OT: Firefox

[Thermodyne]

Any of you guys and gals running Firefox? I was looking for a browser to install in tandem with IE6 and this one seems quite nice. The idea is to use Firefox for web surfing and leave IE6 unmolested by spy ware so that it will be as installed for SQL apps and other internal server connections.

With a few small code tweaks, Firefox is almost as fast as IE6 and seems to be very resistant to popups and spy ware. But it does have some problems with high end web sites.

[AMF]

Wait, I think I mis-heard you, did you say "almost as fast as IE6"? I didn't think "fast" and "IE6" were allowed in the same sentence...truly, I found Opera to be the fastest, even compared to firefox (which I found nice but a bit too counter-intuitive). I suggest opera instead (www.opera.com)

Just two cents.

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
Any of you guys and gals running Firefox? I was looking for a browser to install in tandem with IE6 and this one seems quite nice. The idea is to use Firefox for web surfing and leave IE6 unmolested by spy ware so that it will be as installed for SQL apps and other internal server connections.

With a few small code tweaks, Firefox is almost as fast as IE6 and seems to be very resistant to popups and spy ware. But it does have some problems with high end web sites. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">

[geoschmo]

I have both on my home machine. Seems to work well. I use the firefox when I'm just surfing cause it does a good job with the popups and keeping the crap off my machine. I keep the IE around for the sites I trust that need the java stuff, school, the bank, etc.

EDIT: Ya know Thermo after rereading your post I guess what I said was exactly what you said, so I could have saved time and said, "Yes". http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ June 23, 2004, 19:28: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[GMLocutus]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
Any of you guys and gals running Firefox? I was looking for a browser to install in tandem with IE6 and this one seems quite nice. The idea is to use Firefox for web surfing and leave IE6 unmolested by spy ware so that it will be as installed for SQL apps and other internal server connections.

With a few small code tweaks, Firefox is almost as fast as IE6 and seems to be very resistant to popups and spy ware. But it does have some problems with high end web sites. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">For a moment there i thought you was gonna talk about that dreadful..that terrible..that awfully directed film Firefox...But yes i have Firefox on my comp

[Thermodyne]

Originally posted by alarikf:
Wait, I think I mis-heard you, did you say "almost as fast as IE6"? I didn't think "fast" and "IE6" were allowed in the same sentence...truly, I found Opera to be the fastest, even compared to firefox (which I found nice but a bit too counter-intuitive). I suggest opera instead (www.opera.com)

Just two cents.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">LOL depends on the hardware and how you tweak it. I have a few adjustments that will make IE6 quite fast at loading pages.

[Raging Deadstar]

I'm running Firefox and i won't be going back to Internet Explorer http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Who knows, maybe one day i might give up using a Computer!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif Maybe not http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Roanon]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
I keep the IE around for the sites I trust that need the java stuff, school, the bank, etc.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Mozilla / Firefox works fine with Java. You just have to download and install the RTE separately, it does not come integrated with it.

[Thermodyne]

Originally posted by Roanon:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by geoschmo:
I keep the IE around for the sites I trust that need the java stuff, school, the bank, etc.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Mozilla / Firefox works fine with Java. You just have to download and install the RTE separately, it does not come integrated with it. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I have not had any java issues, but one of our sites uses popups and they don't pop. Another uses a downloaded controll that I can't duplicate for Firefox.

[ June 23, 2004, 19:58: Message edited by: Thermodyne ]

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
I have not had any java issues, but one of our sites uses popups and they don't pop. Another uses a downloaded controll that I can't duplicate for Firefox. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">There should be a blue button in the bottom left corner you and double click and allow pop ups from that site it is blocking. I do this for sites I need pop ups from and I have no bit of problems.

BTW, yes, I use Firefox and I love it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Raging Deadstar]

I have to ask....

Those using Firefox, how many were persuaded by Fyron http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by Raging Deadstar:
I have to ask....

Those using Firefox, how many were persuaded by Fyron http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not me. I was using it long before he started advertising it around here. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Roanon]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
I have not had any java issues, but one of our sites uses popups and they don't pop. Another uses a downloaded controll that I can't duplicate for Firefox. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The popup is possibly blocked by spam control. You should get an icon in the lower right of the Firefox window indicating the blocking of a popup, clicking it and you can enable popups for the current site only. Very nice feature.
The download control might be a non-standard HTML, used only by IE. Bad web design to use it; nothing that can be done about it.

[Roanon]

Originally posted by Raging Deadstar:
I have to ask....

Those using Firefox, how many were persuaded by Fyron http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I have always been an anti-IE fan, I can't stand the spy features and the security loopholes. Used first Netscape up to the Last useable Version (4.7), then Mozilla (Firefox is the stand-alone browser of Mozilla without its email features). Just a matter of personal preference, I can also recommend Opera. I have given ap preaching against IE, whoever uses IE / Outhouse, keep using it if you feel happy with it, just don't ask me for help if you are getting spammed/virussed/trojaned/spyed/whatever.

