# Favorite Web Browser



## kb1ghc

It's not what IS in firefox, it is what ISN'T in firefox. 

Internet Explorer has alot of features, features that are taken advantage of, like instant installation of plugins and searchbars and stuff. plus there isn't ActiveX in firefox. but in firefox, you need to WANT it to install it.

and yes Firefox has an extreamly effective pop-up blocker. i NEVER get pop-ups, and yet, i never have a problem with opening new windows and stuff. Firefox is pretty smart. 

The only 2 websites I have a problem with firefox on are Windows Update, and LAUNCH

Believe me Firefox is THE BEST BROWSER ON EARTH!
1. Secure, No exploits.
2. Best pop-up blocker, doesn't block stuff you want, blocks stuff you don't want.
3. Sites LOOK better
4. More Features
5. Open-source
6. lots of great support, and developers that love to hear your ideas.
7. RSS feed reader build in (on newer nightly builds)
8. Customizable themes.
9. FREE (Really free, unlike exploder)
10.  Runs on almost any OS: Win, Mac, Unix.
11. Thunderbird keeps your mailbox 99.99999999% SPAM free
12. Better text copying - keeps formatting, even if pasted into a plain text box. (like notepad)
13. Tabbed browsing - more than one page in 1 window, really useful for comparison shopping
14. copy image locations (great for forums)
15. secure password storage (encrypted and stuff, unlike IE)
Great "extentions":
Adblock - Blocks banner ads, based on URL and wildcards are allowed (so you can block "http://ads. (anything)" (makes loading sites faster)
Autofill - Autofill forms, and have multiple identitiys like "FAKE" and "REAL"
BugMeNot - a database of usernames and passwords for many sites, check out bugmenot.com
Download with - use download accelerator of your choice for downloads
Downthemall! - makes a complete copy of a website, includeing all the hyperlinks
GoggleBar - Searchbar for google
Linkification - Turns text urls, into clickable hyperlinks


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## Lorand

WOW, that was an awesome presentation...
If Firefox wasn't free, you could be a hell of a salesman for them.


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## Praetor

TechNews said:
			
		

> Still, Internet security firms say that switching browsers is little more than a knee-jerk reaction to a problem that will remain regardless of which browser is used. They urge computer users, instead, to take proactive approaches to prevent and guard against intrusions before they strike.
> Switching browsers can cause two problems. One, users have to deal with incompatibility issues. Two, users trade off one set of known vulnerabilities for another set of potential problems.



Nice features, the only one id have a use for is the tabbed thingy but it didnt work out the way I wanted it so I gave up. Some minor technicalities though:

1. Far too broad -- no exploit *yet*
3. Subjective
11. Your browser does nothing to impact spam (unless thunderbird is something totally different) .... then again with 400emails/hour ... an extra click here and there doesnt make much of a difference to me
12. Is there a way to turn that off? (seriously, I actually want it to be raw copied.... when I copy with IE it preserves the formatting and fonts and crap and all I want is the damn raw text)
13. Is there a way to auto-toggle with the tabs (i.e., same root doman = new tab, new root domain = new window and to make specific configurations for specific sites?)

If you can match 12 and 13 there I'll switch

*LETS NOT TURN THIS INTO A FIREFOX/IE THREAD. MAKE A NEW THREAD IF YOU INTEND TO DO SO*


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## kb1ghc

1. There have actually been a total of 3 holes found in firefox, patched before anything happened.

3. is just my opinion, but take a look for yourself if you want.

11. Thunderbird is the "next generation" mail client, that is Firefox's "sister" program if you want to call it that.

12. I use an "extention" called copy plain text that works great

13. Again, there are some great "extentions" for tabbed browsing that will prolly let you do what you want. You can set any "open in new window" to actualyl just create a new tab. But tabbed browsing isn't a feature that is forced apon you, if you like 99 windows, you can do that too. if you like 1 window, you can do that. But usually you just need to right click "open in new tab" if your comparison shopping or something.

and for those 3 websites on the internet that don't work right in firefox, there is an extention called "IE view" just right click a link (or background) and click "view in IE"


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## [tab]

You forgot my favourite extension (the one that finally got me to move from Opera)... mouse gestures


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## Christopher

Just an anti-virus here.

As for #3. I have to agree. IE messes everything up, it's a pain in the ass to have to design pages that work with IE. Get's me very very angry!

But you can't forget the great themes for FF. You may say "My Windows style is nice", but once you start using some of the sexy themes for FF you'll never go back. IE just isn't skinnable the way FF is, even if you have a nice Windows visual style, the style isn't made specifically for IE like the themes for FF are made specifically for FF. What I mean is, the themes are closely intertwined with the program, every aspect is tweaked just perfectly.


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## Lorand

Which browser messes up the Computer Forum?






I think the table looks better in IE (left) than in Firefox (right)...

But as Praetor said, 





> *LETS NOT TURN THIS INTO A FIREFOX/IE THREAD*


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## kb1ghc

OK, the "Internet Paranoia" thread was becoming a browser war. 






