Is Firefox really that much better of an internet browser then Internet Explorer? I hear alot of people talk about it on other boards, ecpisially gaming boards. So should I download it?

Thanks!





***Mod Edit... Post moved to a more appropriate forum*** rigel

Hello,

The short answer is "It's all about personal preference". I personally use it until I am forced to use another, which these days is a rarity given one has the right extensions added. Some may argue that it is a pain to install extensions and fight through the newer versions of Firefox being incompatible with the extensions that are already installed.

I however find searching for and maintaining components to be part of the experience because I feel like I have control over the whole scope of browsing the web. Similarly, other browsers use tabbed browsing, integrated search, live RSS feeds and so on, but none of which I have found so far to be so heavily supported by peers.

Then there is the whole debate about security. All I have to say is that since switching to the fox, my browser hasn't been hijacked once, but not everyone will see these results. IE is made to run pretty much out of the box, besides the installation of some Media Helpers, and the occasional blunderous Active-X. One could ramble for hours, but I will just leave it at that.

As far as the Web Developer is concerned, Firefox is a must have as far as I am concerned. There are so many different toys that I sometimes forget that I even have them, although this is a rarity, because when a certain feature is missing, I notice. The search capabilities alone for me make it tops, they are second to none in my humble opinion.

I would keep going, but I could definately see where this would start looking as a bias post, so if there is anything specific you were wondering about, feel free to ask away.

Hope this helps,

nos

Performing a search on this forum for "Firefox" will bring you to several threads discussing the merits of using this open source browser. You can try it, and will probably find it faster than IE, and with no pop-ups; because it is not a part of your computer's operating system and does not use ActiveX controls, it is definitely more secure than IE.
Since it is by designed a light browser, you can expand its functionality very easily by adding extensions (plugins) to tailor it to your specific needs. Again, the Mozilla folks seem much faster in patching major security vulnerabilites than IE ever is.
Regards,
John

Hi Caspian

The short answer is YES. Even though my preferred browser is OPERA, since I tried FF and heaps of its addons, I am using it more and more. It is astronomically faster than IE and tabs make all the difference. although I have added FOXie to IE which does make quite a difference.

The best thing is to try different browsers and decide for yourself.