FireFox or Internet Explorer

[FatherFlannigan]

Opera...of course.

[Viking62]

I switched from IE to Opera on recommendation from programmer friend.
Is a faster Browser-Try it out--It's free! & F A S T (also can change many aspects-Look,pop-ups,etc.

[Darkman]

by the way, Mozilla Firefox 2.0 release is out now!

[Sadoun]

The latest FireFox is one of the best browsers I have tried. It opens the pages so fast, it is amazing. It IS the recommended browser to use when visiting the Sadoun website.

Download your FREE browser here and enjoy fast and secure surfing of the internet.

If you find a nice Add-on for Firefox that you actually tried and like, you may recommend it here.

[Darkman]

I used to use IE almost all the time..

But lately for certain situations i also started to use FireFox..

And actually new Netscape Navigator.. - new version of it.. - i think it's 9.0 - is basically like FireFox also.. BUT i noticed (i think so anyhow), it's somewhat lighter on resources than FireFox.. and has some extra features in it by default, like one's local weather etc..

Other than that it runs very smooth, maybe even smoother than FireFox..
(or at least the same as FireFox)
But after all, again, it based on the same engine as Firefox..

In any case .. i use all 3 of the above mentioned.. - but situations when i have to use Firefox or Netscape .. - lately i chose Netscape, most of the time (new version / build of it) over Firefox .. for above stated reasons, etc

[Muad'Dib]

IE is overhyped crap. Buggy and obsolete.


I use Firefox, Seamonkey and Opera instead.

[wejones]

I've used Mozilla for years, although I recently switched to SeaMonkey, and I like that. I also have Firefox loaded, but I find SeaMonkey to have more capability, but both are similar, and much better than IE, particularly when you add the preferences toolbar.

Using IE and Outlook, is a sure way of clogging your computer with spyware and viruses. For a while, my wife was forced to use IE for some reason I can't remember. She would pick up as many spyware invasions in one day, as I would in 2 years using Mozilla. Of course, the likelihood of spyware/virus invasions is really just a reflection of which system is used by most people. Ie the people who try to get into your computers go after the more popular system. If everyone used other browsers or other operating systems, then they would be the ones attacked.

[jimneycricket]

I was reading the thread and thought I would let you know my horror story about IE;

I had been using Firefox about 2 years or so without any problems, well I changed out my drives from the 40gig that came with my windows XP and put me in 2 160gigs, took out the 246megs of memory and put in 2 512megs,,ran my original CD's and set up my drives,,put on my Norton and updated it,,well to make a long story shorter,,I used IE because I had not downloaded the fox yet,,I had forgot kind of all about it but,,one and half weeks later it happened got hijacked by malware called icthis.exe,,talking about hard to get rid of,,Norton partially got rid of it after infecting 10,000 files,,finally got a McAffee CD and finished it off, after downloading Firefox it has never happened again,,I have used Maxthon browser from time to time but somehow I feel safer with Firefox,,,food for thought.

[wejones]

