokes are ‘ignored’ by the browser. IE didn’t give me this problem. Is this a feature of FF or am I missing something?

OK…I did miss something!…

In reply to Only two little gripes after using FF for a year

So I did miss something…with regard to gripe 2. in my original post. [Can’t edit page sourcecode after clicking View/Page Source in FF].

Answer is:
IE View menu/Source opens the source code in Notepad, which is a text editor.

FF opens a View/PageSource (Ctrl+U) request in a new FF window – which is not a text editor!

OK, so how can I quickly edit html sourcecode ‘on the fly’ from within FF – and see the result instantaneously?

Use an HTML editor to manage your pages?

In reply to OK…I did miss something!…

Thought that was a given

#1 solved with an extension.

In reply to Only two little gripes after using FF for a year

“eWebMail Color and Graphics” is the FF extension you need.

Goes well with..

In reply to #1 solved with an extension.

FireFTP, unless you use a client and would prefer to keep ftp out of your browser.

Thanks – the FF update does the job perfectly.

In reply to #1 solved with an extension.

I have now installed the eWebMail Color and Graphics extension.

Before the update, I had to use IE5 to reply to the occasional email that needed enhanced text. Very time consuming.

Thanks Brant, and also thanks to Harry Patsis for the code.

Fire Fox is great

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I try really hard to use Fire Fox as much as possible. Some site are built only for IE and I have to use it for them.
I make my kids use it and it has cut down on a lot of problems with Trojans and other junk. The sites the kids go to really junk up the computer.

How is TBird?

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have already switched most of my clients to FF and carry copies of it with me to my home clients and recommend the changeover. I even walk them through installing it, adding the most commonly used plugins (flash, shockwave, etc..) and then teach them how to use things like tabbed browsing and the bookmarks toolbar.

How is TBird? I have several clients that still us OExpress and they have asked about alternatives. I ahve everything on exchange and have tried to avoid setting it up on my computer to test…I may see if I can find a quinea pig (sp?)…thoughts?

TBird replaces OE

In reply to How is TBird?

Thunderbird is a GREAT replacement to Outlook Express IMHO. That is all I use at home (work is Groupwise, so no worries there ).

If you need more features/functions, check out Evolution from Novell, it has more “groupware” features (calendaring, etc) then Thunderbird and is opensource as well

TBird – love it

In reply to How is TBird?

Hi, I have been using Thunderbird for a couple of months and love it. The feel and look is close enough to OExpress for those users to feel comfortable to try it. We have many users using Pegasus who are jumping at the chance to use something a bit more user friendly. My only beef so far is that the sig files have to be text files.

TBird

In reply to How is TBird?

I switched from Eudora to TBird. I gave up on OE a loooong time ago. I just liked some of the newer features in TB, the spam filter, and the extensions. Once I got everything moved over and tweaked out I was happy.

Tbird

In reply to TBird

With the release of 1.0, importing from O.E. is much easier. Have used Tbird for quite a while and only complaint is that you can’t print only the hghlighted text. The whole message prints. Much more secure than O.E. Much easier to not have to deal with spam. Much easier to not have users open viruses (for me). Users love it.

I don’t generally give them a lot of options. They get FF, Tbird, Adaware, Spybot S&D and I have time to do things beside fix their broken machine. Once they’ve used the system for a little while, they are thrilled.

Some good, some bad

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I made the change to Firefox on my own network with version .9 almost a year ago and went from 30 to 40 finds by weekly AdAware scans to zero.

I have switched some clients over and have suggested it for all my clients.

IE is still necessary for some sites that make heavy use of ActiveX controls such as Bell’s hosted Exchange Server service.

Some people just don’t get it and insist on continuing to use IE exclusively because things like MSN Messenger and AOL seem to object to Firefox. The plug-in issue is the biggest stumbling block. When a page won’t run because a plug-in is required, they think that is a shortcoming of the browser. I usually reason that if someone wants me to go to their website, they should accomodate me. Why should I compromise my system to view their site?

It seems that the more knowledgable users understand why Firefox is superior and the rest will never get it and will continue to welcome spyware and viruses into their systems and networks and blame it on someone (anyone) else.

No spyware unless,

In reply to Some good, some bad

If you jump over to AOL IM you better run AdAware again. IM is the worst for planting malware and spyware.

Firefox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I love the tab feature, and have been letting the browser manage my passwords, which I was reluctant to let IE do (for no particular reason). I have not experienced any problems with this browser, except for the occasional need to download an enhancement. It seems to launch better, esp. when the net connection is down.

Re: Firefox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have been testing firefox on a Fedora 3 laptop for well over a month now. Personally I like its ease of use, but seems rather slow compared to IE running on the same dual boot system.

FF Proves IE is cause of site problems

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I’ve found that FF has become my primary development browser, as most of things that I code if they work there, work most places.

What I’ve also started doing to prove that apparent website issues are workstation driven is require that the users use FireFox to see if the problem can be replicated there — if not, they can seek help for that (and it’s only a matter of time before IE needs some kind of maintenance).

If nothing else, it’s another tool I have at my fingertips, and my personal choice for browser platform.

Little mention of Opera

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I’ve used FIrefox a bit for the past few months. I think it’s a vast improvement over IE for people who have been using IE for years – the interface is more like what IE users are used to. I’ve been using Opera for years, and it’s still my preference. The ad version is free, the ads shortening the toolbar but otherwise not interfering in functionality or (usually) providing distraction. It incorporates a very decent email/news client (which can be ignored if you don’t need that).

Indeed some sites don’t function properly due to IE-specific or Opera-unfriendly design; some of those do work fine with Firefox, others, may they burn in Hell, will only work with IE (or perhaps Netscape, which I stopped using when it became a dog).

In Opera’s favor, it’s been developed by a well-staffed for-profit company with a vested interest in maintaining and supporting it. Also, most of the features available as plug-ins to Firefox are already included in Opera.

In Firefox’s favor, with heavy marketing timed as IE continues to experience one security issue after another, at a time when many security experts are saying “if you want to be safe, DO NOT USE IE,” and with a more intuitive (for IE-weaned users at least) interface, its user base is growing rapidly, and as a result more web developers are testing their sites with Firefox.

Personally, Opera remains my default browser, but Firefox will not be uninstalled, it’s now my “backup browser.” The time will come when I never have to use IE again!

-Bob

Reason why FF gets mentioned and not Opera, IMO

In reply to Little mention of Opera

I think it is because FF is Open Source while Opera is a for-profit browser. I personally use Opera over FF but I would like to see FF improve until it is on par or better than Opera. FF seems to have a problem with popups opening in a new window instead of a new tab even with the options set to open in new tab and not new window. I have even tried installing extensions that are supposed to deal with this problem but they don’t seem to help. This is the only reason why I don’t use FF.

reasons for FF mentions instead of Opera

In reply to Reason why FF gets mentioned and not Opera, IMO

I agree that one of the reasons FF gets mentioned more often than Opera is its status as free and open source software. I’ll list a few such reasons, in no particular order (other than listing that reason first):

1. Firefox is free and open source.

2. There are more people that have used both and prefer Firefox than have used both and prefer Opera. I could be wrong about this one, but that’s definitely the impression I get, and I’m one of those who preferred Firefox.

3. Firefox seems to be more universally compatible than Opera and, being based on Gecko, is a little more standards-compliant.

I’ve noticed, by the way, that in every Firefox-specific discussion, there’s always someone that starts talking about how Opera is “better” than Firefox. Why is that?

I ran that garbage for a couple of hours

In reply to reasons for FF mentions instead of Opera

I can’t stand Opera as a browser. I ran it for on RH and got rid of it after about an hour or so.

I hate it. Cluttered as hell.

“I’ve noticed, by the way, that in every Firefox-specific discussion, there’s always someone that starts talking about how Opera is “better” than Firefox. Why is that?”

Opera was one of the leading alternatives for Linux installs before Ffirefox boomed – hard feelings I guess.

haven’t used Opera

In reply to I ran that garbage for a couple of hours

I’ve heard that you either pay for this browser though, or put up with a lot of adverts. That would put me off for a start!

Garbage?

In reply to I ran that garbage for a couple of hours

It’s personal taste.

What you find cluttered I find feature-rich. The adds are not a big deal, taking no more space than a row of icons.

Isn’t it bizarre how everyone runs to their corners ready for a fight over something like browsers.

Lets agree that IE is crap and be thankful that there are a range of great alternatives available on more OS than said crappy browser!

browser market

In reply to Garbage?

