Drop your opinions (IE Vs Firefox)

[kristi12]

Hey guys,
I am new in net surfing. I am using IE (version 6.0). I want to know your opinions about IE and Firefox. Which one you like to prefer to use? Please feel free to give a frank and independent opinion.

[welsh_rasta]

To be fair to both.. they are both catering for different users. IE6 is a basic browser that does everything you need for basic surfing... however there are problems such as adware and spyware... and lack of customisablilty that some don't like.

Firefox is good for those who know what they want and will get use from the customisable features and add-ons.... additionally the tabbed browser feature is a plus.

May I suggest going for IE7, which also has tabbed browsing and some customisablility, while still maintaining the user-friendliness of IE browsers. I use both IE7 and firefox interchangably, try that for a while and you will be able to make an informed choice!

Happy surfing!

[life.hell]

I prefer Mozilla Firebox because it runs much faster than IE. Firefox has much more features that make surfing the web more comfortable and pleasant. If you want to test that then you just open the same games sites in IE and Firefox, you will see that FireFox is much faster than IE. You may also take a review of different browsers on Browsers Reviews - Best Browser Review of internet explorer 7 and mozilla firefox 2 download review and see for yourself as to which one is the best!

[Lula]

I used to use IE and switched over to Firefox, it is brilliant, but you have to be careful when those dodgy beggers at microsoft try and install updates to IE and then automatically make it the default browser lol

[sillygirl1]

I use Firefox and Mozilla (the email program) and have had no problems for years now, I use Mozilla as I can tell it that I actually want to receive emails in Japanese or French and not have them automatically translated or rejected.

Firefox doesn't seem to work with the BBC iPlayer programme though...

[missy2006]

I like Firefox's Speed Dial feature you can save 9 of your favourite sites through it.Im not sure if IE7 has this feature in it mind.

[MATTYFEZ]

As welsh said, you should update to IE Version 7, which along with being fammilar and more modern, is more secure than the version 6 you are using.

Also, theres no harm in downloading firefox, to try it out and see how you like it.

[typeratlast]

I used IE7 for ages and then about 4 weeks ago changed to firefox. Love it, much quicker and really cool customisation.

Having said that, some website struggle with it so I still have IE just incase

[installspark]

Firefox here.

I find it to be better than IE 6 or 7, and for the few sites that don't like firefox I use the IE Tab extension.

Microsoft are going to force IE 7 on users in an upcoming update as well.

[midnight1]

Firefox I find opens things a lot quicker, doesnt crash half as much as I.E. and actually does what you tell it, like deleting cookies, temp files, history etc when you close the last browser. The add ons too come in very handy and I have pc tech mates who swear by it as a lot more secure than IE.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Firefox is superior to IE in almost every respect.

For my ordinary browsing, I use it as it handles tabbed browsing far better, is faster, more secure, and highly - near infinitely - configurable.
As a Web Developer, it has a number of significant advantages over IE7, not least its ability to render CSS properly, and a whole suite of plugins that allow you to break down webpages into their component parts.
It is also able to emulate IE perfectly (IE Tab plugin) for those few pages which are still backward enough to want IE only.

Additionally, Firefox - and projects like it - will always maintain a significant lead thanks to the way in which they're put together. Mozilla (which also includes the similarly superior email client, Thunderbird) are open source. Unlike Micro$oft, who jealously hide their program code, Mozilla is totally open; anybody can create code for Firefox, which not only makes availability of choice and style far in excess of IE, but it also hugely reduces the chance of bugs and security holes by the logic that having so many people working on something simultaneously massively reduces the chance of a problem going unnoticed.

The only time I ever use IE is when building websites to check for total Cross Browser Compatability.

[dave]

Firefox for me through and through. Even when I used Windows I used to use it. I haven't got the option any more.

I installed it on my ex's machine and since then she has had NO spyware or adware.

I personally prefer it. I have never had a problem with any site - apart from the Windows Upgrade site - but as I no longer user Windows, this is not an issue for me any longer.

I generally write for the W3C standard, which works well in both. At work, however, I do have to write specifically for IE, which is annoying.

Other than that, I can't see a reason why I would ever use IE again.

[Tezcatlipoca]

I personally prefer it. I have never had a problem with any site - apart from the Windows Upgrade site - but as I no longer user Windows, this is not an issue for me any longer.

Nor for anybody with Windows and FireFox: WindizUpdate

This grabs all of the Windows updates from the Micro$oft site and makes them available to non-IE browsers. It also removes the Genuine (Dis)Advantage software requirement that MS force users to run.

[SeanT]

IE7 is a very complete browser and most sites are designed around it, it would be nice if one could automatically open sites designed for firefox in firefox and vice versa though...

[dave]

It would be even nicer if all sites complied with the W3C standard (and M$ did too) then all sites would work with all browsers.

It's more-or-less only IE that puts the spanner in the works.

I would disagree that most sites are built around IE7 though.

In December (according to W3C) 21% of users were using IE7, 36.3% were using FF.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by SeanT

IE7 is a very complete browser and most sites are designed around it,

This is not accurate. IE7 is no more a "complete browser" than Vista is a "complete OS" (see Switching to Vista).

Websites are designed and built around certain development languages (HTML, XHTML, PHP, and so on).
Whilst it is possible to tailor certain aspects of a site to behave differently depending on the surfer's browser, the vast majority just present the code of whichever language or mix of languages they're written in and let the browser do the rest.

All that browsers do, at their core, is read the language of the website and attempt to render it for the surfer.
IE - even IE7 - is notoriously bad at rendering a great deal of code which is standard across the web, and, in the case of CSS1, has been for years. Whether you like it or not, it is a simple fact that Firefox is superior to IE in its support for - and proper rendering of - webcode.
Case in point, almost every browser - including the current release of Firefox - fails the Acid2 Browser Test - The Web Standards Project test (although FF2 comes closest to proper rendering, with IE7 lagging way behind). Firefox 3 - still currently in beta testing - renders it properly, which will mean that it supports CSS code fully.

Let's be quite clear about this. Internet Explorer has not dominated the market because it is a superior browser. It dominated because it got bundled with the most commonly used Operating System in the world. A great many users doubtless either don't want what they see as the hassle or difficulty of changing, or are unaware that there are alternatives in the first place. Add to that the hundreds of thousands of office workers whose server admins don't allow the installation of third party software and it's easy to make the mistake of assuming the greater numbers on IE must equate to it being a better browser.

Almost every advance between IE6 to IE7 has been driven by playing 'catch-up' to other browsers, most notably FireFox. IE7 is still plagued by many problems, some technical (rendering issues for developers) and some functional (IE7 still has no dynamic search function, which FF users have enjoyed for a long time).
FireFox scooped over 15 awards between 2005 and 2007, compared to IE which scooped slightly less than 1. Indeed, such is the rapidly increasing support for FF that Micro$oft implimented greater FF support into Vista.

Unfortunately for Micro$oft, such conciliatory gestures are probably a case of too little too late. People are waking up to the concept of Web2 now, to open source projects and the freedom of choice. Micro$oft, with its jealous guarding of code and monopolising tactics (and its healthy collection of anti-monopolising fines) needs to adapt to this, or suffer continued losses.

[dave]

Well said, and very well put.

[SeanT]

Sorry, most was not what I wanted to say, I meant the majority of mainstream (eg. governmental) sites and especially ISP home pages and webmail apps, rather than the majority of sites. Until all the features of sites from eg. BT and other ISPs include full firefox support it's a losing battle for FF. I admit that FF is fantastic (especially in vista) and that it puts other "alternative" browsers such as Safari for windows to shame.