# FireFox - Is it good?



## Dylan_

Hi,
All my mates have been telling me to get FireFox as I use IE...
Is it good or not? Is it free?

Thanks,

Dylan_


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## Verve

It is absoulutely free, and one of the best free programs that exists. Go ahead and download it, try it out for at least a few days before you trash it (I almost did). I hated it at first, but now I love it.


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## Motoxrdude

Just about everyone on here uses firefox. It is simply superior to IE. It is a lot safer then IE, and has better features like tabbed browsing.


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## Shane

Yeah its good,

Im using the latest version Beta.

I higly recomend you use it instead of IE.


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## soccerdude

By the way, it also includes a Pop-up blocker.  And many free extensions that are very cool.


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## SirKenin

As long as you have the very latest version of IE (ver 7 beta something or other), there is no advantage to Firefox over IE except for the plugins.  Whoopdidoo.  I surf fine without them.

Firefox isn't a bad program, but it is just as vulnerable as IE is, it doesn't render some websites properly, and you do not have access to any multimedia or interactive content that uses ActiveX.  See, once you have a page coded for IE, it is a total pain in the rear to make it look good in Firefox.  Also, both IE and Opera render pages faster than Firefox does.

If you are looking for an alternative to IE I would recommend Opera over Firefox any day of the week.

However, barring those problems with it it does have a plus side as well.  You might as well try it for yourself and see what you think.


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## Arm_Pit

I liike firefox for the tabbed browsing and the style.


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## Motoxrdude

SirKenin said:


> Firefox isn't a bad program, but it is just as vulnerable as IE is, it doesn't render some websites properly, and you do not have access to any multimedia or interactive content that uses ActiveX.
> 
> Well, its true about vulnerability, but as of now there aren't as many viruses writen for it. And actually, firefox renders it perfectly, where as IE just kinda makes "assumptions" on what the page should look like.


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## rayZa

Many ppl said Firefox is far better than IE. That's not true. I've both IE and Firefox installed in my pc and still can't see the good side of Firefox.

Perhaps they compared Firefox with oldskool IE.


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## tlarkin

firefox has extensions that can stop and edit java scripts running on web pages, I am pretty sure IE 7 release canidate 1 does not have this ability.  Further more the extensions for firefox go even further than that.  If you are a web developer and want to see how certain coding is done on a website there is an extension called, web developer for fire fox.  It will cut out code by category, css, html, java, images, forms, cookies, and even disable things from running as well.  Faster fox tweaks firefox settings and render engine to make online browsing faster.  The extensions are free, and even updated by developers.

Overall, the ability firefox gives you over IE is just enough to use it alone, in my opinion.  As far as peformance goes, I would say IE 7 RC1 is probably just as fast as firefox and don't get me wrong, IE 7 is a damn sight better than IE 6.

The only down side is, if you have to browse the web in a heavy active x enviroment, IE is still the best solution out there.


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## weemanpow3

the only problems with firefox is when you hit a website (myspace/others) it would shut it down. maby they will fix it. But the browsing is fast.


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## Bobo

weemanpow3 said:


> the only problems with firefox is when you hit a website (myspace/others) it would shut it down. maby they will fix it. But the browsing is fast.


I never had that problem

@Dylan
Why do you have the avatar that you do if you don't even know what firefox is, let alone use it?


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## gamerman4

Firefox is a great program. It is easily tweaked so you can make it look and work however you want it. The plug-ins are great (Adblock Plus has got to be one of the greatest things ever made for it).
You can tweak it for faster speed if you have high-speed internet.
It is easily skinnable. I've had so many problems with IE in the past (I haven't tried IE7 but why would I need to have software that just adds features that older browsers already have).
Also, Firefox 2.0 has a really nice feature for major forum posters...integrated spell checker. It works like Microsoft Word and underlines misspelled words in red and you can right click on it and it will give you choices on what to change it to. Hmmm....this gave me an idea, i'll try IE7 out but I seriously doubt it will be any better. I've tried Opera and installed it and uninstalled it within an hour...


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## maroon1

AMD said:


> Yeah its good,
> 
> Im using the latest version Beta.



Tha latest version is Firefox 2.0 RC1 (release candidate 1)
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica] u can get it from here http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bonecho/all-rc.html

[/FONT]





SirKenin said:


> As long as you have the very latest version of IE (ver 7 beta something or other), there is no advantage to Firefox over IE except for the plugins. Whoopdidoo. I surf fine without them.