The following isn't related to the above story, and isn't related to browser choice, but since the topic is getting into vulnerability to malware, I thought I'd mention a vulnerability I've seen.
A couple years ago, a neighbor set up his computer, and it got hopelessly corrupted with virus' right away, even before he had much of a chance to receive email or go to web pages. I asked him about just what he had done, and he said the only thing he could think of was that he followed a Windows link to download some protection update or something. This sounded strange to me, but I fixed his computer, and all was well for a while, but he eventually had problems again. A few months ago, he was going to reinstall windows again, I think this time Win-2000 (but I later saw the same thing with WinXP with another neighbor). Anyway, I went to his house to help him upgrade. We put on windows, and installed Mozilla and an email program. Then we decided to test his dialup internet connection. We dialed up, intending to get email and go to his favorite web page. About 20 seconds after we dialed in.... BING... up popped a window, saying something like windows has detected a corrupted file, and suspected a virus, and recommended that he click here to download the most recent patch from Microsoft. He started to move his mouse to click, at which point I stopped him, and said don't touch that. It was an outside intrusion using the windows messaging system, or whatever it's called, ie the popup window wasn't coming from windows, it was someone on the outside trying to get him to download a virus. I said something like this is strange, because I"ve never seen that happened, and he was using the same version of Windows I use, and he's on the same ISP. Anyway, I showed him how to close out of the window without touching the popup, and told him to never follow that link if it ever happened again. Then BING.... POP... same window popped up, closed that down... BING. Inside of about 5 minutes on line I think he got about 6 or 7 intrusions from outside. I forget what we finally did, I think we turned off the messaging system and installed Norton or something.
Then like I mentioned, I was helping another neighbor with XP, and the same thing happened. Again, same versions of software I'm using on one of my computers, and it's never happened to me. So I was really trying to figure out what was different about my system that seemed to protect me from these intrusions. Then it dawned on me, that these two neighbors had their computer directly connected to the phone line to the internet, while in my case, my computers don't connect directly, but through a LAN to a software router.... all except for ONE of my computers, a computer that my wife used to have connected directly for work reasons, and IT was the only computer we've ever had that has caught a virus.
Anyway to shorten an already too long story, a lot of the intrusions our computers are exposed to don't come via browsers or email, but directly in from the outside while connected to the internet, and the best protection seems to be to NOT connect a computer directly to a phone line to the outside, but to have the computer connected through some form of a separate firewall or router BEFORE you hook up to the internet. The fact that my system is seemingly (never 100%) protected was not because I was smart enough to set it up right, but that I lucked into choosing a way to connect to the internet which makes it difficult for external intrusion. Dumb luck.

[rainman]

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good Bill.

[Bibbler]

Well, I in February 2006, Viruses disappeared from my computers. I bought a Mac Mini Dual Core - I also have 2 iBooks, AND LAST NIGHT, I bought a BRAND NEW MacBook. I bounce back and forth between Firefox and Safari for my browser....

I tried Mac years ago in the mid 90's and was not impressed. But the new Macs running OSX are LIGHT YEARS ahead of anything Microsoft makes. Light years. OSX makes all the difference. It's the smoothest, Fastest, and most elegant OS I have ever seen.

Macs market share has risen from 2.2% in 2004 to over 8% today (and over 10% of the home/consumer market) and there is a good reason for it. It simply blows away the competition.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by Bibbler

Well, I in February 2006, Viruses disappeared from my computers. I bought a Mac Mini Dual Core - I also have 2 iBooks, AND LAST NIGHT, I bought a BRAND NEW MacBook. I bounce back and forth between Firefox and Safari for my browser....

I tried Mac years ago in the mid 90's and was not impressed. But the new Macs running OSX are LIGHT YEARS ahead of anything Microsoft makes. Light years. OSX makes all the difference. It's the smoothest, Fastest, and most elegant OS I have ever seen.

Macs market share has risen from 2.2% in 2004 to over 8% today (and over 10% of the home/consumer market) and there is a good reason for it. It simply blows away the competition.

If the market share gets up much higher though, the hackers will start going after Macs. At the current levels, it isn't worth their effort.

[Bibbler]

Originally Posted by wejones

If the market share gets up much higher though, the hackers will start going after Macs. At the current levels, it isn't worth their effort.

OK, that may be true to some extent, but there is more to the theory (called Security through Obscurity).

Remember, OSX is based on BSD Unix, as a matter of fact, OSX is one of the few Unix Distros on the market to have been certified as an official Unix 03 Certified OS.

Unix is MUCH more secure than Windows. Viruses and Malware are few and far in between and a high percentage of the world's servers are UNIX (or Linux) based. If you want to install a piece of software on OSX, you must enter your username and password, and you may only do this if ROOT has given you permission to do so.

In addition, the latest release of OSX Leopard has additional security features namely, App Layer firewall, App Signing, Sandboxes, Secure Guest Accounting, and Library Randomization.

So while I am not so naive to say that Macs will never suffer from Malware, it is obvious to me that they will never suffer the fate as Windows. The system is simply better, more thought out, and much more secure. Since Apple controls hardware and software, the system does indeed just work. I have never in almost 2 years (and 4 different macs and an iPhone now) had OSX Crash (although some 3rd party software has, namely Firefox, - the OS itself never has)... Ditto for my wife and 3 kids who have also switched.

I spent years building my own systems, fighting malware, and looking for device drivers. No more...