[Will]

My roommate was beta testing it when it was still around Firebird 0.4 (I think that was the Version number). He got me on it soon after v.0.7, and I used it in conjunction with MyIE2 (and I had IE5.5 still lurking around for one pesky site that didn't work on Firefox or MyIE2).

[Karibu]

I use Firefox at home and I ain't going back to IE any more. However, one use IE has. Windows Update. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif However, mouse scroll does not work on Firefox in my working computer for unknown reason. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/confused.gif

Oh, Fyron never mentioned FireFox to me, I found it by myself, for I was fed up with all those pop ups spawning from IE...

[Alneyan]

I was using Mozilla since Version 0.9 (if memory serves), so I switched to Firebird/Firebox and Thunderbird almost as soon as they were available.

And no, Fyron isn't involved in neither, but merely the amount of viruses I received through Outlook http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif (formatting is fun and all, but...)

IE serves one single purpose: to take care of some sites which will not run for no apparent reason (read, because I didn't set up my browser correctly).

[Makinus]

I started using Firefox when i saw this thread, and now i´m using it nearly exclusively (i loved the middle button function), but i still keep IE for some sites that don´t work right in Firefox...

BTW: where i can send the URLs of the sites that don´t work right so the next Version of Firefox can make them work?

[Thermodyne]

Well if you like it now, try these code mods.

First, type "about:config" in the address bar. Then adjust or add these settings.

1.) network.http.pipelining (set to true)
2.) network.http.pipelining.firstrequest (set to true)
3.) network.http.pipelining.maxrequests (set to a high number like 20)
4.) network.http.proxy.pipelining (set to true)
5.) nglayout.ititialpaint.delay (set to number 0)

Any keys/strings that do not exist should be added.

[Thermodyne]

Originally posted by Roanon:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Thermodyne:
I have not had any java issues, but one of our sites uses popups and they don't pop. Another uses a downloaded controll that I can't duplicate for Firefox. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The popup is possibly blocked by spam control. You should get an icon in the lower right of the Firefox window indicating the blocking of a popup, clicking it and you can enable popups for the current site only. Very nice feature.
The download control might be a non-standard HTML, used only by IE. Bad web design to use it; nothing that can be done about it. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It uses a couple of dl’d controls and checks a secondary certificate before sending the popup. I haven’t looked at it hard enough to tell where it hangs. We have to make some arcane setting in IE to get it to function, so it could be the same with Firefox.

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
Well if you like it now, try these code mods.
1.) network.http.pipelining (set to true)
2.) network.http.pipelining.firstrequest (set to true)
3.) network.http.pipelining.maxrequests (set to a high number like 20)
4.) network.http.proxy.pipelining (set to true)
5.) nglayout.ititialpaint.delay (set to number 0)

Any keys/strings that do not exist should be added. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I went ahead and changed these on mine to see if there is a difference but what exactly do they do?

[Thermodyne]

It lets the browser load/fill pages faster. If you are on dial up, you won't see much. But if you have DSL or a big cable pipe, it'll make a big change.

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
It lets the browser load/fill pages faster. If you are on dial up, you won't see much. But if you have DSL or a big cable pipe, it'll make a big change. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Oh ok, we have 1.5mbs down and 768kbs up here at work so I should notice a difference. I will start browsing now to see if anything can be noticed.

[Baron Munchausen]

There are problems with both 'keep alive' and 'pipelining' though. There are several threads on the Mozillazine forums about excessive memory usage and things being 'orphaned' in memory (browser plugins like the Acrobat reader) when people use these features. After seeing these threads I disabled 'keep alive' (never even tried pipelining) and several sites I had been having problems with started working much better.

Even with these problems, it's much better to be using Mozilla or Firefox than IE. Here comes another exploit:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1738&e=2&u=/zd/20040624/tc_zd/130226

This time it's a graphic being used to break in to your system, not an active-x or a script! Yes, IE is even buggy in the way it displays plain old .jpg or .gif graphics. Expect to hear more about this soon. It could be a very big event since it gets around all existing security enhancements for IE.

[ June 25, 2004, 01:39: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Makinus:
BTW: where i can send the URLs of the sites that don´t work right so the next Version of Firefox can make them work? <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Nowhere. 99.9% of such sites do not work because they rely on HTML and other code that is specific to IE, and is not part of the standard language(s). Such sites will never work in Firefox.

[Roanon]

Originally posted by Makinus:
BTW: where i can send the URLs of the sites that don´t work right so the next Version of Firefox can make them work? <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">To the webmasters of these URLs, tell them to please use standard HTML and not some non-standard abnormal pseudo-HTML subset that only IE understands.