Still firefox is better because it has extentions and u can customize firefox the way u want. Also the new version firefox 2.0 has integrated spell-cheker. Look here if u want to see the new features in firefox2.0 here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Firefox#Version_2.0



SirKenin said:


> Firefox isn't a bad program, but it is just as vulnerable as IE is, it doesn't render some websites properly, and you do not have access to any multimedia or interactive content that uses ActiveX. See, once you have a page coded for IE, it is a total pain in the rear to make it look good in Firefox. Also, both IE and Opera render pages faster than Firefox does.



Firefox is an excellent and it is the best browser ever made. Firefox has less vulnerable than IE. Firefox render  99% of websites in the internet without problems. IE7 doesn't render pages faster than firefox. Opera is faster than firefox, but u will not any difference if u have fast internet connection.



SirKenin said:


> you do not have access to any multimedia or interactive content that uses ActiveX


can u give me any site that firefox can't access ?  
I can access any multimedia and interactive content that use  Active X woth my firefox.



SirKenin said:


> If you are looking for an alternative to IE I would recommend Opera over Firefox any day of the week.



The only thing that opera is better than firefox is security. Opera has less   vulnerable because it is not used as much as firefox.  Other than that i don't see any thing in opera that is better than firefox. Also opera doesn't render a lot of websites, and it also renders some web pages incorrectly.


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## maroon1

weemanpow3 said:


> the only problems with firefox is when you hit a website (myspace/others) it would shut it down. maby they will fix it. But the browsing is fast.



how firefox will shut it down?

Firefox never shuted down any website for me.


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## Dylan_

Bobo said:
			
		

> @Dylan
> Why do you have the avatar that you do if you don't even know what firefox is, let alone use it?


I do use FireFox.......


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## Dropkickmurphys

Dylan_ said:


> I do use FireFox.......



at the start of the thread you said you didnt and you had the pic of the firefox fox eating the IE logo.....


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## _simon_

maroon1 said:


> Other than that i don't see any thing in opera that is better than firefox. Also opera doesn't render a lot of websites, and it also renders some web pages incorrectly.



What I like about opera is that if you type an address or use the search box or use a bookmark that it opens the result in a new tab, it never uses an existing tab. The magic wand that stores usernames and passwords is also very useful.


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## Dylan_

Dropkickmurphys said:


> at the start of the thread you said you didnt and you had the pic of the firefox fox eating the IE logo.....


Because when you change your avatar it changes on all your posts...


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## Bobo

Dylan_ said:


> Hi,
> All my mates have been telling me to get FireFox as I use IE...
> Is it good or not? Is it free?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Dylan_





Dylan_ said:


> I do use FireFox.......


You contradict yourself.


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## Hanamichi

yeah it much much better and faster than IE.Iam using it and loved more than opera.


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## shenry

yeah you should really get it Dylan


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## dwill030

firefox is much better than IE.......i would recommend opera, however, firefox is also good


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## Dylan_

I've got it now!


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## chrisalviola

Dylan_ said:


> Hi,
> All my mates have been telling me to get FireFox as I use IE...
> Is it good or not? Is it free?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Dylan_



yes in firefox you dont get windows pop-ups


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## SirKenin

I am going to post this in the browser thread, but I did a test of the three browsers on a website that I test security on.  I can't post the link because it is not a legal site, but that's not the point.  Every single page and download on the site are chock full of self-installing spyware, virii and trojans.  Tons of them.

So, I first tested antivirus programs on it.  The only one that actually did anything was Avast!  In fact it was so bad that Avast! shut the website down so the server connection was dropped and you couldn't view the page.

Then I tested all three browsers on it.  ALL OF THEM let the malware through.  Every single one.  None of them stopped it.  Which proved conclusively that ActiveX is not the threat anymore, Opera and Firefox are every bit as vulnerable to infection as IE7 is, and it is completely pointless to cripple the web by viewing it with Opera or Firefox.  You won't be doing yourself any favors.

If you want the fastest browsing, both IE7 and Opera smoke Firefox for rendering.  Firefox screws up on the rendering of some pages because they are coded for IE.  There really is no sense in getting it from my testing.


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## tlarkin

can you PM me this link?  I am curious


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## SirKenin

tlarkin said:


> can you PM me this link?  I am curious



No.  I already had one request for that in the last couple of minutes.  I refuse to do any advertising for them.  One reason is that they pose themselves as a legitimate website.  Their intentions are to infect as many people as possible.  I will not support their endeavours in any fashion.  I strictly use them as a test bed for various applications, mostly testing out out my own security.  The other reason is that if my computer screws up as a result, that's my problem.  I won't take responsibility for screwing up someone else's computer..  It is pretty bad, I kid you not.


