Tired Of Internet Exploder?

[Okiewan]

Mozila is FINALLY good! Check out their new browser release "FireFox" ... displays DRN well and is the fastest browser I've ever used. Fast, small file size, automated down loading...

I made the switch :cool:

Download it here: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

 

[TheJunkMan]

Allready using it I trashed IE along time ago

 

[Senior KX Rider]

I'm using it right now. Thought I would give it a try. Seems to be a little faster. Thanx for the link Bob :thumb:

 

[zio]

muy bien, El Guapo. I dig it already. Question, though: What do I do with IE? Do I leave it on my hard drive? I'm running XP.

 

[Okiewan]

I just made Firefox the default browser and left IE alone... you never know when you might need it. There could be some bugs in this new browser.

One bug for sure is when you click the Quick Edit button the window pops, but then there is a 404 error. (Quck edit is explained in the forums comments forum: http://dirtrider.net/forums3/showthread.php?t=92348)

 

[j_freak]

muy bien, El Guapo. I dig it already. Question, though: What do I do with IE? Do I leave it on my hard drive? I'm running XP.

I'm sorry to say that unless you are an anti-microsoft fanatic who is willing to deal with a multitude of problems, you have to leave IE on your computer. Almost all dial up isp's use IE in their dialer software, as does MSN messenger, MS outlook, and a whole slew of other programs that would operate wierd or not at all without IE.

I personally do not like Mozilla/Netscape (last version I used was Netscape 7.2) because of the huge file download size, poor support of all the extra html code that M$ invented that everyone uses in their websites, and poor features. Compared to IE, netscape and mozilla are great, but I found something better: Opera.

I've been using Opera for about 3 years now, and I have to admit that until a year ago, Mozilla was slightly better. Then Opera 7.11 Final came out. It works on nearly every site (except a few online banking sites that netscape doesn't work on either), has about 3 times the amount of features that Netscape has, is faster, has better support (a huge forum with several thousand people on at any one time, so your question usually gets answered within 5 minutes), and rarely crashes (Netscape and Mozilla crashed a lot on my computer).

It does cost 39 bucks, but you can get the free version with a small banner ad in the corner of the screen :thumb:

 

[Okiewan]

Sorry dude.. Opera can't touch FireFox. Been there, done that.
Last version you used of Netscape (Mozila) also sucked. Try FireFox before commenting further. Perfect? Nope. Neither is IE.

 

[j_freak]

will do so :D

 

[BigAl]

just wondering, but whats wrong with IE6?

 

[MrLuckey]

For me I didnt have any huge complaints about IE6 but it did blow up once in ahwile. Firefox is faster, hasn't crashed once (yet), has an integrated pop up blocker, and supports multiple web pages in a single window (via tabs) <----really slick feature. Until I come up with reasons to switch back I'm mozilla fo shilla :thumb:

 

[TheJunkMan]

almost ALL pop up codes are written for IE

 

[XRpredator]

me no switch, change bad. magic picture box work okay, me no want mess up.

now me go cook meat over fire.

 

[MrLuckey]

almost ALL pop up codes are written for IE

Must be doing something else every time it tells me it blocked a popup then :p

 

[Okiewan]

almost ALL pop up codes are written for IE

Sorry, that's just not true.

 

[BunduBasher]

Did the download last night, FireFox seems to work well - will have to give it a longer run before I can comment.

One of the guys here at work runs a hacked Opera version which he says is great - by hacked I assume it means the free one without the ad bots !

 

[Zenith]

Tried some older version of Mozilla and never liked it but Opera is a great browser, I've been using it for a few years now and will never go back to IE. Faster, better looking, more features and did I already say faster? There is a small ad in the top right corner but it's not exactly huge and can easily be replaced with your own image if you want...

 

[BigAl]

when you say faster, is that actuall browsing speed, or just initial loading speed?

 

[j_freak]

when you say faster, is that actuall browsing speed, or just initial loading speed?

Opera loads slow if you are using a graphics intensive skin on an older computer (takes 5-15 seconds). But, since it uses tabs to organize your pages, you only have to wait once.