This is why I like FireFox

so, let's move the debate to this thread.
Firefox has an extreamly effective pop-up blocker. i NEVER get pop-ups, and yet, i never have a problem with opening new windows and stuff. Firefox is pretty smart.

The only 2 websites I have a problem with firefox on are Windows Update, and LAUNCH

Believe me Firefox is THE BEST BROWSER ON EARTH!
1. Secure, No exploits.
2. Best pop-up blocker, doesn't block stuff you want, blocks stuff you don't want.
3. Sites LOOK better
4. More Features
5. Open-source
6. lots of great support, and developers that love to hear your ideas.
7. RSS feed reader build in (on newer nightly builds)
8. Customizable themes.
9. FREE (Really free, unlike exploder)
10. Runs on almost any OS: Win, Mac, Unix.
11. Thunderbird keeps your mailbox 99.99999999% SPAM free
12. Better text copying - keeps formatting, even if pasted into a plain text box. (like notepad)
13. Tabbed browsing - more than one page in 1 window, really useful for comparison shopping
14. copy image locations (great for forums)
15. secure password storage (encrypted and stuff, unlike IE)
Great "extentions":
Adblock - Blocks banner ads, based on URL and wildcards are allowed (so you can block "http://ads. (anything)" (makes loading sites faster)
Autofill - Autofill forms, and have multiple identitiys like "FAKE" and "REAL"
BugMeNot - a database of usernames and passwords for many sites, check out bugmenot.com
Download with - use download accelerator of your choice for downloads
Downthemall! - makes a complete copy of a website, includeing all the hyperlinks
GoggleBar - Searchbar for google
Linkification - Turns text urls, into clickable hyperlinks


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## Lorand

I use a browser for browsing, not for worshiping it...


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## Lorand

BTW, there was already a poll (http://www.computerforum.com/showthread.php?t=1389) where the FireFox fanatics losed big time...


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## Christopher

Most table-based designs are fine, because they've been part of web layouts for an eternity. But with CSS designs (and some more basic things I can't recall at the moment) IE has some trouble on. It takes a lot longer to tweak designs to work in IE then it does to actually design them. Those who abide by the standards usually have sites that work on most modern browsers (because if they took the time to validate their (X)HTML, then they usually go the extra mile to make it work in the most used browser) and sites that are IE only generally don't follow standards.

You shouldn't expect to see much difference between any browsers with vBulletin forums. They are a commercial company and have to ensure that the forum works for all users.



> LETS NOT TURN THIS INTO A FIREFOX/IE THREAD


Too late, you should merge these posts with the other thread.


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## Christopher

Firefox here.

Last time I checked the stats, 75% of users use IE. Wonder why, it's just built into the most popular OS ever and is heavily relied upon within the OS (from help files to the internet control in programs). Out of the 75% I'd say at least 50% of people don't even know other browsers exist, or they don't realize the benefits of switching.

If you use IE and it works for you, then good for you. If you don't mind the poor standard support and exploits and don't need the extra features other browsers give you -- then you needn't switch. All I know is Firefox has more of what I need, and I don't miss one single little tiny thing that I had in IE. By switching from IE, I loose the things I hate and gain things I like -- no losses, just gains. Enough to make me switch 

I think the better discussion would be "*Why* do you use the browser you use?". We can figure out the things people like and hate instead of discussing why we like one browser over another.


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## [tab]

I use Firefox and Opera...

BTW, KDE's browser is called Konqueror.


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## kb1ghc

ya i know, i couldn't spell Konqueror off the top of my head....


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## RewtKidd

Links2, text base browser... simple, effective, fast... A gift from god for 56k users...


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## kb1ghc

Do you really use a text based browser????


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## Lorand

If Firefox is such a good browser then why is that the <div style="float:left"> doesn't work in FF?


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## kb1ghc

never had a problem with that. thats "<MS>HTML</MS>"

i usually download the latest nightly build, almost every day: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/
 so maybe they fixed that


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## Lorand

Ok, so how much time do you spend each day for your "super-browser" maintanance?


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## nomav6

I've never had to do any maintenance for firefox, but I don’t download the new updates, haven’t really needed to, everything’s always worked perfect for me.


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## kb1ghc

Installing the nightly build takes less than a minute, and it doesn't mess up any of your settings. and the nightly builds often have some great new features.


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## Christopher

Lorand said:
			
		

> If Firefox is such a good browser then why is that the <div style="float:left"> doesn't work in FF?


Works for me  My new DevBox3 design would seriously mess up if it didn't work, but I assure you -- it does. Are you searching for "doesn't work in firefox" on Google or something? Where did you ever get the idea that float doesn't work?? (Ironically, that search brings up some people complaining that things don't work in FF, but if you read into them a lot of them are more like "IE accepts bad design, FF doesnt")



> Ok, so how much time do you spend each day for your "super-browser" maintanance?


None. Nightly builds are like any other nightly build, they're usually a bit buggy but you get some nifty new features before a real release. I don't download nightly builds, my "maintanance" time isn't affected. And all the extensions are "auto-update" if you choose, so even that doesn't time time.