I’m basically happy with anyone that doesn’t try to leverage market dominance using extortionary means. That means I’m happy with Konqueror, Galeon, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, Lynx, w3mmee, and a half-dozen others. Of course, I generally won’t use anything but Firefox (or, in a pinch, Mozilla, Galeon, or Konqueror) for web browsing, and if/when IE has finally gone the way of the dodo I’ll also be shunning anything that doesn’t open its source to the public, but for now Opera is one of the “good guys”, relative to IE.

So it is…

In reply to Garbage?

…a matter of taste. I don’t like Opera for the same reasons that I do not like Netscape – clutter.

I don’t even have a single icon on my desktop, except for the recycling bin… that’s just my preference.

icons

In reply to So it is…

I don’t even have a recycling bin on my desktop. Then again, I’m not using Windows right now.

Opera

In reply to Little mention of Opera

It’s because this thread is called ‘If you have made the change to FireFox’, but …

Opera is indeed a great browser, but the one statement you made – “Also, most of the features available as plug-ins to Firefox are already included in Opera.” is what makes me like FF the most. FF is a plain-vanilla browser out of the box, and it lets ME decide what features I want in the form of extensions.
This is why I was sick of IE more than anything – Microsoft decided what my browser should look like, and I had no choice but to go along with it.
I did use Opera for a long time and liked it very much, but there was still that problem of things in it I didn’t want. Actually it was the tabs and sidebars and stuff in Opera that allowed me to make the easy switch to FF.

Opera for me

In reply to Little mention of Opera

I’ve been really happy to see the rise of FF and use it for sites that require IE to function (like some banking sites) but as a long-term Opera user, I’ve wondered what all the fuss is about.

Like any fan I could list the things I find great about Opera, but it comes down to useability. Opera is great to use while Firefox feels and looks clunky. Even the Tabs it offers don’t resize.

It used to be that some sites didn’t take kindly to Opera, but with the Opera 8 beta, I’m finding that’s not even the case (I can use Gmail with it).

So I’ll keep an eye on Firefox, but will stick with Opera for now.

IG Index instability

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I switched this week after experiencing massive slowdowns in Win ME after using IE for more than a few hours on DSL. After a promising start, I have found that one of my main sites, IG Index (a spreadbetting company) is totally unstable.and continually crashes out with errors as I switch between pages within the browser. This doesn’t happen with any other site I have so far visited. If Firefox worked on this site I would love it,. Its much faster to load and doesn,t cause the slowdown. Im still optimistic.

Not Enough to Switch from IE

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

We evaluated Firefox, and I found that it had a few cool features. I especially liked the tabbed browsing, but we have found that we could get the same thing in IE from a company called Maxthon (http://www.maxthon.com/en/index.htm). They are free, but ask for a donation, which is worth it.
We were also looking at the speed. Everyone had talked about how much faster FF was, but on our test machines, we noticed no difference. On some pages FF was 1-2 seconds faster, and on IE we would get the same on others. Appearence wise, it appeared that FF was faster, but it was just how it would load the content first, but still loading things in the background. A simple setting change did this as well in IE. Looking at the status bar, we confirmed that they both finished at the same rate.
Security wise, I will admit that FF is probably a little better off out of the box, but with security you lose features, and besides, proper maintenance and Group Policy management, I would put IE as more secure. Everyone out there knows that nothing is bulletproof and ultimately security comes down to the network admin, not the application (Though most shun this responsibility). We keep our patches and AV updates current and have NEVER had any problems with security. We found that FF’s lack of ActiveX support and the lack of MS Office browser functionality is enough to keep us away from FF.
As I said earlier, I am always looking for something better, and it must be. It seems that FF is just another browser. It’s unpopular, but I feel that most of FF support comes not from its benefits, but the animosity towards MS.
A lot of people call me a Microsofty, but in all reality I just will use only those tools which makes me and my team more productive and efficient. That current tool is IE, not FF.

So you never pickup malware?

In reply to Not Enough to Switch from IE

The ONE thing that made me make the change is I was starting to spend more time cleaning systems than I was doing my job.

With your maintenance and policys you have been able to eliminate all adware/spyware/malware/trojans/worms/viruses? If you have, then I could see where you are not getting a huge benefit from FireFox. As for me, I have noticed a major improvement.

Sure, I was able to lock IE down, but as soon as I did it was unusable anyways for the same sites that people complain don’t work in FF.

Whatever works for you, good luck.

Took Some Tweaking

In reply to So you never pickup malware?

It took some tweaking, but we were able to keep the malware off and still have most of the functionality remain.
There were a couple of plugins that this interfered with the user installing, but when they requested it, we would just push it using SMS.

FF and IE speed

In reply to Not Enough to Switch from IE

I installed Firefox a while back because I heard that it was worth checking out. I found that it doesn’t load any quicker than IE also. Granted, it comes out of the box set up to reduce spyware and such and maybe that’s the best reason to go to it. I still mainly use IE but wouldn’t mind using FF more. One thing that IE does that I would like to have FF do is when you slide your mouse over a menu that has submenus that these submenus show. IE does this but Firefox does not. I am not familiar enough with Firefox and don’t know why it doesn’t work this way. I have searched for plugins for it, but have found nothing. Can anyone help with this?

Huh?

In reply to Not Enough to Switch from IE

What does,” . . . lack of MS Office browser functionality . . . “, actually mean anyway?

You’re right, FF’s popularity does stem in large part from MS-hatred and rightly so. There’s no denying that MS agressively used its dominance in the OS market to crush Netscape; instead of innovating to gain market share with a superior product, MS chose to bully its business partners and foist a product riddled with security holes on the American public.

Please, don’t drink the MS Kool-Aid.

Functionality Lost

In reply to Huh?

Well, we did find that FF was having prolems with the Office Discussions and Groups feature, and when it came to SharePoint and document sharing, forget about it.
Sure it is probably MS proprietary that might be doing this, but as I alleviated to earlier, it works and no one has anything better. If they did, I would be all over it. Do I like some of the things they do, no. Do I like a lot of what they do, yes. But to not use a better technology just because I don’t like them is ludicrous.

You’re one in…..25 million I suppose.

In reply to Functionality Lost

For SOME reason you have decided not to seek answer to your issues but revert to using IE, which as you sayis completely yourperogative.

But to conlcude with switchign from better tech because you don’t like them is just not the issue at hand here.

Dislike of MS is only the TIP of the iceberg.

If you read through the gazillion security and code issue that IE has then it is hardly a case of changing from something better. In MOST cases it is the worst choice. It is insecure, doesn’t fit W3C compliancy with simple tag support until THEY deem it neccessary. If MS bult a better browser I would use it, it has nothing to do with th company. But they DON’T build a better browser and haven’t improved it though so many versions it isn’t funny. They add bells and whistles but don’t make a better browser.

Firefox is WAAAAAAY faster, picks up virtually NO crap form the internet, whereas IE is an ad and spy magnet.

Firefox isn’t embedded in the OS and requires some add-ons/extensions that are easy to find and manage through the provided extension manager.

I think you would find answers to your issues if you took time to look, but if not, you can stick with IE, your loss. Except IE will just take up all your time with the amount of parasites you need to clean daily. You may as well take the time to reslve yoru FF issues and be done with it once and for all, no more continual patching and fixing and cleaning needed.

Voice of Silent Majority

In reply to You’re one in…..25 million I suppose.

Don’t be so emotional Oz. When you speak emotionally, its ard to hold up against facts. The original post was do you use FF, hy or why not. I stated why not, and people launch emotional tirades at me. Why is that?
OK, to address some of your points. I am not sure what answers I am not seeking. I really don’t have any questions. IE works better in our environment than FF. We have a lot more functionality than if we switched.

I do find more people switching to FF for two main reasons. One, they dont like MS, which is sad, or two, they do not require the rich functionality that it brings which is a valid reason. If you do not use IE to its fullest extent, I could see why you would revert to FF. Out of the box, it is more closed to malware because it does not offer the more rich functionality that IE does. Also, when FF gains popularity, like Linux, I expect more holes to be found and attacks to occur. It is inevitable. This is not an attack on them, just an experienced observation.

I have run lamans tests on comparable machines and found that IE and FF are the same speed. Neither one is faster tahn the other. I outlined the results in an earlier post. There is the perception that it loads faster, but it is still loading services in teh background. IE loads them both at the same time, giving the appearance that it takes longer to load. A simple settings change would make it work like FF.

IE is embedded in the OS, which could pose some security risks, but also enriches functionality. This is what I have been trying to convey. FF is more inherently secure, but at the sacrifice of functionality. I have never said it was a bad product, only that we prefer the functionality of IE rather than allow malware to affect our business processes. It’s like the old addage of “Those who choose security at the price of liberty deserver neither.”

