Firefox - quick reaction

   / Firefox - quick reaction #1  

OkeeDon

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Jul 4, 2003
Messages
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OK, I heard enough folks talking about alternative browsers, and I had some problems to solve, so I downloaded Firefox. I've used it for a few hours, nd I have some reactions.

First of all, it seems rock solid. It's faster than IE. I've gone to a variety of sites, and all seem to display very much as they do in IE, with a couple of minor exceptions that aren't really important, such as a graphics line appearing in a slightly different place. It solved my problems with a compromised version of IE that was running very slowly.

It has some differences that are going to take some getting used to. It's pretty bland looking, except for the orange icon, which is almost glaring against the pastel icons in the rest of the display. I don't like the toolbars -- they need work -- they are not as flexible as IE. For example, the bookmarks toolbar (the links toolbar in IE) takes up an entire row -- in IE, I could move it around so it only took a little space at the end of a row. The Google toolbar also takes up an entire row. In IE, I combined the bookmarks toolbar and the Google toolbar on the same row, leaving a little more screen real estate for the sites I view. And, I can't get used to the positions of the Google entry text window and the URL address text window being reversed. I suppose there are some means in the guts of the thing to customize some of these appearances, but I want to use the browser, not play with it, and the customizations are not as apparent or intuitive as IE.

Bottom line? It's solving my problems, so I'll continue to use it until it burns me or I get used to it, but if I (or MicroSoft) get the problems in IE resolved, I'll be back to it in a heartbeat.
 
   / Firefox - quick reaction #2  
Don, I gave up IE a couple years ago and switched to Safari for many of the reasons you just tried Firefox. I have been using Firefox since it was Beta verson 0.8 and generally like it. I think Safari has some advantages that Firefox could adopt, and visa versa. I like the bland look, it is clean and no frills and that makes it easier for me to work on. But as for that bland look and as for the toolbars, you can download alternative icons to change the look and you can add and remove icons to suit your needs. Tabbed browsing is another nice feature that takes a bit of learning but is useful when used.
 
   / Firefox - quick reaction #3  
I'm checking out the web site now. G
 
   / Firefox - quick reaction #4  
I downloaded Firefox and browsing is definitely faster the IE. If it keeps working like this, I will probably keep using it. Thanks for the info. G
 
   / Firefox - quick reaction #5  
Don, there's also Mozilla. It has the advantages you noted for Firefox and in my opinion, is better in appearance and convenience.
 
   / Firefox - quick reaction #6  
Don:

Did you get the printer working. I went to HP's site and looked at the 8450 but it doesn't say that it is a network printer. Says bluetooth for bluetooth devices and sharable like any other printer.


Regards,
Kevin
 
   / Firefox - quick reaction #7  
I've been using Firefox for about 3 or 4 months and am very happy with it. Like any new program it takes a little getting used to, but the learning curve was minimal.

It will grow on you.

I just discovered this morning that if I type in a work like "tractor" in the search box above the bookmarks that it will show only bookmarks with the word tractor in them. Handy if you have a lot of bookmarks and forget where you put something.

Bill Tolle
 
   / Firefox - quick reaction #8  
With Firefox you get a browser that is substantially like IE but without most of the security problems.

When you have a couple of hours to play, download Opera. This browser is a completely different animal than IE or Firefox - it is fast, but its main feature is to allow you to have 30-40 sites all accessible from a button.

There are numerous other user-interface innovations such as "mouse gestures", which lets you do a browser BACK or FORWARD or other commands just by moving the mouse a certain way.

It has built in toolbar search for Google and every other major search engine, excellent bookmark management, custom toolbar site-goto buttons, better transfer (download) management and many other features.

It is free if you're willing to put up with a small ad at the top, or you can pay $40 and get rid of it.

Really, the Opera browser is the power-surfers (is that a word? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif) dream!

Oops - didn't mean to hijack your thread /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
   / Firefox - quick reaction
  • Thread Starter
#9  
No, no, that's not a hijack -- Opera is the other one I considered, and the discussion should be open on it. Most of the things you described -- mouse gestures, tabs, Google toobar, custom toolbar buttons, etc., are also available in Firefox. I tried the tabs - hated it, because it took yet another row of screen real estate away from the subject site. Get too many "aids" loaded up, and pretty soon half the screen is used byu the browser. There isn't enough convenience in the world for me to pay that price. Unless Opera will allow me to move the tool bars around, change their length when the content is reduced, and dock them together on the same row, like IE will, then my complaint against Opera will be the same as my complaint about Firefox. I haven't tried the mouse gestures, but I doubt that I'd like them -- back when handwriting recognition first became a big thing with laptops, I was working with a huy who was developing a new, industrial strength laptop (it would even work under water) that used handwriting. Part of the handwriting engine was gestures. I never could get them to work correctly, except accidentally when I didn't want them.

I'm just a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy who wants things to work right, take up as little room as possible (I really like the fact that Firefox is a much smaller size than IE in terms of file size -- much better for storing and loading), and have a low learning curve.

California, Firefox is from Mozilla. Do they have two different browsers? I may have misunderstood, but I thought Firefox was the newest and greatest thing from Mozilla.

khd, I'm sure it is a network printer. Here's the actual quote from the HP site, <font color="blue"> "Let more people print via the built-in Ethernet networking" </font> ( link ). And, no, I tried installing the printer as a "normal" USB printer, and got the same fatal error at the same place. Then I did it again on another computer, and got the same thing. I'm now 99% sure it''s a defective installation CD. They don't have any way to download the entire contents of the CD from HP support, so I'm going to have to wait to get another one in the mail. I doubt they'll have it here for Xmas, which is a bummer. I could take this one back, I suppose, but that's more trouble than I want to go to, since I already threw most of the packing stuff away, and don't want to go through the hassle. I thought about buying another one, using the installation disk, and then returning it, but that doesn't seem fair, somehow -- it might be their last printer and I might deprive someone else of their Xmas gift or something. I'm just not built that way.
 
   / Firefox - quick reaction #10  
Firefox is the latest browser from Mozilla, but Mozilla also has their "own" browser. They also do the Netscape browsers. I am using Netscape 7.2. I like it a lot better than IE. I tried Firefox for a little while but I really didn't like it, so I went back to Netscape. A program that complements Firefox nicely is the Thunderbird e-mail client. I was using Thunderbird for a little while when I had Firefox. I liked Thunderbird. It is a lot like the e-mail client bundled with Netscape 7.2.
 
 
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