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## Verve

if not for anything else, I like the layout of FF and I'm going to stick with it until at least I get Vista. I've never had any major problems so there's no real reason for me to switch back to IE.


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## loque

SirKenin said:


> ALL OF THEM let the malware through.


If, by letting malware through, you mean they install just by visiting a web page and not by downloading anything, then in Opera at least they're using an unknown exploit since there aren't any known unpatched vulnerabilities in Opera.  You should consider passing the URL to a security group so they can check it out.


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## tlarkin

Also, the extensions I run in firefox don't let a lot of things to run with out my permission.  I can even stop java scripts on websites, which is why I am hard pressed to believe that it always gets through.

I guess I will have to remain skeptic or just find the site on my own


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## SirKenin

loque said:


> If, by letting malware through, you mean they install just by visiting a web page and not by downloading anything, then in Opera at least they're using an unknown exploit since there aren't any known unpatched vulnerabilities in Opera.  You should consider passing the URL to a security group so they can check it out.



They do it in Firefox too, as well as IE.  It might be better to report them to their host.


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## pokemon87654

i have been using firefox for a long time and i love it. I pretty much delated IE get FIREFOX


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## jp198780

i liked it, but then changed back 2 IE...


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## maroon1

jp198780 said:


> i liked it, but then changed back 2 IE...



why??


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## SirKenin

Uhh, because maybe Firefox offers absolutely no advantage to the user apart from plugins, and I live just fine without them.


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## gamerman4

I think it would be the Firewalls problem and not the browsers to protect against intruding software. I can get malware on my comp when my firewall is off even when there aren't ANY browsers open. A high-security browser like Opera is no match for what a good firewall can do.

Anyways, last time I used Opera it wasnt ad free like it is now. So I'm dling it to see if there are any reasons why I should switch. I will post anything I see as worthy of a switch once it is done.


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## gamerman4

Okay after playign with Opera I saw some features that looked okay but I still think Firefox is best for my preferences.

The installation was painless and it booted up faster than firefox (big woop...firefox takes forever anyways).
Being the obsessive PC tweak freak that I am I decided to see all the nice customization options available for me....
Was pretty disappointed...I can't create my own toolbars like I can in Firefox...I cant even put the toolbars in the order I want them in. I like the tabs to be the bottom most thing on the top toolbars like in firefox....
oh well lets try some other stuff....
I cant even put the toolbars in the order I want them in. I like the tabs to be the bottom most thing on the top toolbars like in firefox.
The way they put all the buttons in categories was not as well thought out as it could have and it got confusing...
I like how you can either show images or only used ones that have been cached.
I noticed that it displayed pages slightly faster than FF on my 26k connection but only slightly since I've tuned firefox's internal settings so it is pretty quick.
Anyways, I won't be switching to Opera anytime soon.


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## loque

SirKenin said:


> They do it in Firefox too, as well as IE.  It might be better to report them to their host.


I know that, but that's not what I meant.  I said if just by visiting a website, you can get malware installed on your machine using Opera, the site that's distributing the malware must be taking advantage of a currently unreported exploit in Opera, since there are no unpatched flaws at present according to Secunia.

Either that or there are other factors involved which you haven't stated.


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## Jet

Hmm. I wonder if SirKenin voted for Firefox or not 

Firefox is a great program, and with the extentions you can make it look very nice as well as being functional. The All-in-Gestures extension is very handy as you can use the right mouse button/drag to do many things faster than you could otherwise.


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## SirKenin

It's using Javascript.  Opera, Mozilla and IE are all vulnerable.


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## tlarkin

another reason firefox is the best browser out there

http://www.spreadfirefox.com/node/25317

Its heavy user and open source developer community will make it update faster than any other browser.  Plus how firefox implements and downloads security updates in the background also makes it get updates out to its users faster.


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## aad_lfcfn

I think firefox rendering engine is still the best. it loads the page quickly (what I mean is launching speed, not connection speed), while IE is slow a little bit. Firefox is got some good theme and uses extension which is really easy to install.


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## Burgerbob

I only use it because IE7 does not seem to want to work properly on my system, and i have all my bookmarks and whatnot.


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## palidon112

i use opera, i like the tabbing system more than on firefox. i used IE for the longest time, switched to firefox, then like a week later i downloaded opera and i havnt gone back. the only issue i have with it is in one of the forums im a regular at, the advanced reply page is basic with none of the buttons to automatically bold or italicise, so i have to type the bbcode in. also, for some odd reason on that site i have to put <br> in instead of entering, i have no clue why, it works in firefox. but its still not that big of an issue for me.


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## Malin

Love it!!!!