I have went paragraph by paragraph and hopefully clarified my points. I still am not sure of hat answers I am to be looking for. We evaluated it and found it not to work well in our environment. And IE takes no time in our environment. We dont even use AntiSpyware. We dont need to. Policies are in place where malware doesn’t get on the systems. Is there paching? Sure there is, but I will take patching anyday over having to lose the functionality we have by using FF.

Silent Minority

In reply to Voice of Silent Majority

A few quick points from someone less religious about all this.

First, I started this thread just for FF users to help people share things they like or find answers for things they don’t. Was never intended to be an “my browser is better than your browser” contest. There are enough other threads going to do that on.

If IE works for you and you are content, good luck with it. I made the change because I am spending more and more time cleaning crap off systems that IE gave full access to. I am not able (authorized/allowed) to lock down our system real tight.

One thing you put I would have to say is functually incorrect though.
“IE is embedded in the OS, which could pose some security risks, but also enriches functionality.”

That is why IE 7 is coming out, pulling the browser BACK OUT OF the OS because it compromises the rest of the system.

Uh that was not emotional

In reply to Voice of Silent Majority

LOL, you have a long way to go before you will get emotion from me regarding computers.

I am merely stating facts that I have found just as you have stated facts that YOU have found.

As for speed, I have also posted that FF builds pages as they are shown, however, there re tweaks that stop this and it actually loads and displays the page faster anyway. As a freelance corporate web devloper, load times is a major focus of my work.

As for fuctionality, you have mentioned sevarl times that FF lacks functionality of IE, I have seen the absolute opposite through my tests. IE can’t handles some of the mroe basic W3C tags, thus is not accepting global compliance and trying to remain unique, which works everywhere but on the World Wide Web.

You have not explained exactly what functionality you gain that is not available in FireFox though. I know of two products/network services that DON’T work with FF, BUT FF has recently resolved the issues and they work, for the most part, with the absence of administrative access for one. In short time they will become fully complaint, I am sure.

So based on MY experience, FF IS faster after a REALLY simple tweak. FF does handle any IE scripts I have ever tested, yes I know you’re organization is like no other and therefore you are forced to stick with IE.

IE DOESN’T handle simple tags set out by the World Wide Web Consortiums gobal scripting standards. HOW LONG HAS IE BEEN AROUND?? You’d think being such a widely used browser it would be standards compliant!?

But to each his own, if YOU feel that you have no choice but to use IE, well that’s your issue to deal with I suppose.

Time

In reply to Not Enough to Switch from IE

All that time you save can be used cleaning up the crap IE picks up. If it works for you though, run with it.
And I don’t think you are a Microsofty 🙂 I know lots of people that share the same view. When I install FF on a system I make sure and tell the customer what I’m doing, and I simply ask them to decide. I even provide instructions for uninstalling FF if they choose to.

Good Idea

In reply to Time

Well, as I said, it takes some policy work, but after that there is not much cleanup at all.
And we to use FF in some instances. We have one or two third party web apps that seem to not do well in IE that we do use FF with. We have found that XP SP2 has a security feature that does not allow cross domain frame linking anymore, so to access a certain site that is required, we use FF for that. I think if our users were not so skiddish, we would try two browsers, but that would mean having to support both of them and since we need the functionality for SharePoint and Office that FF didnt, we decided not to try that. We also do not have the same amount of control through policy over FF as we do over IE. That helps admin a lot.
How do you work this in your current environment?

IE vs FF in Policy

In reply to Good Idea

My primary job or role is Sales and Service.
I am also contracted by a few IT firms and look after networks in my local area. In most of these places they already have policy set by their head office or IT dept., and I have no authority to change or suggest anything. Just fix the problem, submit a bill and leave.
In the remaining places I listen to what the clients want, and in most cases it is IE, because they simply don’t want to change – and I can respect that. There are a few systems that I have insisted on FF, because the people on the computers are nuts about surfing when they shouldn’t be, and I was tired of being called in at 2:00am to fix a Lop.com problem (I know, I’m being paid, but all the same …).
Three places I look after (15+ systems) have completely switched to FF at the request of a manager or a person ‘higher up the food chain’ – their individual networks don’t depend on ‘everything Microsoft’, so it wasn’t a problem switching over. In these three places I also set and maintain ploicy, and to this date we have never had problems mainly because the users are pretty good about following the policies.

Oops

In reply to IE vs FF in Policy

Sorry, I was referring to AD Group Policies. There are settings you can use so that a user can browse pretty much anywhere and not worry, the policy would not allow most malware to occur. We have HS students so asking them to follow a policy is like talking to a brick wall.

Reduction in number of Virus/Trojan…

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have been using Firefox for about two months now and there has been a significant reduction in the number of virus/trojan… that I have picked up in the normal course of Internet surfing I do as compared to using IE. I am truly amazed and will definitely stick to Firefox from now on.

One I find is that in some cases certain features cannot be downloaded from other sites, as they do not recognize Firefox. Therefore, I do not set Firefox as my default web browser. Instead, I leave IE as my default browser, but use Firefox regularly.

The second problem I find is that at times (such as with MacAfee) Firefox is recognized as Netscape when I attempt to download their services. This is another reason I leave IE as my default browser.

These are minor issues, however. The main reason I downloaded and began to use Firefox was to reduce problems with adware/spyware/malware and it has definitely worked.

FireFox Flies

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Since we have been using Firefox vis-a-vis IE its made a lot of diffence.Every body is happier.No popups,no junk Just great browsing experience.
About Worms,cant say much yet since we have all the other Anti-virus and Firewalls set up

Can it be improved further?Yes,ofcourse

Printing Problem

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Switched to FF as default and really like it (faster, more secure, users love it,incidents down) and use FF almost exclusively. Kept IE as backup for the only problem to date:
I have not been able to adjust the settings in print preview or in page setup to allow print pages as individual frames or as seen on screen. This is available in IE so I have to switch to that beast whenever different output is needed.

some differences

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

0 spyware with Firefox is agreat thing.

On the other hand, the way Internet Explorer allows me to browse my own network and connect to ftp sites is definitely a champ. That tight integration with the operating system is as cool as it is bad.

I know that Firefox has a ton of plugins and the one ftp plugin I use behaves a little bit like CuteFTP but there is something very nice and easy about the way IE handles that connection. For the simple end user who doesn’t need anything more than to drag and drop a file, IE is a champ.

So…the end result is that I use both browsers. Firefox for browsing the web and IE for connecting to drives and my own ftp server.

Much Better +++

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Is lighter and faster that IE and obviously the TAB feature take a whole new step in internet browsing, you can configure it to open a new tab automatically instead of opening another windows for surfing, or right-click and select new tab also.

No ads at all. At lease on a 4-month base try, I haven’t have any problems (virus, Trojan, etc – just keep updated your AVS). I will recommend keep the IE for some websites that do browser detection and they haven’t updated their code to be use under Firefox.

No Spyware has been detected using SpyBots on my PC since I installed Firefox.

My only issue with Firefox is that I haven’t been able to open PDF files in the browser it self, I have downloaded and try a couple of time with no luck, but I haven’t give it much time to troubleshoot the issue.

Downloads are on a separated window that you can access or hided at your own discretion. One thing I didn’t like about the download windows is once you open it you can’t closed it without suspending the downloads. – Needs to be fix….

In my opinion 9 out of 10.

FireFox good overall, BUT…

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

It does have a couple of issues on my PC.

1) I have a bazillion bookmarks. When I click on the bookmarks tab, it can take over a minute before the tab actually drops down, and while I’m waiting all of Firefox is locked up.

2) Printing is pretty slow sometimes. It gets there, eventually, but is pretty slow.

My last gripe isn’t Firefox’s fault, but I’ll mention it anyway.

3) There’s still a significant number of websites that don’t render right (or don’t work at all) in Firefox. I’d bet anyone here lunch that the majority of those were created with FrontPage! Try maintaining a Microsoft SUS server or updating Windows with Firefox and you’re out of luck! A number of multimedia plugins just don’t seem to be available for Firefox yet, too.

HOWEVER, that being said it’s still my browser of choice. When I hit a web site that doesn’t work right I’ll grumblingly go find IE, but my system’s staying nice and clean according to SpyBot, and after applying some of the tweaks I’ve seen on various web sites my browser’s gone from speedy to lightning!

Aye and Nay to FireFox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

After downloding and using FireFox I have not found any great differences other than it is not so easy to print off a page from the net,being lazy like many others,I find having to go to top task bar to bring up the printer is a pain,not liak IE where i can just right click to print.
I think Opera,even the free one is better than FireFox.

Firefox browser switch.