Opera's marketing slogan is "The fastest browser on earth", referring to browsing speed. On my internet connection (56k that runs at about 2k), Opera loads web pages in about half the time that IE does. I have heard that on fast connections (broadband, t1, etc.) IE is faster by 2-4 seconds, due to the fact that a lot of servers run microsoft programs, and IE apparrantly can eek a little more speed out of them than Opera can (just repeating what I've heard, I do not know if this is in fact true)

Firefox seems to run slightly slower than Opera, but not much. Haven't had time to really use it though...

 

[Okiewan]

Microsoft servers and apps are a VERY small dot on the internet.... btw.

One thing to check is what the default setting for the browsers are. Meaning; does the browser check for a newer version of the page, once per session, automatically, every time, or never... or use it's cache to display it.

One of the ways so many wanna-be browsers "speed-up" displays is by using a cache. Just like AOL and other dial-up ISP's claim faster browser speeds on dial-up (Turbo, Super-Dooper Fast, schemes)... they cache the pages (via proxy), you can't make a 56k connection faster than 56k, lol. In fact, I doubt anyone with a 56K connection has ever even seen 56K.

Bottom line. If I delete all temp files, re-boot and run IE vs. FireFox, FireFox is measurably faster. Not at loading, but at loading pages, with NO cache available. IMHO, Opera is amateurish in comparison to both IE and FireFox and cetainly no faster than either.

 

[Danman]

I doubt anyone with a 56K connection has ever even seen 56K.

I've seen close, but I was standing next to a phone switch in the central office with my laptop.

I have been using Firebird for a while now and realy like it. I had to allow pop ups on some site (you can do that in the options) so that I could order something from the web. They popped up a box when you clicked on the link with the order form. The Java seems to be sketchy on it sometimes, but it does not bother me. I won't be switch to IE any time soon.

 

[j_freak]

The Java seems to be sketchy on it sometimes, but it does not bother me.

Both Mozilla and Opera have trouble occasionally with javascript, but the newer versions of Opera are much better than the older ones. Can't say for Mozilla, cause I haven't used it enough yet.

Okiewan-I don't want to get into an argument, but Opera is hardly amaturish. It has more features than both Mozilla and IE combined, and MUCH better security than IE. (last time they found a security bug they fixed it in 3 days and sent an email out to everyone on their mailing list urging them to download the new version. Compare this to M$'s policy of finding a bug and spending weeks, months, or years working on a bloated patch that you have to go LOOKING for to know you need it (unless it's a huge vulnerability, then they just tell the newspapers to run an article))

As for Opera's speed, yes, opera does indeed cache, as do foxfire and IE if you set them to. But, while surfing the web and visiting new pages not in the cache, Opera is still faster on our connection than IE. When IE encounters horrible connection speeds, it just sits there and does nothing for up to 5 minutes. Opera, on the other hand, starts loading the page, even if it is at 100 bytes per second.

Now that I have used Firefox a bit, I have decided that I still like Opera more. It seems to be a bit faster (probably due to cache and connection settings), and Mozilla's compromise between tabs and windows (opening stuff in a window unless you tell it to open it in a tab) is very annoying. THe least they could do is have an option to open EVERYTHING in tabs rather than new windows (Opera has this option)...

Oh, and of course firefox is faster than IE, everything is... :p

 

[Casper250]

I just downloaded it last night and i like it. The tab feature is a good idea. I remember my friend telling me about Opera and he like the way you could use the mouse buttons for go forward or back in the browser.

 

[fender92883]

Just installed it on my laptop and all I can say is "wow!" It IS faster than IE! So far, so good...thanks Okiewan! :thumb:

 

[BunduBasher]

We have this open source underground movement at work, some of the new recruits are all into this stuff. So after I downloaded Okies link, one of the guys got me to check out Opera - have ran it for a few days and it is pretty cool, the skin feature is really nice. Then yesterday we were discussing office programs, and they got me onto Open Office - did the download last night, and it looks to be a fairly impressive package ...... Bye Bye Microstuff ! :thumb:

http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.0/index.html

http://www.openoffice.org

 

[ConqSoft]

Compare this to M$'s policy of finding a bug and spending weeks, months, or years working on a bloated patch that you have to go LOOKING for to know you need it (unless it's a huge vulnerability, then they just tell the newspapers to run an article))

Actually, if you use Windows Update like you should, you will get the patches automatically. No need to have to go looking...

FWIW, I tried FireFox and it's noticebaly slower than IE6 on my machine. Your mileage may vary.