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## Praetor

> 13. Again, there are some great "extentions" for tabbed browsing that will prolly let you do what you want. You can set any "open in new window" to actualyl just create a new tab. But tabbed browsing isn't a feature that is forced apon you, if you like 99 windows, you can do that too. if you like 1 window, you can do that. But usually you just need to right click "open in new tab" if your comparison shopping or something.


Kewl I know about that but can you actually make rules where it says something like "while within computerforum.com, any link clicked leading to within computerforum.com will make a new tab" (and so for other sites) and then have an exclusion policy "any other link clicked ever will make a new window and links from within there, unless excluded previously, will make new tabs" or something crazy like that?



> But you can't forget the great themes for FF. You may say "My Windows style is nice", but once you start using some of the sexy themes for FF you'll never go back. IE just isn't skinnable the way FF is


Perhaps but (a) ill never find out until those two "issues" I have are resolved and (b) my skin is at the OS level so it affects every app, including IE (and FF) so they'd all be skinned the same way (i.e. any MFC type of deal)



> Too late, you should merge these posts with the other thread.


Merged


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## Praetor

> I think the better discussion would be "Why do you use the browser you use?". We can figure out the things people like and hate instead of discussing why we like one browser over another.


Good point ...  I'm an IEer for three reasons
1. I hate tabs in general and i'll only tolerate them if I can make rulesets for specific sites and have additional rules for child sites

2. all my online activity is whitelisted so I have no need for antipopups or anything. I cant goto a website without preauthorizing it regardless of what browser I have (and switching would be more work)

3. lack of "alt+d" shortcut which ive come to love from IE



> Do you really use a text based browser????


Yeah... hell I used Acrobat as a browser at one point 



> "IE accepts bad design, FF doesnt"


LOL perhaps but then again there's the age old "Cannot copy file. CRC32 failure" error which ive come to hate ... "just copy the damn thing CRC32 or not dammit!"


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## Christopher

> I hate tabs in general and i'll only tolerate them if I can make rulesets for specific sites and have additional rules for child sites


By default, new windows open in new windows. If you want tabs, then you have to shift-click or middle-click. And if you want to disable tabs altogether, then you can do that too.


> lack of "alt+d" shortcut which ive come to love from IE


As you can see here, Alt+D does work. Along with F6 and CTRL+L.

If you don't need any of the nifty features then I guess you're A-OK with IE. But even if I didn't need any of the features, I'd at least switch for the rendering and web standards support.


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## Praetor

> By default, new windows open in new windows. If you want tabs, then you have to shift-click or middle-click. And if you want to disable tabs altogether, then you can do that too.


Yeah but is there a way to have it automatic (i.e., rules) ... cuz if it was possible id switch in a heartbeat (and provided that I can get rid of the cute-buttons and use an IE theme )



> As you can see here Alt+D does work. Along with F6 and CTRL+L.


*YAY*! I must have had a version that didnt have that shortcut ... strange cuz I tried FF only a few months back.


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## Christopher

> Yeah but is there a way to have it automatic (i.e., rules) ... cuz if it was possible id switch in a heartbeat (and provided that I can get rid of the cute-buttons and use an IE theme )


Not that I know of, why don't you make an extension


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## Praetor

> Not that I know of


Let me know if it ever happens cuz I would definitely like to take another test drive of FF



> why don't you make an extension


2 part time jobs + 1 internet addiction + 2 full time programs at different universities = almost no time left
almost no time left + girl = time deficiet 

Im curious though, whats the difference between Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox?


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## Christopher

Firefox is the "new browser" (hence the "The browser, reloaded" images you see some places). Once FF climbs out of beta with Thunderbird, they will become the default browsers from the Mozila project.

Firefox just has different features then Mozilla, AFAIK they both use the same Gecko rendering engine. I find FF faster loading and less "clunky" the Mozilla that has it's own mail client and IRC chat client built in.


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## Praetor

More naivite: isnt Thunderbird the email client or am i getting names messed up?


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## Lorand

I don't get it. What's the big deal? If you're looking out of a window, what difference the window frame makes?


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## Praetor

LOL good point


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## nomav6

some windows frames take up to much of the window and you cant see as much of the outside


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## Lorand

Look at the screenshot I posted earlier in this thread and tell me in which browser is more information displayed.


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## kb1ghc

Firefox is very dynamic with their updates, Version 1.0 isn't even out yet, it's gonna be quite the browser when it's ready. So if you didn't like FireFox a few months ago, give it another shot.

AND bare firefox is kinda booring. so make sure to download extentions to really maximize it's capibility. 

However, i might be a little biased, i never tried Opera, so i'm gonna give it a try.


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## kb1ghc

I don't know whats so great about "Opera" i just tryed it, don't like it.

and it's NOT even free, nor open source.


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## Christopher

I used to like Opera, but a few things really started to bug me. The best part is the mouse gestures, but now that is an extension in FF too.


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