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

We have completly switched over to firefox here at the manufacturing plant where I am the IT administrator, I am also a consultant and all of my clients have made the change. The main reason, is even with anti-virus software loaded and running and even with a software firewall, IE lets garbage in, firefox does not, it is that simple. With firefox’s import feature, even the most dyed-in-the-wool IE users are happy because their ‘favorites’ are moved. My weekly browser related service calls have gone from about 2 to 3 a day to 1 to2 a week, and those are usually operator error. I did a quick poll of my clients regarding going back when the ‘new’ IE comes out, over 90% said “no way!”. I think that says a lot.

So Far – So Good

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I had my IE Browser horribly hacked/hijacked by some adware a while ago. Tried uninstalling/re-installing IE to no avail. The hack set the version number of IE up so high, that the latest downloads would not install due to the installed version number being higher than the latest IE version release number. I will have to back up all my data – and get my machine re-build to rid myself of this crap

Firefox has released me from this plight. Even Microsoft’s new “Adware remover” beta software could not remove the browser hijack which has tenatiously embedded itself into IE.

Sure – many out there seem to bitch mightly about Firefox’s shortcomings – but, it’s allowed me to surf the net with very little interfence since.

Thank Goodness for Firefox

Firefox user

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I started using Firefox six months after a friend had been using it for awhile,he had a lot of good things to say about it,we have been working together on a number of different projects dealing with pc`s and the uses of software and hardware for them,building and upgrading,we have both upgraded our OS to XP from Win 98 SE after reading and reviewing the pro`s and cons, Firefox has been trouble free for both of us and I have advised my customers to try it for awhile no one has had any thing but good feed back from it.M.A.Anderson

Very Happy

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Made the swithch on two computers 2 months ago. Spyware is alomst nonexistent. Pages load faster than IE. Occasional problems with streaming media.

Changed to FireFox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have been using FireFox and all I have to say is that I get less popup’s, less Virus/Trojan/Worm/Malware/Spyware as when I used IE. With IE, I use Yahoo’s New Tool Bar which help’s stop popup’s and they also have a great tool for spyware..

Miguel

Printing Issue

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Overall I love FireFox, I’ve been able to get rid of pop ups–about 99.999%. Had to fiddle with things a bit since OWA uses pop ups for replies, etc.
But I’ve had difficulty when printing boarding passes for Delta and American airlines. It’s like it’s missing line feeds and the result is the pass is squished.

I re-activate MSIE, print the pass, put MSIE back into lala land, and go back to FireFox.

All in all very manageable and a lot better experience.

FireFox still holding the spot

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have used FF 99.95% of the time for the past six months and so far I have not had any problems eccept minor issues with some websites. I have been using; purely for research purpose only, FireFox to browse sites known for cousing problems such as adult rated sites, gambling, free gaming, sites with tons of pup ups and sites that automatically download free ware, and up to this point I have not ecounter any problems. My knees and nephews are being my test individuals and the problems I used to have with IE are no longer present. I have been suggesting FF to clients and friends. Having done the switch to FF has help me minimize support time and save my clients money.

Firefox Conversion

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have made the conversion to Firefox at home computers and on my laptop used for business. The only feature missing seems to be the inability to use html text in e-mails.
As far as the users at the workplace, they are so hooked on IE and Outlook that the resistance to change overcomes any positive benefits that might be changed. End users (Especially dept. managers) very quickly become reluctant to try anything new except for any free shareware that they decide to download on their own. As many of you may have already discovered, company politics sometimes overrules IT preferences. When Network Administrators run the major companies, the world will be a safer place for all of us. (LOL)
vbreezo

Firefox Conversion from Eudora and Outlook Extress

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

The conversion was very positive and easy. With 4 copies of Eudora and one of Outlook Express on my computer, there were too many folders brought up. These automatically were replaced when I removed them. I then took 3 of Eudoras out and removed the extra (operational-named) folders out. and the system works fine now. Each computer on the system has its own mailer program, so system is not affected. Best feature is the “Junk” file. By remembering my notations of junk, my time epent in cleaning out incoming files has drastically been reduced. I wish that there was a option to prevent automatic advancement in mail list so that the view following message reading would be sent back to the Inbox. This would reduce scanning times.

IE vs Firefox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have used both, and while Firefox seems to nice and clean, the overriding issue is compatibility. Many websites look great in IE and plain ugly in Firefox. Is this an important issue? You bet. I’m staying with Internet Explorer.

Firefox in Win 2K & Fedora C3

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

We have been running Firefox both with Win @k and with Fedora C3 (Linux) for the last two month with not one single fault. It is a lean fast program.
Furthermore,close to a 100% of our internet traffic was also switched to Fedora Core 3, what a delight!!!

Hell yeah

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Hell Yeah

Tried it … Returned to SlimBrowser

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

It’s a good idea but still needs lots and lots of refinement. Right now it runs slow on my system and the user interface with regards to tabbed sites is clumsey and annoying. I have been using SlimBrowser for several years now and their user interface is what FireFox should strive to be.

Firefox Jury Still Out

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

1) I have one tech that used to willy-nilly install Firefox as a cure to any IE glitch on home user systems. This lead to beaucoup warranty work, so he no longer does that. Home users, especially “I just use my PC to get e-mail from the grand-kids and surf the web” home users just don’t want to substitute.

2) The Federal Bankruptcy Court website in our district works just fine with Firefox, even when you get locked in the recursive “Do not use your back button for form resubmittal” logon error with IE. Not sure what their plans are to “certify” the site for Firefox, as they seem content with IE and Netscape certification at present. I know the more aggressive among us would say “use it anyway”, but they obviously have never been on the wrong side of a errors-and-ommissions beef because they used some un-certified (legal) process or the other.

3) Some Mapquest pages do not render correctly at 800 x 600 or 640 x 480 on Firefox. Catching a page break when printing from some web sites appears to be hit or miss as well.

4) Tabbed browsing is annoying to me, but maybe with practice I’ll at least get used to it.

Still testing away tho.

What about future hotfixes….

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Couple of quick points:
1. I continue to use IE because it is faster, not much mind you, but it is faster. Also, most websites are IE compatible…I’m not condoning this, but that is just the way it is, and therefore I never have problems viewing with IE. Hey, want to see the website now!
Footnote: I use IE with Avant browser for the tabbed browsing experience…been using it for quit a while very happily.

2. As an administrator in a network environment I have to consider the following; as firefox gains more market share there will be the inevitable holes that get exploited. Keeping that in mind I have to decide what is going to be more work…running windows update or reinstalling the latest patched version of firefox? Also, would I be farther ahead if I educated my users on how to best use IE and maybe introduce an Avant browser type add-on, or introduce a new browser and all the headaches (support calls) that go along with it…usually the first couple weeks are the worst until everyone gets used to it.

I will stay with IE for now. Yes, it’s swiss cheese, but they are working on it and I know how to handle the problems that arise with using it.

Installing latest patch?

In reply to What about future hotfixes….

If you looked through FF at all you would have seen there is an AutoUpdate feature – checks for FireFox and Extension updates.

Firefox patch management

In reply to Installing latest patch?

I love Firefox but until there is some way to centrally manage patch upgrades I can’t roll it out for our users. AutoUpdate is not a solution unless I can manage my own autoupdate site……

yes, and use it everyday

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

have never have yet a problem with firefox, I like its clean and easy interface and how fast it loads pages,it is the only browser now that our company uses and no complaints so far from any of our users. We also have IE but no one uses it.

Good … except …

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I’ve used FF for several months now, and I’m generally happy with it. There are some things (mostly minor) that are annoying, but not enough so far to return to IE. My gripes (most already noted) are:

1. Some sites won’t work, probably Active-X. I can deal with that.

2. Programs that call a browser to render something always open IE. One would think that if you can mark FF as your default browser, these other programs could check that, or there could be another option for the “program api call default browser”. Don’t know if FF has a standard api.

3. Programs/sites checking for browser see FF as Netscape 1.0 and will refuse to perform certain functions (which might very wall work).

4. Tool Bar Customizing – This is really limited; only a subset of commands have corresponding buttons, and the customizing function in general is way behind IE in features and capabilities.

5. Microsoft.com keeps putting up a message that I’m not using a compatible browser — wish I could respond “Yeah, deal with it.”

dds

Good … except … Fix It

In reply to Good … except …

Programs that call a browser on my computer DO open up Firefox. I’d go out on a limb and guess you have an association problem somewhere on your system. This has nothing to do with firefox, rather the platform it’s sitting on.
As for the Netscape thing. I have yet to come across a site that won’t work in FF because of this. If I do, I also have a UserAgent Switch extension installed that may handle the situation. I’m assuming you are talking about valid sites here and not the personal, usually poorley-coded, sites on Geocities or somewhere?
And finally, you can respond “deal with it” by un-clicking the option in IE to ‘check for default browser’.