[Captain Kwok]

I've been trying Firefox for the Last couple of days. I like it so far, not a big fan of the way it loads pages which reminds of netscacpe, but oh well I'll get use to it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[Kamog]

Hi, I started using Firefox today. It's great. Some nice features. Up until yesterday I was stubbornly using Internet Explorer. I should have listened to Fyron the first time he recommended it! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Renegade 13]

I too have joined the growing ranks of those using Firefox, as of today. I like it so far, hopefully I will continue to do so. IE just has too many vulnerablities, and that pop-ups really bugged me.

[Raging Deadstar]

Yeah. I got the file off Fyron i think as My IE had completely crashed. I assure you now that you won't want to go back http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[David E. Gervais]

I'm a new 'Follower' of Mozilla too. I haven't seen the need to upgrade to Firefox. I'm not yet convinced that it has much more to offer than Mozilla. Since I only use the 'Browser' and not any of the other stuff.

Is there good reason for me to drop Mozilla in favor of Firefox? I wonder what you all think.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Traskelion]

Yep, I am also in these ranks, much before I started reading these forums. At first I used Internet Explorer, until I heard about Mozilla. I used it, loved it, and now Internet Explorer only remains for Windows Update page (And when coupled with Windows XP, you just can't remove IE. I swear, every time I deleted that IEXPLORE application, it re-created itself 2 seconds later!). Mozilla removes all the junk. And my friend had unbelievable pop-up trouble, so for him Mozilla was a dream come true http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif . If you are still using Internet Explorer, try Mozilla. No, really, install it now.

[Aiken]

Originally posted by David E. Gervais:
I'm a new 'Follower' of Mozilla too. I haven't seen the need to upgrade to Firefox. I'm not yet convinced that it has much more to offer than Mozilla. Since I only use the 'Browser' and not any of the other stuff.

Is there good reason for me to drop Mozilla in favor of Firefox? I wonder what you all think.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">afaik Firefox is a part of Mozilla suite, not the completely separate program. Firefox is just a standalone browser, then Mozilla is a browser (Firefox) + Mailer (Thunderbird) + a lot of garbage, like Calendar, chat client and such.

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by David E. Gervais:
I'm a new 'Follower' of Mozilla too. I haven't seen the need to upgrade to Firefox. I'm not yet convinced that it has much more to offer than Mozilla. Since I only use the 'Browser' and not any of the other stuff.

Is there good reason for me to drop Mozilla in favor of Firefox? I wonder what you all think.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You've got it backwards. Firefox is stripped down not enhanced. It is just the browser from the Mozilla suite. Because the suite isn't part of Windows like IE it loads very slowly by comparison, and this was annoying to many people. So the movement was started to make a 'browser only' program. Though both browsers are based on the 'Gecko' rendering engine, there are some important differences that you can read about on the mozilla.org site.

Personally, I like having all the widgets in Mozilla. I don't need to mess with an IRC program, for example. If I want to join a Scifi.com chat I just go to Chatzilla. Having the email program built-in is also convenient in my opinion. But some people can't stand the load time and want to save as much memory as possible for browser functions. So now there is Fire(bird|fox)... wonder how many names it will have had before it goes 1.0? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ July 05, 2004, 17:29: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Fyron]

Actually, Firefox is indeed much enhanced over the Mozilla browser. It is the next generation of the technology, afterall. Most of the extra programs in the Mozilla suite can easily be installed separately.

[David E. Gervais]

Well, when I instaled Mozilla, I did a custom install and did not choose the e-mail, newsgroup reader, or chatzilla modules. just the browser. So I guess I should uninstall Mozilla and install Firefox. Especially if it's just the browser and an updated Version to boot.

Sounds good. Mind you this Mozilla seems to be working very well, and I'm hesitant to change a good thing. (yes I can be paranoid sometimes.) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Aiken]

http://texturizer.net/firefox/faq.html
"Note, though, that Firefox is not just the standalone Mozilla browser. The user interface in Firefox differs from Mozilla in many ways. For example, Firefox has customizable toolbars." <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Interface and...? What, no more differences?
However I have to agree that this question is purely academic. Both programs are great (not excellent, but great).

[Fyron]

Maybe try a google search for a real comparison... most of the differences are minor changes here and there.

[Aiken]

Found the Firefox roadmap at http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/roadmap.html and as I see they're going to add an ActiveX installer into the 1.0b Version.
Isn't the ActiveX support is the biggest source for security holes in IE? I can't understand why they're so interested in this "feature"?

[ July 05, 2004, 21:29: Message edited by: aiken ]

[dumbluck]

no thanx

Installed Firefox to see how it worked. Went ahead and made it the default brouser. Then I turned Trillian on. Then trillian told me that I had a new hotmail email. So I clicked on the trillian MSN icon, clicked on Chech Hotmail...

