11-14-2004, 03:36 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,056
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Firefox 1.0 - Random Thoughts
Sundays are typically slow news days so I figured I'd share my recent experience and see if I could get some insight from the community.
The problem with being a non-technical member of a technical site is that by the time I try something that I think is new and great, most folks probably yawn and think 'man, that's old news'. After reading about how IE is terribly unsafe and will likely not be secure in my lifetime, and hearing so much about Mozilla's Firefox, I finally decided to take the plunge. This was undoubtably the smoothest transition from one package to another I have ever experienced. The install was flawless as was the process of importing my previous favorites. A quick check of accessing my favorites and visiting some secure sites has revealed no problems....yet. Also, I love the layout. Much simpler and more straightforward than IE. I haven't noticed an increase in performance but I also haven't noticed any degradation.
All in all, I am very impressed so far. Any developer writing new software would be well advised to look at the Firefox model. Installation should be made for the masses, not the technical few. Any installation that involves modifying or reviewing ".sys files" or the PC "registry" has failed. Most folks have no clue about those things.
Oh well, so far so good. I'm sure many of you have abandoned IE long ago. For those who have switched, what are you using and what are your impressions? For those who haven't switched, why not?
As always, thanx in advance for the input.
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Shawn - HP 4150, Sandisk 1G SD Card, Dell Latitude X1
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11-14-2004, 04:20 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 11
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My thoughts
I switched several months ago and have no regrets. I find Firefox faster and more stable. I really enjoy the ability to install seemingly countless extensions that greatly extend the usefulness of it. The ones I use are:
Adblock: Blocks/filters ads- greatly speeds up surfinig. I hate it when a page 'stalls' loading some ad.
FlashGot: allows you to use a 3rd party downloader (I use Reget). Good for bulk downloading.
QuickNote: Used to jot down quick notes while surfing. I use this for studying.
TweakNetwork: Supposedly speeds up surfing by altering network settings. Might be just my perception, but pages seem to load faster.
CopyPlainText: Allows you to copy page content without formatting. Use it a lot.
In general I've found Firefox to be faster at loading and rendering pages. It's more flexible.
The only caveats are sometime certain plugins either don't work or need tweaking to make run.
Reggie
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11-14-2004, 06:12 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 23,595
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Re: My thoughts
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Originally Posted by reggiebryan
Adblock: Blocks/filters ads- greatly speeds up surfinig. I hate it when a page 'stalls' loading some ad.
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You should be aware that by blocking ads you're hurting the site you're visiting by denying them the income earned by those ads. That includes this site.
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11-14-2004, 06:13 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 23,595
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FireFox has a lot going for it, but I actually went from using it for a month or so and switched back to using Maxthon (IE engine in a new tabbed shell). I grew tired of having to fire up IE when FireFox wouldn't render something properly or just wouldn't work the way it was supposed to. Oh, and it locked up 2-3 times a day for me. Some of these problems may be fixed in 1.0 (I was using 0.9), but I've never had a security problem with IE, so I think it was mostly FUD driving me to try FireFox.
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11-14-2004, 06:20 PM
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News Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,553
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
Oh, and it locked up 2-3 times a day for me. Some of these problems may be fixed in 1.0 (I was using 0.9), but I've never had a security problem with IE, so I think it was mostly FUD driving me to try FireFox.
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I've been using Firefox since the early days and I know the lock-ups you've been experiencing; a lot of bugs have been rectified in the new 1.0 release. I think a lot of the past rendering problems have also been fixed - thankfully!  |
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11-14-2004, 06:28 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,183
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How does the upgrade work? Does it import a profile properly?
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11-14-2004, 07:13 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,056
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Well I guess I just noticed my first 'hiccup'. My "I'm a Member" logo doesn't appear. It's requesting that I install Macromedia Flash Player. I'll probably eventually do it but I'm a little hesitant. I don't want to install so many add-ins that I go back to the unsecure environment of IE.
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Shawn - HP 4150, Sandisk 1G SD Card, Dell Latitude X1
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11-14-2004, 08:02 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,215
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Re: My thoughts
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
You should be aware that by blocking ads you're hurting the site you're visiting by denying them the income earned by those ads. That includes this site.
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Sure, but if ads were not so flipping invasive we would not feel inclined to block them. Pop-up ads, for instance, are the spawn of the devil, as are those damned banner ads that Will Not Stop Moving. |
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11-14-2004, 08:24 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,056
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
Some of these problems may be fixed in 1.0 (I was using 0.9), but I've never had a security problem with IE, so I think it was mostly FUD driving me to try FireFox.
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What's 'FUD'? Is this some sort of acronym? Let me use the embarrasement emoticon in advance as I'm sure I'll be feeling silly when told what is likely an obvious answer  ops: .
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Shawn - HP 4150, Sandisk 1G SD Card, Dell Latitude X1
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11-14-2004, 08:40 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 230
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by shawnc
What's 'FUD'?
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Fear Uncertainty and Doubt. In other words, information that is spread in order to make something seem worse than it is.
If you ever see an acronym that you haven't come across before, try www.acronymfinder.com. I've never come across one that I couldn't track down on this site. |
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