Mozilla Firefox

Installation

Firefox has been reported to be very secure. It also has many more features than Internet Explorer (IE). Following is an installation of Firefox 1.0.0, the first final build.

The first attempt failed, so the files had to be extracted manually. Subsequent attempts also failed. At this point, there did not seem to be a chance of the installation working correctly. Finally the installation was successful. However, upon launching, the application crashed. After restarting the computer, it did launch successfully, but it was slower than IE. An attempt to uninstall was unsuccessful. As a result, it was left installed and IE was set as the default browser. However, files with an .htm extension did not have icons.

There was a recent article about how problematic the installer is for Firefox. This experience confirms it. Some work on the part of the developers is needed. Even if the program works as promised, it is a moot point if it cannot be installed. However, after this problem was fixed, it has worked excellently on test computers and there have been no problems upgrading to recent updates.

After awhile, it was suggested to try Firefox again. This installation was problem-free and the program worked well. Since that time, it has functioned as a primary browser, and it compares favorably to other browsers along with antivirus and anti-spyware programs. It does indeed have many more features than other browsers. For example, tabbed browsing, easy installation of extentions, hundreds of themes to customize just about anything, and even a Google search page just for Firefox (You can view it here)

Features

Here are some screenshots and descriptions of features:

Tabbed browsing



Tabbed browsing allows multiple pages in one window. If the user chooses a tab, it will open to the respective site.

Internet Explorer 6 does not have this feature. However, Microsoft has announced that IE 7 will have tabbed browsing.

Easy to install extentions



There are hundreds of extentions for Firefox. While there are many for IE as well, Firefox extensions do not require an extra installer. Firefox has a built-in updater instead. The extentions site is viewable here.

Internet Explorer does have many add-ons, such as toolbars. However, to add them the user has to go to a site, download the file, install it, and then restart the computer. With Firefox, all the user has to do is go to the site above (see link), choose the extention, and click "install." A restart of Firefox is needed.

Easy to install themes



As with extentions, there are hundreds of themes for Firefox. Some even skin the background of the toolbars or the menus. Themes may be found here.

Internet Explorer does not have support for theming. However, it will change colors according to the theme that is running on Windows. Microsoft Codename 'Longhorn,' when it is released, is expected to have support for 3rd party skins. IE 7 would have many colors in it as well, assuming the user changes the theme, of course. It is possible that will be the best that can be expected for IE themes for awhile. IE 8 is anybody's guess.

New Download Manager



The new download manager is impressive and easy to use. It shows all your downloads in one window. One can also view files that were chosen to be opened rather than saved to the hard drive.

In Internet Explorer, if the user has several files downloading at once, it will require multiple windows to be opened. One would have to look through a number of windows to find a particular file. If the user would like to have 5 or 6 files downloading at the same time, then Firefox may be the answer.

Live Bookmarks



Live bookmarks are remarkable. If one is a webmaster of a site which has an RSS feed, a live bookmark can be created. A site that has live bookmarks shows a small icon at the bottom-right corner of the window. Clicking it allows the user to subscribe to a feed. They then appear in the bookmarks or on the toolbar if placed in the toolbar folder. Internet Explorer does not have this feature, and it is not known whether or not IE 7 will have it.

Google start page



Firefox has its own start page on Google.com. Internet Explorer does not, although the IE default start page has MSN search.


In conclusion, Firefox does have many useful features which are not present in Internet Explorer. There is a problem that is occuring with Firefox due to its popularity; hackers are attempting to attack computers through Firefox instead of IE. Fortunately, updates are being issued every 2 weeks to fix problems as they are discovered. They are released as new exploits are found. If the latest update has not been installed, there will be an arrow in the top right of the window. Clicking the arrow will update Firefox.

Mozilla Firefox

Well said, coreyw2000 (refer to previous post).

All in all, I would reccomend Firefox to anyone, and everyone! Firefox loads pages alot quicker than Internet Explorer, and therefore, I really like it. But there are alot of other neat features too.

Just a suggestion..

It started off as a nice "review" but quickly turned int a comparison piece.

Other then that its well written and nice screenies

(whoever it is that has 1569 unread emails in their gmail inbox has to do some serious spam control )

coreyw2000 wrote:

so the files had to be extracted manually. Subsequent attempts also failed. At this point, there did not seem to be a chance of the installation working correctly. Finally the installation was successful. However, upon launching, the application crashed. After restarting the computer, it did launch successfully, but it was slower than IE. An attempt to uninstall was unsuccessful. As a result, it was left installed and IE was set as the default browser. However, files with an .htm extension did not have icons.

That is what they get for using Windows 95

Accually, that happened on XP. I just took these screeshots in 98.

Neuro, those are mine. I now only have 47

I know, just a joke.

But I do find that interesting as I have been using firefox since .6, and I have never had a problem with it. Tabbed browsing is so convenient, I don't know what to do without it. I am looking forward to IE 7, but don't expect much.

LOL, i am very stubborn. No one can make my use firefox even if it is better. I dont know what my problem is. I just wont use it...

I would recommend anyone that doesn't use Firefox to switch as well. Not only is tabbed browsing vastly more convenient than sorting through a "group" list on your task bar to find that IE window that you just had, it is much more efficient resource-wise, as well.

Before posting this, I decided to take a looksie and see just what kind of comparison I could give on the resource issue concerning Firefox and tabbed browsing. I brought up 6 instances of IE and loaded Google's main page on all of them. I then loaded up a single instance of Firefox and created 6 tabs, loading Google's main page into each of them. Each instance of IE used around 13,000KB, for a grand total of about 84,000KB RAM used. Firefox, on the other hand, was gliding along at a nice resource usage of just under 32,000KB. I don't know about you, but even if the tabbed browsing wasn't so convenient that I couldn't live without it anymore I wouldn't want to pass up something that performs better and uses roughly 60% less resources under a situation like that (which I would be in constantly).

I've been using Firefox since well before 1.0.0, and back then I even went so far as to deal with what amounted to beta issues just because it was still better than IE even with those problems. Today, however, Firefox no longer has those issues and leaves IE behind in every way that I have looked at (except for one: You have to save any EXE file that you download with Firefox without the ability to run it automatically upon completion.. a minor thing, to be sure). I've tried regular Mozilla, and couldn't really get into it as it was, as least at the time, a slightly updated Netscape Navigator (it even still had the Netscape activity icon). I've tried Opera and a couple of others, and none can compare to the flexibility, speed, and reliability that Firefox has proven to provide. I might recommend updating this review.