And my computer came to a sudden, violent stop.

One safeboot later, Firefox was uninstalled....

[David E. Gervais]

I aslo installed Firefox to give it a run, it felt funny, like wearing a left-handed glove on the right hand. I can't explain why I got this odd feeling, but I uninstalled it and will stick with Mozilla.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Kamog]

So far, I haven't had any problems with Firefox. I like how it prevents pop-ups and I like the 'tabs' feature that lets you open multiple web pages under the different tabs. Also, while I'm downloading stuff, I can still surf around, which is nice! With IE while I was downloading something, the browser was more or less locked up and I couldn't do anything else.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by dumbluck:
no thanx

Installed Firefox to see how it worked. Went ahead and made it the default brouser. Then I turned Trillian on. Then trillian told me that I had a new hotmail email. So I clicked on the trillian MSN icon, clicked on Chech Hotmail...

And my computer came to a sudden, violent stop.

One safeboot later, Firefox was uninstalled.... <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hmm... never heard of that happening before. What OS are you running? It is most likely not a problem with Firefox.

Originally posted by David E. Gervais:
I aslo installed Firefox to give it a run, it felt funny, like wearing a left-handed glove on the right hand. I can't explain why I got this odd feeling, but I uninstalled it and will stick with Mozilla.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Odd... you should just stick with Firefox and the feeling will go away shortly. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[ July 06, 2004, 06:55: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Captain Kwok]

I can't check hotmail from Trillian either since I started using Firefox, unless I set the default browser back to IE6. I don't get a crash though, just nothing happens.

[ July 06, 2004, 10:42: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

[David E. Gervais]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Odd... you should just stick with Firefox and the feeling will go away shortly. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What? Wearing a left-handed glove on my right hand will cause my 'feeling' to go away. I think that will be due to having lost all blood circulation in my right hand. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

But seriously, what 'omg must-have' feature is in firefox that would make the upgrade really worth it. I looked at the list of 'features' and didn't see much more than Mozilla. The switch from IE to Mozilla is more than justified, but I'm not convinced that the move from Mozilla to Firefox is really that big a leap.

Anyway, I have them both, so I might eventually upgrade. but right now I'm really enjoying Mozilla.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Lisif Deoral]

Originally posted by David E. Gervais:
The switch from IE to Mozilla is more than justified, but I'm not convinced that the move from Mozilla to Firefox is really that big a leap.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, Firefox is much slimmer and faster than full Mozilla. I suppose it won't matter much on the kind of computer you use, but on my Pentium 233 MMX it makes a big difference. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ July 06, 2004, 17:15: Message edited by: Lisif Deoral ]

[David E. Gervais]

Although I have the 'Full Mozilla' package, I only installed the browser. And it still works fine. In fact the more I use the more I like it.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Chronon]

I, too, am one of Fyron's Firefox converts. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how to get Java to plug into Firefox, though. I know it's possible. Does anyone have any suggestions or links to good souces of information? The one's at the Java website are incomprehensible to a newbie like me.

[ July 06, 2004, 19:10: Message edited by: Chronon ]

[Aiken]

David, don't give up! We believe in you! Don't let the adepts of Firefox to lure you into their world domination sect!
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Edit: 2 Chronon: try to install JRE before the Firefox. In this case Firefox installation procedure should catch java and correctly set it through the plugins.

[ July 06, 2004, 19:25: Message edited by: aiken ]

[David E. Gervais]

Originally posted by aiken:
David, don't give up! We believe in you! Don't let the adepts of Firefox to lure you into their world domination sect!
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'm content to be a demi-god,... Mo-Zilla! Mo-Zilla! Mo-Zilla! Mo-Zilla! Is my mantra.

For some reason the 'Followers' of Firefox remind me of 'Landru' from the Original Star Trek. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:
I can't check hotmail from Trillian either since I started using Firefox, unless I set the default browser back to IE6. I don't get a crash though, just nothing happens. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What do you expect from Microsoft? You could just have hotmail in one of the homepage tabs of Firefox...

[ July 06, 2004, 19:46: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Will]

That is really odd. I just tested with my computer at work (Trillian v.2.013, Firefox v.0.9.1, Win2k Pro SP4) and I could check Hotmail just fine.

Perhaps it's a problem with one of the earlier Versions of Trillian. I remember Trillian sometimes crashed when I was running v.0.74 when I tried to open a browser thru it.

[Thermodyne]

I have been putting Firefox on with IE6 as the default browser. I block http://www.*.* on IE6 and give them little icons to hit for our sites which are all https://server/bla.bla.andmorebla Then I give them access to everything else with Firefox. For the Pitas, I can even have the IE shortcut call Firefox.