Different strokes for different folks Bill. It's all about what works for you. In my case, I have to put up with Windows 8 Hours a day and it's nice to come home and relax in from of my computers with trouble free "computing" here in the shack.

[Sadoun]

Bibbler

I have recently (1 year now) started using a MacBook Pro with OSX Leopard. I love it and it works great.

I am having a problem with Firefox on it. I don't remember what I have done, but now Firefox would not open anymore. When I click on Firefox it open a blank screen gets stuck. I have to do a Force Quit.

This happened before I upgraded to Leopard. After upgrading, I still have the same issue.

I uninstalled Firefox by dragging the Firefox file from the Application folder to the the trash. Then I removed the icon from the bar.

I then re-downloaded and installed Firefox again. Same problem.

Any suggestions?

Another issue I am noticing is the wireless connection with the wireless router keeps breaking up. I have exchanged the router, but problem insists. Is there a solution for this?

[Sadoun]

Well, I got my FireFox to work fine again on my Macbook. All I had to do is

I just removed my pref folder /user/library/application support/firefox

Reinstalled FireFox and Bang it started like a charm.

[Bibbler]

How about the wireless problem???

Maybe you should ride over to the Apple Store and talk to a genius over there. It's a real neat place to visit anyway

I personally prefer to visit there to hang out and get help, however, I buy my hardware over at Microcenter over on Bethel. Their prices are a lot better due to rebates they offer (and they do have a nice Apple "Store in a store")....

[Sadoun]

BIbbler

It seems the wifi signal is now stable after I fixed FireFox. Isn't that cool or what? Two birds with one stone.. :-)

Yes, I bought Mac products from the Bethel store. I visited APPLE store at Easton a couple of weeks ago and bought the new iLife08 software. It is a nice store.

Firefox is running so fast, it is amazing. It is much faster than IE by a bunch. Even though the Sadoun website is designed with the IE users as the majority browsers, I find the site opens much faster with Firefox.

So I highly recommend Firefox for browsing our website. If anyone has any comments, or suggestions, let me know.

[rainman]

Finally got around to installing firefox boy what a difference over internet explorer it seems to be a lot smoother and quicker.

[MrBillM]

Mozilla was an internal name used by Netscape for, among other things, their Mascot. It derived from "Mosaic Killer (killa) i.e. Moz-illa since their target was Mosaic, a previous product and the most popular Browser at the time.

In 1998, Netscape released their source code for open use. Mozilla.org was created and produced browser software using the open source code.

Firefox is a product of Mozilla. The relationship to Netscape is evident to anyone who has used both.

Regarding the eternal Windows versus Apple debate. YES. Apple is more secure, as is Linux, for the reasons stated. However, they do demand more user interaction for that very reason. That may be fine with us geeks (I loved DOS), but Windows has correctly determined that the majority of users don't want that level of involvement and has targeted their O.S. to that majority market. As good as Apple is, It is too expensive. The majority of people who buy it are simply trying to be different. They'd be better off buying a PC for a lot less money and running Linux. Different, but richer.

[N9WOS]

There is one BIG problem with firefox. That is called faster fox. AKA prefetching.
Anyone caught running it on the network will have their IP blocked from the internet.
faster fox can flatten a 1Mbps internet connection for minutes, when they view certain sites.
It is pretty obvious when a computer has it enabled. A particular computer will hammer a particular website for minutes on end. Downloading everything that it can get it’s hands on.
Faster fox with any of it’s forms of prefetching enabled, is something I frown on.

[bubby-joe]

I like the others here switched to a core duo mac mini and have never looked back, switched the wife to Linux and kindly asked Mr.Gates out of the house.
I was having wireless hookup problems for a while with my laptop but the problem was the router, a DL624 with updated software and every time I fired the laptop the wireless refused to hookup. Unplug, replug the routers power and the wireless came back on. Swapped to a Linksys router and no more problems.
One sore point with the Mac Mini was the microphone and web cam issues but worked that out with a Sony PS3 webcam with built in USB mic and the macam program to run video. The Mac Mini's line in jack instead of a microphone jack was the issue with the microphone.

Something not being said here is that if you dual boot with windows you need to protect it like a windows computer.