i've never used firefox and i'm interested in hearing from those that do. what do you like better about it compared to IE? has anyone tried firefox and gone back to IE?

i dont know if it matters, but i use WinXP Pro.

thanks

everybody says firefox is better and i think it's true. i installed it but i hardly ever use it. IE works perfect for me. never had any problem.

with firefox you can tab your windows into one window so you don't need to have like 5 IE windows open at once.

I use firefox almost exclusively now, with just a little bit of time spent using IE. I prefer firefox over IE. Tabbed windows, along with a built in pop up blocker, and a google search right there in the window for me make it better than IE. At least I think so.

My page loads have been much, much faster with Firefox. Popups are vitually a thing of the past (without needing any additonal plugins!).
The tabs is a great feature. Some of the themes are cool.
The less Microsoft, the better.

the "usability" features in firefox are somehow a matter of personal taste. i for instance could not live without quick-searches or mouse gestures ...

but more important, IE has some serious security issues, which would make it seem wise to use an alternative browser. i'd go for firefox, but opera is quite nice, too (they invented the mouse gestures).

I've been using mouse gestures in Firefox for about two weeks. I think I'm addicted to it already.

what are these mouse gestures you speak of?

Basically, these are defined mouse moves that the user performs (usually with one or more mouse buttons pressed) that execute different commands.

For example, instead of pressing the browser back button, you can press and hold the right mouse button and move the mouse to the left. Moving the mouse to the right would execute the forward command etc.

Saves you a lot of time.

I found this interesting under the security issues of IE:

Removing Internet Explorer
The idea of removing Internet Explorer from a Windows system was first proposed during the Microsoft antitrust case. Later, some security advocates took up the idea as a way to protect Windows systems from attack via IE vulnerabilities. Whether the net benefit of removing IE exceeds the cost, and indeed what it means to "remove IE", are disputed.

Simply installing and using another browser does not prevent third party programs and core operating system components from using IE libraries. Thus, a user who does not use IE to browse the Web can still be targeted by attacks against vulnerabilities in these libraries -- for instance, via Outlook Express or the Windows Help subsystem. However, removing the IE libraries will cause these programs, and other software which depends upon them, to cease functioning or even to crash the system.

It is unclear what it means to "remove IE" because such a removal depends on being able to determine which files or functions on an installed Windows system are part of IE — that is, to draw a line between IE and the rest of Windows. Microsoft has held that this is not meaningful; that "IE" is no longer (as it was prior to Windows 98) a separate piece of software, but simply a brand name for the Web-browsing and HTML-displaying capacities of the Windows operating system. In this view, the result of removing IE is simply a damaged Windows system; to have a working system without IE one must replace Windows entirely.

In contrast, some programmers and security writers have held that it is possible to have a useful and working Windows system with IE excised. Consultant Fred Vorck, who advocates that consumers should have the choice to remove "integrated" features of Microsoft Windows [67] (http://www.vorck.com/remove-ie.html); Dino Nuhagic, who is the creator of nLite — a product that allows users to remove Windows components like Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, amongst others [68] (http://nuhi.msfn.org/index.html); and Shane Brooks, who created LitePC to remove and manage Windows components [69] (http://www.litepc.com/), have all suggested removing Internet Explorer from computers in order to decrease exposure to security risks on the Internet [70] (http://redmondmag.com/features/article. ... ialsID=439).

It is possible to remove Internet Explorer from Windows 95, 98 and ME (see instructions on the Netscape website [71] (http://wp.netscape.com/browsers/using/i ... oving.html) and on Microsoft's website [72] (http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... us;q192852)), as well as from Windows 2000 (http://www.vorck.com/remove-ie.html) and Windows XP (http://nuhi.msfn.org/nlite.html) at installation time. Microsoft claims that attempting to remove Internet Explorer from Windows may result in system instability.

Microsoft's position is in contrast with other operating systems and browsers. Other operating systems typically include at least one browser -- for instance Safari and Internet Explorer for Mac in Mac OS X. However, in these systems the web browser can be removed or replaced like any other application.

Firefox has become so popular that they have actually scared microsoft a bit. M$ had not planned on developing IE 7 at all becasue they were just going to make IE a 100% integrated part of the next Windows OS release. But Firefox has become huge, that now Microsoft has changed their plans and are indeed working on an IE 7 release. That's a testament to how good firefox is.

yeah, it's highly addictive. i tend to "gesticulate" even in the windows explorer or other software ...

Mitchell613, you can install mouse-gestures here =>
http://optimoz.mozdev.org/gestures/installation.html

using Firefox, mainly because of better security than IE, tabbed browsing and possibility to install extensions you want, like session saver (which saves your open tabs and scrolled position, so when you open FF all opened tabs will reload at the same place..) or also like downTHEMall! - useful when downloading more files for one site, you don't need to click on every single link but only chceck links you wanna save...

anything is better than IE, my choice was FF

how do you do downloadthemall?

i am sure it is for security reasons, but i think too any prompts come up when you are downlading and doing things with firefox... i like how IE is more automatic at doing things...

and i must be the only one in the world who thinks firefox is slower, but i swear it is for me....

using this extension: https://addons.update.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&version=1.0&os=Windows&category=Download%20Tools&numpg=10&id=201

and also speed of FF depends of extensions you have installed and thnigs like that, and sometimes it seems to be a little bit slower than IE... but i still like it, if you want fast browser, try Opera.

is there an auto complete add in?

there are two kinds:

one, from google lets you autofill forms with a single click you you dont have to type your name address all the time

the other kind of remembers what you type in a box and then later as you type a window opens with a drop down box if you begin to type the same thing...

i have both of these for IE and would like them for firefox

Yeah, Firefox does that too.

how do you need to add extensions?

and also in the bookmark section can you place your own icons next to you "bookmarked" items...

for instance i have some pearl jam icons i put next to some of the pj sites that do not have their own icon...

i know you can do this with IE but cannot figure it out for firefox