Firefox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Installed it last night on xp sp2 and seems to work just fine

It’s Great.

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have been using Mozilla since I can’t remember and started using Firefox before release 1.0. I went to a nightly build last week and had something strange happen. ZoneAlarm classified it as NeroMIX wanting access and validation listed it as an unknown program but displayed it as Firefox. I uninstalled the build and scanned the system and cleaned registry the reloaded 1.0 and everything was fine.
Back to subject. Firefox has pretty much eliminated pop-ups and Spam is kept at bay better than most.
I think Firefox is the best. (Avoid the nightly builds unless you need something in them.)

System difference is definite since it isn’t bloatware and the thought of not having to deal with ActiveX can’t be described other than pure bliss.
Some may view ActiveX as one of the best things for net commerce to come along. I see it as a virus host waiting to stick it to you.
Best to you!
Btw, Do yourself another favor and eliminate the blackhole that Outlook leaves in your systems by using Thunderbird email client.

You people nitpick too much

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

1. Firefox is not about shortcuts. Only geeks want shortcut fluff. Try something kewler like using a cordless gyro mouse (many feet away from your computer and kbd). Or develop a full-featured voice command package so you can just talk to your little buddy.
2. Firefox is not a complete solution for browsing. There are no complete solutions in any category. Folks would lose their jobs if there were complete colutions. So, rather than perfecting your complainer-of-all-trades skills, find the balance between programs.
That said, yes my customers have expressed a marked pleasure in browsing with Firefox; particularly with the tabs feature. And, yes the popups have decreased tremendously. But what wins them over more than anything else is what may be Firefox’s greatest feature… extensions.
– FirefoxView and IEView allow you to switch browsers to view the current page; very helpful when your $200,000 web-based package is IE-dependent.
– FoxyTunes places media controls in the browser; finally a quick response to loud intros.
– PrintIt has print features and preview.
– MapIt. highlight an address and you’re one click away from a map.
– Dictionay Search defines the highlighted word.
– ImageZoom to get a closer look at that eBay item.
All of these extensions and many more are very helpful, easy to use will little interruption to what you were doing. Plus, the “Tools/Options/Software Update Check” is a great way to check for browser and extension updates in one easy step. I caution my users about going on an extension craze. I have seen some of these extensions slow the process down considerably.
The only other problems I encountered with Firefox had to do with the same problems IE has… if a company designs its website using the latest flashy plug-ins and you didn’t instinctively update your plug-ins at the same time, Firefox may not even show a placeholder. One case in point was a login and password prompt that didn’t even show up on a page so the user just sat there staring at the welocm screen and nothing happened.

Agreed

In reply to You people nitpick too much

This is too true. I have asked countless people to try something other than IE – usually firefox, and this is only because I’ve spent the last hour cleaning their system.
Some people try it for five minuts and say “I don’t like it”, and it’s usually because they are too lazy to look for a solution, or they aren’t technically-inclined enough to try and fix it (adding a plug-in or extension). This I can deal with actually.
It’s the people that piss and moan because the toolbar that injects a zillion idiotic smiley faces into a message is no longer there. They no longer have a toolbar to tell them when to go to the washroom, they don’t have a toolbar to tell them the current weather stats (I guess looking out a window isn’t high-tech enough?) …. and the list goes on.
For the people in the first batch I tell them they can install ext. and plug-ins and show them how. For the people in the second batch, I make an appointment to clean their system up again in a few months.

Even Better

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

MAXTHON (previously MyIE2).

All the compatability of IE, with the benefits of FF.

Tabbed browsing, popup/add blockers.

http://www.maxthon.com

Give it a try.

its good but …

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

We run windows desk tops on a linux O/S. I have been using Firefox at home for about 2 months, and made it the browser of choice on all our staff machines about a month ago. It is absolutely fine for general browsing and all staff are urged to use for day to day use. It is clear, intuitive and was a simple transition with minimal resistance. (ditto thunderbird).

However I have had to re-enable explorer for a couple of staff with very specific tasks as some websites do not display properly with Firefox ie the login button on our debt collection agency webpage does not display meaning we can’t manage our debts, we can’t use our wiki update our website, and it changes the layout of our own intranet ie displaying vertically rather than horizontally. This doesn’t mean we can’t use Firefox just that it is awkward because the intranet pages were written for efficient use working horizontally.

SlimBrowser

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

It’s surprising to me that so many people are still so crazy about Firefox. I’ve switched to Slimbrowser. It’s cleaner, faster (by far) and is easier to work with from a user standpoint. I’m not very technical, but I do know that for my work and home preferences, I will always choose Slimbrowser over Firefox. It loads faster and is much more stable. Plus, if it notices that I’ve closed the program, it allows me to open the tabs that were closed previously.

Just a thought from a non-techie.

love it!

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Overall I like Firefox and the users of my system have all got used to it and use it quite happily.

It’s far less prone to spyware, in fact recently my daughter must have been using IE for something, but she managed to put CWS on her PC in a big way and if I hadn’t had another browser I’d have had real difficulties getting rid of it.

I particularly like the tabbed browsing. If MS don’t integrate this into IE7 I can’t see it persuading anyone who’s used FF to return to IE, however much safer it is.

The only thing I don’t like about it, is that there are definitely sites that don’t work so well. This could be a good thing. I recently set up (just out of interest) one of these spoof pages of the kind that trick people into inputting CC details into fake Paypal sites etc. Don’t misunderstand me, I didn’t do anything like that, I was just trying to prove how easy it is to fool people into thinking they’re clicking on a safe link.

Although the code worked in IE, I couldn’t get it to work at all in FF. Maybe that’s just my incompetence (!) but I do think that in lots of respects FF is safer, however vigilant you are using Internet Explorer.

And oh yes, one other thing: I just discovered there doesn’t seem to be a way of exporting cookies along with favourites to another computer as you can in IE?

Love Firefox, got Thunderbird too

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

What is kind of a spoiler about Firefox is that
just about all my code displays beautifully in it, and then I open it in IE and whoa.
Firefox sets the bar. Guess they had web developers in mind when they wrote the code.
It won’t make me lazy though, I know there are other browsers out there.

Changed to FireFox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I changed to FireFox to see if Pop-up proble I have could be reduced. It seams to have almost eliminated the pop-up problem.
However being an HP Service Tech when I go to some of the required areas of HP?s web site it won?t work because IE is required and I still have to use IE to access the HP Tech Support web site.

it’s okay – too bad it doesn’t work

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I absolutely love FireFox except for one thing… and it is a pretty major deal. It doesn’t interpret javascript properly for a large number of websites. Granted, most folks optimized for Netscape and IEX prior to FireFox’s rapid growth in popularity – but that doesn’t excuse the fact that many industry standard scripts aren’t fully FireFox compatible.

I don’t mind at all… I’ve been contracted by quite a few small shops to code FireFox compatible scripts to replace their old developers’ work. So it’s been good for business. It just sucks for users, many of whom will never know what they’re missing (unles they compare the sites across browsers).

Other than that, I love it’s ease of use and all the kitschy little add-in tools.

Share Point Services

In reply to it’s okay – too bad it doesn’t work

It also does not work or display Sharepoint service web sites properly. Big kick in the pants for firefox.

Long Live I.E. !

Share point

In reply to Share Point Services

Actually FF does handle MOST Sharepoint commands, a bit buggy for Administration from what I can see but not unable to use sharepoint.

All you need to do is search and you will find the answers, I found more than I could begin posting, in less than 3 minutes searching the net.

Haven’t had Java issues yet

In reply to it’s okay – too bad it doesn’t work

I also develop sites and have yet to find an issue with Sun’s Java and Firefox. Have heard many from people relying on the outdated MSJVM though, but that is the users fault.

javascript — not java

In reply to Haven’t had Java issues yet

I’m talking javascript compatability issues, not java. I haven’t encountered any java issues.

Yeah I know

In reply to javascript — not java

FOrgive me for abbreviating my response, I figured the topic would have separated the two.

YEs, install Sun’s Java and you should no longer have script issues.

Again, MS JVM is no longer being improved, marketed and included, Sun won that court case.

It does work…the web developers didn’t do their job.

In reply to it’s okay – too bad it doesn’t work

There is not a single problem whatsoever with Firefox and Javascript. What you are refering to is shoddy web development, where someone used script to program against a DOM that was proprietary to one browser.

For example; document.all and document.layers are non standard, non W3C compliant extensions to the IE and NS DOMs that were heavily used by ignorent web developers.