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## SirKenin

aad_lfcfn said:


> I think firefox rendering engine is still the best. it loads the page quickly (what I mean is launching speed, not connection speed), while IE is slow a little bit. Firefox is got some good theme and uses extension which is really easy to install.



Actually in benchmarks Firefox is the slowest of the bunch.


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## dark_legacy2006

i use interent 6, and i had tried switching to firefowx but i found it annyoning to download files, did i just miss something, cause i tried just clicking the link and it wouldnt do anything


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## hells3000

Firefox displays pages in hours 
sarcasm ^^
but it does take longer than IE


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## toddl1

Firefox is really good much better than IE


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## chrisalviola

well firefox is better for now anyway in the next year maybe somethng else


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## tlarkin

did they bench it with the network tweaks you can get for fire fox?


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## palidon112

well, to those who say IE is faster than firefox, have you done this yet? type about:config in the address bar, hit enter. search for "network.http.pipelining" toggle that to "true"  then search for "network.http.proxy.pipelining" and toggle that to "true". now search for "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" nd set that number to something 50 or above, it doesnt matter, just set it above 50. Lastly, right click anywhere and select "new" then "interger" and name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and then set the value to "0". you will notice a great increase in speed.


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## Bobo

Or you can just use fasterfox, which makes it even faster than those tweaks.  And also tells you exactly how long it takes to display a page.  (this page took 1.483 seconds)


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## tlarkin

Bobo said:


> Or you can just use fasterfox, which makes it even faster than those tweaks.  And also tells you exactly how long it takes to display a page.  (this page took 1.483 seconds)



Fasterfox is the tweak I was referring to, it is the most common of the extensions that tweak your network/browser settings for faster rendering, it took me 1.41 seconds to bring up the reply page on this forum.


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## aad_lfcfn

SirKenin said:


> Actually in benchmarks Firefox is the slowest of the bunch.



forget to include "website" word in the "launching speed" (how quick a website's visual is displayed)   for me, firefox seems quicker to scroll. sorry for misleading post.


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## DacyJ

I made so much fun of a friend of mine for using Firefox untill I messed up my laptop and had to have a buddy fix it, he put IE7 and firefox on here and I absolutely hate IE7 so I started using firefox and I love it, nothing better


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## PHATSPEED7x

Just started using it today. Much faster, and easy to use I think.


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## Irishwhistle

It's good and it's free! 

EDIT: Woah PATSPEED7x! You dug up an OOOOOOOLD post!  lol


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## PHATSPEED7x

It happens. LOL


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## hermeslyre

tlarkin said:


> Fasterfox is the tweak I was referring to, it is the most common of the extensions that tweak your network/browser settings for faster rendering, it took me 1.41 seconds to bring up the reply page on this forum.



I know this is a damn old post, but I'll say anyways that I've tried it and not noticed a difference at all. I think it does is enable pipelines and a quiet prefetch caching of all available URL's on a given page. Pipelining somehow broke my flash, and I took issue with the prefetch for some reason.


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## randawg1

jw wat is IE


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## GSAV55

Internet Explorer.  Welcome to the forum!


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## pokethesmot

you can get programs on Firefox that make it virtually impossible to get a virus and its for free i use to use windows explorer and now i would rather shoot myself then go back to it


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## TFT

pokethesmot said:


> you can get programs on Firefox that make it virtually impossible to get a virus and its for free *i use to use windows explorer* and now i would rather shoot myself then go back to it



I think you'd better get your gun ready, so what do you use in place of windows explorer?


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## Punk

pokethesmot said:


> you can get programs on Firefox that make it virtually impossible to get a virus and its for free i use to use windows explorer and now i would rather shoot myself then go back to it



I wouldn't say so... If that was true, we'd have no more logs to analyze in the security section . Every time you close a gap, those stupid hackers find another way...


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## cohen

i love firefox! It is awesome..... i love how you can have the add ons and customize it.


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## Intel_man

TFT said:


> I think you'd better get your gun ready, so what do you use in place of windows explorer?



Hehe... i think he ment Internet Explorer, but I get what you mean by windows explorer.. LOL


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## M0LD0V4N

Dylan_ said:


> Hi,
> All my mates have been telling me to get FireFox as I use IE...
> Is it good or not? Is it free?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Dylan_



Is this a Serious Question?

Of course it's good, Internet Explorer is a Bit slow, Freezes alot for me, and can't be customized like FireFox. Well Those are my Reasons why I use FireFox.


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## Tuffie

It wouldn't have the user base it has if it wasn't awesome.


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## fixit

yup, i used to love IE, tried firefox, took me a while to get used to it, now i love firefox, hate IE.


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