February 25, 2009

That Firefox Goodness

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

Why are you still using Internet Explorer as your web browser?

Okay, I confess: I use Internet Explorer (IE) because I have to write about it. As the default web browser for Windows, I use IE because I assume most beginners do as well. That philosophy works because IE offers basic features found on any browser. Folks can learn how to browse the web using IE and I can write about it without making them go through any extra effort.

After you learn how to browse the web, however, you’ll probably want to use a web browser that works better, faster, and is more powerful than the tepid Internet Explorer. Might I recommend Firefox. Here’s why:

Spell check. My first foray into on-line communications (back in 1982) cemented the fact that I cannot spell worth a darn. My posts were littered with awful, awkward misspellings. Internet Explorer lacks an on-line spell checker, Firefox comes with one. It’s beautiful. You can type online and get your text corrected (red underlined) instantly. It’s an amazing and welcome feature.

Stored Passwords. Many web browsers offer the ability to store passwords to your favorite secure web sites. For some reason, Firefox does the best job of managing those passwords. IE’s password management is inconsistent and unreliable. Apple’s Safari browser often gets confused when multiple passwords are used on the same web site. Firefox seems to have no problem.

Identity Info. One nerdy feature I like in Firefox is the ability for it to call up site specific information — technical stuff. You do that by clicking on the site icon in the address bar. While a beginner may not use that information, I find myself perusing it often. For example, I use the feature to check to see whether a web page is old and hasn’t been updated in a long time.

Extensions. Firefox features a plethora of extensions, tiny programs that augment how the browser works and allows you to conveniently hone your browsing skills. Notorious are the porn extensions, but there are also extensions that help suppress obnoxious advertising or certain media files. It’s also easier to browse stealthily with Firefox, helping keep your identity anonymous on the Internet.

You can download Firefox at http://www.mozilla.com. I urge you to give it a try, or if you’ve used it already, feel free to share your favorite Firefox features or tricks.

11 Comments

  1. I have been using IE for ever just because I’m use to it but after reading this I realized the flaws of it. I think I will go download firefox now…

    Comment by matthewdk — February 25, 2009 @ 1:57 pm

  2. Please let me know what you think. I believe you’ll find it refreshing!

    Comment by admin — February 25, 2009 @ 1:59 pm

  3. I’ve been using it for a day and so far I love it way more than IE. The taps open and switch faster than the taps in IE. The stored password feature is great and I never realized how many typos I make!

    Comment by matthewdk — February 26, 2009 @ 12:22 pm

  4. I’ve not been such a big fan of Firefox… I’m more of an Opera fan. I think it’s a more polished, more slick, and slightly more efficient browser. I mean, Firefox is good, I just think Opera is better (although no intergrated spellchecker, but I’ll cope).

    Comment by Douglas — February 27, 2009 @ 12:28 am

  5. The one thing I dislike about Firefox is that each tab is not a separate process. For example, when I mistakenly click a pdf link or a script intensive page, Firefox freezes while one tab finishes doing whatever it needs to do. And I cannot kill a single tab without taking the whole browser down (via Task Manager, I mean). Chrome is supposed to be very good in that respect (as well as IE-8). I haven’t yet installed Chrome, since the only reason to use it would be for the separate tab-processes, and I’d rather just have IE-8 (which I’ve heard/read lots of good reviews about) – three browsers seems to be an overkill for me, especially since between them, two can do everything the third can.
    Other than that, I love Firefox – and Firefox 3 is worlds better than 2. Three just blew me away when I first installed it.

    Comment by sriksrid — February 28, 2009 @ 3:53 pm

  6. Yeah, it’s the spell checker that makes me recommend Firefox over Opera.

    I don’t use the tabs that much. Sometimes I do, but I’m more of a “new window” type of guy.

    Comment by admin — February 28, 2009 @ 5:34 pm

  7. Just got IE8, and I must say, I find it great – better than Firefox 3 in some respects. There is an add on for spell check and ad block. The address bar and privacy feature are great – I can go into private mode with just a keystroke (I’m sure FF has an add-on to do it). I find accelerators amazing, especially when looking up technical information on the net. And the tab-process isolation already helped me half a dozen times today (esp. when opening pdf files). Deleting single websites from my the address bar pop up is something I wish FF had.

    However, one big drawback is that tabs seem to be slow on my machine. This is contrary to what some people find, so I guess it must be with some random add on carried over from IE7.

    Comment by sriksrid — March 20, 2009 @ 10:24 am

  8. Is IE 8 out of beta now?

    Comment by admin — March 20, 2009 @ 10:27 am

  9. Yes, but it came out just a few days ago. Slashdot had a front page article on it, which is how I found out.

    Comment by sriksrid — March 20, 2009 @ 10:44 am

  10. Cool. Here is the link for those who are interested.

    Comment by admin — March 20, 2009 @ 11:03 am

  11. I’ve got IE8 on Mr. Vista. It’s okay, I do like the coloured tabs (open a link in a new tab, and they get colour coded): they look purtyful and they are quite useful. I’ve not really had a chance to play with accelerators yet, but they seem useful (I added the StaticIce (www.staticice.com) one, which will no doubt prove useful). And, like sriksrid, I’ve noticed it’s slowness with multiple tabs. I didn’t like how it decided it would be fun to change my toolbar to the IE8 default, with fifty trillion icons, up from my four (home, page, tools and print).

    I’m quite happy with it. Microsoft know what they’re doing now, let’s hope they can build on it.

    Comment by Douglas — March 25, 2009 @ 1:40 am

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