IE6 SP2 vs. Firefox 1.0

[Yeahman]

I've been using Firefox for Linux for a while and decided to finally try it out for Windows. I honestly, don't see what all the fuss is about. Yeah, I like the tabbed browsing but Windows Update doesn't work and I can't listen to Amazon audio clips. In IE I was already using in-line searching. And SP2 adds a popup blocker.
Also, I used to use the Microsoft Java VM and now I have to use Sun's which requires more resources. Memory usage between the 2 doesn't seem that different.
So what's so great about Firefox?

[truMp]

The tabbing. Better security than IE6 (too easily breached)

[AliBabaIncorporated]

SP2's firewall is an utter pain in the ass to configure.

Firefox's popup blocking isn't the main attraction ... extensions are. E.g. Adblock. I have no idea how people in China manage using IE to browse mainland Chinese websites, cuz every damn page has 50 million Flash ads coming out of its ass, sending your CPU usage to 100% ... but you can't just uninstall flash because the website's interface also relies on it (undoubtedly a deliberate design decision). Selective blocking of these things makes the difference between usability and unusability (and more than makes up for the resource usage difference between Sun and MS's Java VM).

A few things I don't like about Firefox ... you can't change the page encoding (character set) from the context menu (right click), only from the options menu (which, for example, in a page with frames, reloads the entire frameset, rather than just one frame). Also, the fact that you can't choose to open exe files when you download them, but have to save them somewhere and run them ... but I understand this was probably a deliberate decision to protect against idiots and accidents. Also, when it blocks a pop-up, it pops up a freakin' bar to tell you that it blocked the pop-up, the same way SP2's pop-up blocker does (instead of just changing an icon the way the Google toolbar does).

[hooligan]

mouse gestures. what can i say?

[yoMAMA]

Firefox just seems to load a hella faster than IE, and the interface looks alot less bloated than IE.

[Commando_turned_MD]

I like IE6 SP2. I havent had any problems with SP2.
I will never use any other browers. IE is the best on the market. Moreover, it is user-friendly....

[yoMAMA]

I like IE6 SP2. I havent had any problems with SP2.
I will never use any other browers. IE is the best on the market. Moreover, it is user-friendly....

Dude, that's my mentality a while back, too.

But once you go firefox, you don't go back.

give it a try!

:smile:

[Yeahman]

Except for the tabbed browsing, I don't see any compeling reason to switch. And as I mentioned, there are a couple of negatives to switching too.
But the tabbed browsing alone might make it worth it.

[ism]

Windows Update requires ActiveX, which Firefox doesn't include due to security reasons. You can install ActiveX in Firefox but I highly recommend against it. If you really want to do Windows Update you should be using the "Automatic Updates" functionality post-SP2 as per Microsoft's recommendations. I don't bump into enough sites that require ActiveX that make it too much of a hassle to load up IE, and since IE is embedded in the OS it's not like I can get rid of it anyway.

For me, the main non-developer reason is due to AdBlock. I haven't seen an ad for the past two years. I have banner ads, javascript ads (like Google), flash ads, java applet ads, all blocked. The fact that these ads don't take up system resources make my browsing sessions lightning-fast.

I use RadialContext which gives me a pie menu (ala The Sims) for right-click. Less mouse travel distance = faster browsing. Also, the DownThemAll extension is good for automatically getting images off a site. And for those pesky image hosting sites that check the referrer, it's a nice thing to be able to turn it off. =D

[hooligan]

Windows Update requires ActiveX, which Firefox doesn't include due to security reasons. You can install ActiveX in Firefox but I highly recommend against it. If you really want to do Windows Update you should be using the "Automatic Updates" functionality post-SP2 as per Microsoft's recommendations. I don't bump into enough sites that require ActiveX that make it too much of a hassle to load up IE, and since IE is embedded in the OS it's not like I can get rid of it anyway.

For me, the main non-developer reason is due to AdBlock. I haven't seen an ad for the past two years. I have banner ads, javascript ads (like Google), flash ads, java applet ads, all blocked. The fact that these ads don't take up system resources make my browsing sessions lightning-fast.

I use RadialContext which gives me a pie menu (ala The Sims) for right-click. Less mouse travel distance = faster browsing. Also, the DownThemAll extension is good for automatically getting images off a site. And for those pesky image hosting sites that check the referrer, it's a nice thing to be able to turn it off. =D

Hey Ism, can I get a link to the script you use with adblock? Thanks in advance!

[Chris]

I been very happy with Firefox. I use it mainly for my browsing these days. Still need to get off this AOL browser though. Bad habits are hard to break.

[yoMAMA]

here's an article in businessweek about why firefox is better than IE:

http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_06/b3919140_mz070.htm

[ism]

My Adblock script, collated from various rules found, mostly on the MozillaZine forums:/(hot|spy)log/
/[\W\d](double|fast)click[\W\d]/
/[\W\d](onlineads?|ad(banner|click|-?flow|frame|ima?g(es?)?|_id|js|log|serv(er|e)?|str eam|_string|s|trix|type|vertisements?|v|vert|xchan ge)?)[\W\d]/
/[\W\d]click(stream|thrutraffic|thru|xchange)[\W\d]/
/[\W\d]dime(xchange|click)[\W\d]/
/[\W\d]value(stream|xchange|click)[\W\d]/
/[\W\d_](top|bottom|left|right|)?banner(s|id=|\d|_)[\W\d]/
/[\W_](b(an|nr)s?|jump|redir(ect|s)?|stat)[\W_]/
/\/buy_assets\//
/\D\d{2,3}x\d{2,3}\D/
/\W(cy|r)?c(ou)?nt(er|ed)?\W/
/p(artner|ing\.cgi|romotion)/
/sp(onsor|ymagic)/
/top(100|cto)/
/googlesyndication/Take out the last one if you support Google's text-based ads.