A web page is more that script, it is dependent on the DOM used by the person viewing the page. I have web sites with rich content, unchanged in many years which work with any browser because I followed the best practice of writing code which was not dependent on non-standard DOM extensions.

That being said, the Gecko DOM used by FF and Mozilla is more compliant with W3C standards and recommendations and when a web developer learns how to program against the DOM properly, he or she will begin to resent the restrictions imposed by IE, NS and Safari.

10% of web browsers have javascript disabled. How do the sites you maintain work with those browsers. Can the visually impared use these sites?

Don’t blame a browser that uses a DOM implemetation that is correct, for bad web development that occured in the past. Keep in mind the specifications we are talking about were made in 1996 and in 2005 web developers are still programming against proprietary IE or NS DOMs.

You’re partially right

In reply to It does work…the web developers didn’t do their job.

As I posted earlier in this thread:

http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=8&threadID=168560&messageID=1722110

I was puzzled why an example of a “spoofing form” didn’t work in FF. In fact I found out.

Firefox is not a browser that uses the MS standard. For IE, my form link is given top priority, and sends the user to the spoof page. Firefox clearly considers the anchor link (used to “fool” visitors into thinking it goes to the trusted site) the top priority, and follows that instead. I’d need to study FF’s priority system more closely and put in additional code to get the link to work the way I was trying to, for all browsers.

Firefox has it over Internet Explorer by a long shot.

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have been using Firefox for the last year and find it immensely better than IE because it loads websites faster, reduces pop-ups without any additional software, allows me to view more than one page at a time with Tabs, and best of all it isn’t plagued by snafu’s the way IE is. The downside is that there are a few websites that do not accept Firefox like Microsoft (go figure) and Symantec. Try both until you feel which one is best for you. I still have IE on my computer for those websites that refuse Firefox. By the way, I’m a computer systems technician and use the download features constantly for my work.

Multi-platform

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

One thing I love about firefox is that it works pretty well as a multi-platform browser.

By using its profile manager, you can store the profile in one (networked) place, and have linux, Windows, mac all access that same configuration.

No matter which machine or OS you are on, you have the same exact configuration and bookmarks. No need to manage multiple configurations across machines or OS’s.

Firefox Problems

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I’ve found very few problems with Mozilla Firefox. Its much faster and cleaner than IE but lately I have had this slow down on occassion. Expecially when I download a file or save a jpg. or movie cut. It seems to take forever for the save function (the part the list the name of the file and where you want to save it at) to come up. I don’t know if this is a virus type of situation or not. On a few occassions with this problem I’ve seem had to get offline, shutdown and reboot the system in order to get to normal speed again. One other problem is that when I go to save a file to download it say “text document” when it should be a movie clip or jpeg file. This is when I open up IE to save the file as it should be. I don’t know what causes these 2 problems but its the only problems I have experienced with Firefox.

croane

Done great.. its should be flamingfox next tym…

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

i’d been using firefox for a 6months and i have been smiling.. the trojans, anoying pop ups, spyware etc. had been lessen and the firefox is really easy to use. i have no problems using this program. i always recommend it to all of my friends. you should try it! its flaming hot!!! =p~~~

Me Made the change to Firefox Campus Wide….

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

In January 05 we introduced Firefox campus wide on over 200 Student and Staff machines.

Apart from the initial confusion Firefox has taken off almost explosively. Staff are commenting on the ease of use and new bookmarking. Within 30 mins one staff member had fully customised her toolbars and bookmark folders.

We have also restricted school net access on Laptops to Firefox. Adding the new Acrobat Reader onto the computer also improve performance significantly. The only time I use IE since 2003 is for Windows Update which hardly ever works anyway.

If they build a virus scanner directly into the downloads or general windows that would improve virus protection.

Fire Fox was great at first

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

But as I added book marks and sufded around I started getting more pop ups and some were in the back ground. So I did not notice them untill I closed Fire fox. I have two fire walls set up so I do not know if it is being hacked, but I have received alot of unknown email in the last week.

Love Firefox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Im sold! Its better than IE. Like the plugins(wish the had more),love the tabs,the shortcuts and the scrapbook I can see to do without it. I like the ad blocker filter but it still need more work to be done. The ad blocker blocks the ads by cliking on a tab but some ads seen not have it and some ads seen to repeat itself later on or the next day. I would like to see some skins too, what they got (themes)doesnt convince me.I like the bookmark manager. The pop-up blocker works and the other privacy features do me good. I use their download manager too and had no problems. I like to see more features for the toolbar.

Firefox in Czech

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I’ve downloaded firefox and installed on my system. However when i opened it up and started using, discovered that everything’s (toolbars etc) in Czech language! As i don’t speak the language i’d like to change it to English, how do i go about doing that?

Foxy Lay

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Firefox has made a difference – we find it faster and fewer incidents of worms and viruses – even with appropriate firewalls and Anti-viaral applications. 80% of the staff has moved to Firefox. However, we find we have keep IE for those sites that have certain MS soft applications and active x features. Nonetheless, it’s worth the bit of operational hassle.

Push out settings via Group Policy

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I use Firefox personally, and would like to roll it out across the network – the problem is I haven’t found a GPO for it.
I won’t roll it out if I have to set up proxy servers etc manually per machine, or figure out a text file – when IE has a built in GPO.
Just haven’t got the time to work it out…

THE BEST SUBSTITUTE!!!

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have been using firefox for over 6 months now and from the onset, I have never had any problem with it Like loads of windows opening, adware… no sir, none of them. Its very fast and reliable and browsing is a pleasure. Kudos to firefox for coming up with a winner.

The downsides of the software are that some sites do not recognize it, and streaming video and audio( like playing yahoo! jukebox) is not possible. These are minor problems, compared to the huge number of crashes in IE, a barrage of windows attacking you as soon as you set foot into a webpae.

Ashok

What a wonderful difference, however just a few

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I love every aspect of Fire Fox with ac few exceptions below. When I use IE just about every site you visit wants to dump some something on your hard Disk, everything from double click to Blue Streak cookies. I set Sypware Doctor?s Cookie Monitor to every 10 seconds and If, I browse the web with IE it goes off like a fire cracker, deleting a monstrous amount of ?information? on my hard disk.

However there are areas where Fire Fox does let me down.

1 Digital Certificates installation and interface with Outlook are difficult. You become very good at exporting and importing.
2 Of course you cannot do a windows update, but truthfully, who of us really rely on anything BUT ?Microsoft Base Line Security Analyzer? and automatic updates of any degree and then last resort Windows Update
3 I cannot find an easy Upgrade setting for improvements of Fire Fox, however, there is not a lot I can fault with the software.
4 Dealing with secure sites HTTPS:// where passwords are involved could be better handled.

If you are running XP Pro without a min of 1 GIG of RAM then don?t expect your applications to run faultlessly.

it is great

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I love FireFox and tell everyone to use it. The FF brower is so much more stable than IE. I offen have many multiple browers open at one time and it does not take long for IE to get an error and bail out. Even with only one or two brower sessions I would have IE problems. But with the FF browser almost all of my brower issues have gone away.

The only down side that I have found is the the FF brower will not work with some of the sites that have logins written only for IE and other IE only scripting.

TimS

Information Systems and Technology Manager

FireFox and Java

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I installed FireFox and at first was quite pleased with it. However, I discovered that some web sites didn’t function as intended because of the version of Java used. FireFox seems to have a challenge with Java scripts. There were some functions that wouldn’t work in FireFox but the same URL’s worked fine with IE. Not sure if there’s a work around or if Mazilla will address this concer.

Firefox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Firefox has made a good contibution but users are rather slow in moving over to firefox.
No of incidents of pop ups etc has gone down.
Best feature is the all in one package.

Firefox makes internet safer for young kids

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Experience is all positive as no need to be as concerned about kids (7 year old) getting hit. Downside is some banking sites do not support firefox well, or rather they have only catered for the lowest common denominator

Firefox and Kids

In reply to Firefox makes internet safer for young kids

Use Mozilla/Firefox @ home. Switched from IE on my personal PC after numerous “IE has performed illegal error” messages. Installed Mozilla/Firefox on daughters PC after numerous “Freeze Ups” when chatting – No more freeze ups.

Tabbed Browsing

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Since the “Close Multiple Tabs” dialog was added in 1.0, my favorite feature in FF is tabbed browsing. Before that, my favorite feature was the sequential history listing. :-p

a good start

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

There are a few integrated add-ons that I really like, but nowhere near as many as IE, unfortunately. IE has turned into a real pig, and should be slaughtered. How do we get the add-on market to cooperate?

Third-party Support

In reply to a good start

Popularity is the fastest way to get a response from third-party sources. I can remember when Netscape was king, and everybody was supporting it to the point of being too-much. The same can be said for other browsers we use – when there is enough demand for it, they will write it.
Second I guess is to get involved in the Firefox forums and see if some savvy programmer wants to take on your idea.

Firefox Response

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I gave up on explorer years ago moving to Netscape navigator, Mozilla and firefox in what seems to me to be a natural progression. My experience with Mozilla has been great and Firefox upholds that standard. Has Firefox made a diffewrence? I can only compare my experience to what others report, but I have never had my LAN go down or experience any computer, trojan, worm, problem, etc. since I installed Firefox. I’m retired now but haven’t heard that anything has changed back at MPS.

Same issue as w. NS7.x–Painfully slow saves

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

On the computer on which I’ve tested Firefox (see below), saving web pages or images from MS IE 6.0 SP1 is almost instantaneous with scarcely perceptible CPU utilization. By contrast, saving even the most trivial element from a web page displayed in Firefox 1.0 takes this system about 45 seconds–I tested this by saving a tiny graphic from a web page, a 4kb corporate logo. (There is nearly zero network activity during saves; the browser acts the same way whether the save is conducted while online or offline).
During these save attempts (using a hyper-threaded P4) the first Windows Task Manager Performance Graph of CPU usage shows a spike in CPU utilization; it bounces in a saw-tooth pattern between about 60-90%, and maintains this for about 45 seconds; meanwhile, the 2nd CPU graph gyrates between about 5-50%. During this time every Foxfire window or component (such as the Bookmarks Manager window) is locked up / unavailable for use; attempting to close a window during this interval may launch a dialog indicating that this application is not responding.
The same kind of thing happens occurs under Netscape 7.1 (and now 7.2), but the problem is not as severe. Netscape saves take about 19 seconds during which the Windows Task Manager Performance Graph of CPU usage shows a spike in CPU utilization to nearly 100% during this period (the 2nd graph is not much affected); during this time every Netscape window or component is locked up / unavailable for use (one cannot, for instance, switch between Netscape windows or tabs until the CPU spike is over).
I have no other issues with this computer aside from this one. I am eager to get this resolved because there are several Firefox extensions I would like to make use of.

CORE SYSTEM SPECS
Mobo — ABIT AI7, i865PE
CPU — 2.6GHz P4 w. HT enabled
Mem — Mushkin 512MB Dual Channel PC4000
OS — Win 2000 SP4
DVICO FusionHDTV capture card (the only unusual piece of gear)
Stability evaluated via Memtest86+ vs. 1.51

Firefox Tweaks

In reply to Same issue as w. NS7.x–Painfully slow saves

Here’s a link to FireFox speed tweaks, don’t think this is really your issue though.
http://workingbath.com/archives/2005/01/04/firefox-speed-tweak/

You never know though I suppose.

Similar problem

In reply to Same issue as w. NS7.x–Painfully slow saves

I was experiencing something similar while saving a page of graphic artwork from one of my suppliers. Looking at the processes involved instead of the graph it was PC Anywhere chewing up most of the CPU(s). Ending that task allowed me to save these graphics with light-speed.
Just wondering if you have something rogue like this that is acting similar to my PCA?

Firefox and me

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I am older and not into too much computerism, but i do like this browser. Recently, I had the computer crash (XP Pro) and had to create a new user to get back on. All of my settings were lost, including my “favorites.” Fortunately, I had a floppy backed up and tried to get them back into Firefox with little success (exporting from IE, importing, etc.) After a myriad of attempts I was able to get the favorites or so I thought from IE and was pleased, only to find out they are just addresses and not icons to get to the site. I still have them on a floppy but don’t know how to have them conme up as icons favorities. Other than that, I like what the “boys” at Firefox are doing.

Switched to Firefox long long ago…

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I like that it runs fast. I don’t like that it chokes on certain configuartions. It makes a huge difference, because end-user PC’s don’t get all the junk spyware they used to. It made a major difference in keeping unwanted porn ads from coming up on my various users’ computers. Some have easily accepted it, some, like our helpdesk technicians, don’t get it, and don’t like it. Our Virus/Trojan/Worm/etc… incidents have gone way down. I like the control over WinAMP I can get with the extensions. I like having more control over what I view on my browser. I don’t like the slow feature creep. I’ve been using Firefox, since it was Firebird, or something like that, a few years ago. I thought it was good then.

Firefox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have found Firefox in all ways superior to IE. The home page is cleaner and perhaps with my dialup conetion a bit faster. The spellcheck actually works. Seems to not attract the bugs that I had before. One dose have worries getting conected with sites that only work with IE but that price is easy, you can likely live without it.

Firefox, a better alternative!

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Have been using Firefox for about 2 months now.
Very satisfied.
No system problems when browsing.
Got tired all the IE problems and shortfalls.
Have used Netscape, Opera, etc. in the past.
This seems to be the best, in my opinion, so far.
No problems with incidents. I use Ghostsurf and Pc-Cillin in conjunction with Firefox.
I like being able to add what I want or need to the browser, not being dictated that I must use the flawed 800 Lb. Gorilla version of some other browser. No dislikes at this time. I will continue to promote it to friends and colleagues.

I have found FireFox is better

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Im a computer Tech., and 80% of my customer have changed to FireFox. I get lest virus calls, and lest camplants and about the internet.

hell yes!

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Number of spyware/malware incidents has dropped 90%. Very few problems using it. Occasionally will have to use IE for some active-x pages but those are very few.

Excellent Browser!

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Both work and home PC’s now exclusively run Firefox. In fact I run Thunderbird email client at home as well (since 0.8). As a part-time web developer I appreciate the standards based CSS and DOMs, and I only need to make small tweaks to CSS and Javascript to make the sites acceptable on IE.

Problems Now Beginning

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Just last few days have noticed that while using FF, cannot get regular results with browser. Proficiency terrible, and therefore, went back to Opera, and found same result.

Have lately downloaded a number of files unrated from Microsoft for the XPHome that I use, and NOW, grievous problems, which are all gone when I use IE6. Personally, I believe Microsoft is doing something with their regular downloads, to enhance IE, and cause trouble with Opera, FF, and maybe other browsers.

Smart move

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I switched to both Firefox and Thunderbird about a year ago and have had great success with both programs, during beta testing and final release. I have experienced no problems and the security factor of being away from IE is a blessing by itself.

Much better then IE

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I love the custom link that I can create. It responds correctly with the site graphic or Icon. IE usually just displays and IE Icon but firefox displays the correct site image. The TABs (Ctrl-T) function is great. My security is set high and I add allowed sites to my cookie exceptions (EASY). There are some querks where after logging into my bank, certain functions like Market Analysis do not work and I just get logged out. Everything else works within the bank functions. IE in the instance will work perfectly. Also there is a speed performance site that uses JAVA which does not work in Firefox but will with IE. Other JAVA functions work perfectly. Don’t understand why as I have Java fully installed. In general my preference is to stay with Firefox as I feel it is more secure and provides functionality better suited to my needs.

Cheers

FireFox Trial

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

The browser has a small foot print, seems to pull in existing settings form ie very well. Renders in house applications exceptionally well.
Can’t say I find any fault’s. Further testing will need to be scheduled.

System response seems to be much better than IE.

Most users really don’t notice much difference.

We have not deployed to end users at this time.

No noticable effect of incidents. We have a multiple layered spam / virus filteration system in place.

MIxed Blessing

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I like the tabbed browsing. I like the pop-up blocking. It’s got promise.

There are too many critical web based apps, device, management tools, and sites that will not work with Firefox.

It’s not ready for prime time for my organization.

Installing it on people’s home systems…

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Since I’ve started installing it and recommending it on people’s home systems the feedback I’ve gotten is that it’s faster, as easy as IE and the transition is simple.

I’ve seen spyware related problem calls drop dramatically since putting in firefox, and my own spyware has dropped to about 15% of what it was with IE.

The only problem is that some sites don’t display correctly with FF, but I’m hoping that will change as the browser evolves or webmasters better accept the browser.

Zaf

No Going Back

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I’ve used FF 99% exclusively on my PC for six months or so. I still need IE for Windows Update and one or two non-standard sites. My nightly SpySweeper scan shows 0 spyware found day after day now; there was always some to clear off when I used IE.

The other plus is the time I don’t spend patching. Yesterday I was patching another system but was informed that applying the latest MS patch might make me have to go and re-apply earlier patches and so on and so on. Who has the time to figure it out. FF has had one update since October when I installed 1.0.

Finally, FF is faster than IE in rendering pages, and the Tab feature is a real plus. Rather than having several bloated instances of IE running, I can have one FF with a smaller footprint but can copy and paste between sites.

My default but not exclusively

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have made Foxfire my default browser after having problem after problem with IE. It covers 98% of my browsing needs but occassionally, I need to use IE because of some specific application that was written for IE exclusively. I have not had a single problem with virus/trojan/worm/malware/spyware/blahblahblah with Foxfire which of course cannot be said of IE.

Love It!!

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

The only thing I don’t like is that some sites like the service center at our company does not seem to work with it.

It has made a difference to my own personal system in that the number of virus etc. attacks has gone done tremendously.

I definitly like the developer features as that helps me out.

Unfortunatly, anyone who uses it around here is a rougue at this point. (Most use it actually).

FIREFOX on our systems

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have adopted firefox on my windows XP latop and seen a significant decrease in spyware and adware on the system. I have also seen much less pop ups via this system, even though it does not have the Windows and AOL pop-up blockers I have been using.

I have not ported to Forefox on the home system yet to see what is occuring – my home system reports about 75 new spyware(s) a week, where my laptop is reporting less than 5 per week.

Having started using FIREFOX I love it. It works extremely well on Windows XP systems.

I have also loaded FIREFOX onto my office Mac (a system I bought to get out of the vicious circle of hours and hours of virus checking, spyware checking etc.) FireFox has a quirk on the Mac that bugs me – I cannot find a tool to change the home page (That functions works on the win version).

Other than that, my 6 weeks’ experience with FirefOx has been positive for both platforms

rachael

Re: If you have made the change to FireFox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Since I “replaced” Internet Explorer with Firefox on our public access computers, I have had only one complaint and that was only that it “just looks different”.

Big Difference

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I made the switch “Pheonix” because I was tired of pop-ups, and so I did some homework and compared among the other choices. I found that Firefox is easy to use; the tabbed browsing is fantastic for research, and I haven’t had a pop-up ad in years. I recommend or personally install Firefox for all of my clients nowadays. I compliment this browser with AVG antivirus and sygate’s firewall. I realize that pop-ups and viruses, etc. in part depend on where you go online, but I feel that a trusted antivirus/firewall combo make this already good browser worth keeping around.

Firefox Switch

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I switched to Firefox about one year ago and I have found that I have less problems with viruses, trojans, etc., even the amount of spyware has gon down. If you are looking for a good secure browser, I recommend Firefox. About the only thing that I miss is the webpage composer function that Was included with Netscape.

RK

IE is only needed for MS technologies

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Microsoft felt it had won the browser war and that IE was a defacto standard. Which was true prior to the Gecko engine and the overwhelming adoption of Firefox and Mozilla.

As a result, many of the Microsoft technologies, such as SharePoint were written in a way that makes them difficult or impossible to use with other browsers. MS could have achieved the same sunctionality writing code in a compliant manner but felt the didn’t have to because they had the market sewn up.

As the ActiveX technology turned out to be such a major security headache and was never adopted bu Non-IE browsers, they now are in a bit of a pickle. If they want their team and collaborative offerings to be adopted,such as OWA and SharePoint, they will need to do some significant re-writing of those products.

However, with Windows XP SP2, Symantec AV and now MS Anti-Spyware beta 1 I run both browsers and have had zero spyware or virus incidents.

Still, after using Firefox since before it was Firefox, I find IE to be clunky and disappointing in many regards.

IE 7 will have to be DOM2 and CSS2 compliant without the proprietary extensions and integration with the OS to get me to switch back to IE as a primary browser.

AMEN!

In reply to IE is only needed for MS technologies

You nailed it when you said IE is necessary for any MSFT stuff. Just try accessing any Passport-oriented site with Firefox (MCP site for example). I understand the market angle involved but hell, at least make it possible to use Firefox on those types of sites if not easy.

Firefox is anything but hot

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

It’s slow to load and also slowed my system down.I fail to see what all the hoopla is about. It’s a fancier netscape which wasn only a step above the AOL browser

It is Great!

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have had no pop-ups or other problems. The only issue has been adding some of the other components necessary to run multimedia, etc. It is good, however, at directing the user to the appropriate site to add the necessary components.

number of ad windows slowly increasing

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I have noticed an increasing number of those secondary ad windows. I hesitate to call the pop-ups in the traditional sense because they are always behind the window I need to see, but they are increasing nontheless. Overall however, I still think Firefox is at least as good as IE with many more user-friendly benefits that can be added with a minimum of fuss. Try adding ANYTHING to IE these days. Sheesh. If I wanted my hand held, I’d use AOL.

Roaming profiles issue

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I love Firefox. However, we have a number of customers using roaming profiles and the Firefox bookmarks don’t follow them from computer to computer like IE’s favorites. There are other administrative issues mentioned earlier as well. I haven’t checked the mozilla website for administration tools yet though.

BTW, has anyone deployed Firefox in proxy server situations? Any problems?

It is good but still can improve

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Goods:
It is free, good to use, faster to browse as compare with IE, more secure, simple & fast to setup.

Improvements:
For Opera, when you close one tab, it goes to last tab you access. But for Firefox, it simply goes to the next tap.

Personally, I would want to install firefox on all machines but because of the lack of control by the Windows server 2003 Group Policy. We have to stick to Internet Explorer.

That all for now

its cool and fast

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

i’ve been using firefox for a while. my system being a dual boot linux/win2k, win2k suffers from all kinds of GPFs and assorted fubars. i’ve never been a fan of IE anyway, but mozilla and firefox really do work the way you want a browser to work, period!
i’ve even manages to get my wife to start using firefox as her laptop is swamped with IE cookie and spyware hacks.

FF is good, but doesn’t yet replace IE

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I’ve been using Firefox as my general browser of choice since September of 2004…however, it has not completely eliminated my use of IE. In particular, I’ve found that many of the more adventurously designed web sites don’t work correctly in FF. It’s another example of designing for the majority — many web designers will write code for the browser that’s most likely to be used and spend less time accommodating the also-rans.

I’m a Mozilla fan, being very distrustful of Big Brother Microsoft, but am not to the point of totally abandoning IE.

FF is MUCH better!!!

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I made the move to the dark side, once again, in September 04. The first time was moving from an Intel processor to AMD (MUCH better!!!) and now from IE to FF. Life is GOOD!!!!

I use FF along with Noadware, NoAdaware SE Personal, Norton AV Corporate, SpyBlaster, and SpyBot on all of the workstations in my classroom and they run VERY well! We haven’t a problem yet.

Though, I should mention it is imperative to use IE for Windows OS & Office Suite updates.

Invisible to the inexperienced

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

I use Firefox on any pc I’m setting up for public internet access. I remove all the IE icons and make Firefox the default.
As an experiment, on one client’s machine I’ve pinched the IE icon and used it for Firefox. The user still hasn’t noticed she’s not using IE any more, after three months of using Firefox without any complaint.

Hehe – that figures!

In reply to Invisible to the inexperienced

That’s a good idea! And if it’s a work situation then you’ll have every right to do this.

FF still has obvious bugs

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

1. The obvious things include the Tools /Options pull down. It locks up the first time each session it is used, has to be cancelled and re-done.

Another is how it re-sizes incorrectly for pop-ups containing images.

2. The Update function is missing or hidden.

3. The plug-ins required for reasonable use (e.g. tabbed browsing) make acceptance testing and assignment of responsibililty (blame) an issue.

4. Issue 4 is not Mozzila’s fault. It is that many web pages are not tested to work with FF.

love FireFox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

My title says it all: I love FireFox. I love the stability of the program, but most of all, I love the fact that it doesn’t leave popups doing their thing, creeping onto my desktop, into my space. I love FireFox.

I have used FIrefox

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

Firefox is a great program and is a lot better than IE. But the search and the features of Firefox I really liked are the new tab, so it doesn’t drain the computer resources. I think that Firefox has improved the internet surfing a lot better and I have Spybot S & D and Ad-Aware to keep the spyware and the others down.

Harumph…

In reply to If you have made the change to FireFox

“FIREFOX” may be an alternative to I.E., but it’s not a replacement by any means. I’ve found Firefox to be slightly inept and unable to go the distance. I.E. is targeted for sabotage because no one would notice damage too a lesser entity. Everyone wants to go after the “King of the Hill”. Remember, as soon as the “king” is de-throned a new target is aquired. MicroSoft is doing a bang-up job of creating solutions while everyone is looking for something to complain about. There is nothing that Firefox has that Microsoft can’t engineer, and engineer better… it just takes a little bit longer because MicroSoft wants it to last through the next mega-number of attempts to discredit a brilliant program.