IE 7 V Firefox

[rocky]

Some time ago our laptop was er accidentally upgraded to IE7. Its my wifes and all it does is related to her work except those rare moments when I get to play with it.

Find myself preferring IE7 over firefox as a user if only because of the ease to add more tabs.

Weak reasoning, I know.

Interested to hear everyone elses thinking on these two browsers

[krygny]

You can add tabs to Firefox by hitting Ctrl+T. Is it any easier than that in IE7? I haven't used IE7 but the best I've heard about it is that it is comperable to Firefox, Opera, etc. But then there's the ol' ActiveX problem. No thanks.

You were upgraded to IE7 because Microsoft surreptitiously and insidiously includes the IE7 upgrade in with the "Critical Updates" category when you run a Windows Update. Critical Updates is supposed to be for security patches only. So, if you run Automatic Updates (on by default, unless you turn it off), you get all the stuff Microsoft wants you to have. I always turn off Automatic Updates and run Windows Update manually. Then, I select Custom Updates so I only get what I want or need.

[LChisum]

Originally posted by rocky
Some time ago our laptop was er accidentally upgraded to IE7. Its my wifes and all it does is related to her work except those rare moments when I get to play with it.

Find myself preferring IE7 over firefox as a user if only because of the ease to add more tabs.

Weak reasoning, I know.

Interested to hear everyone elses thinking on these two browsers

Here's a simple five step test: It requires that you have Spybot, Adaware, or some other spyware package.
First, run your spyware program and clean up your PC.
Second, go through your normal browsing pattern using IE7.
Third, run your spyware program and count the number of hits you get, and let it clean up your PC.
Fourth, go through your normal browsing pattern using Firefox.
Fifth, run your spyware program and see how many hits you didn't get!

Larry

[mgorbsk]

I 2nd the how much easier is it than hitting control t..... hitting a button to open it??? Well, Firefox does that also, it just doesn't reside right next to the last tab like in IE7.

I actually prefer Opera a little more, but use Firefox mostly for browsing and only use IE7 some times when my Wife has problems getting on her VPN through Firefox, and that happens rarely.

Also, just check under File....Edit....View in any app and you'll see the keyboard shortcuts for many tasks. And I also 2nd Firefox is way more secure than IE.

[mikesrc]

I'm a Firefox guy. Just works better.
Mike

[Kalbo607]

Firefox here too.

[iivtecracerii]

i mainly use firefox, but IE is still set as my default browser.

[5Gs]

I use firefox unless some site requires IE. Also, in the new version 2, it's got a cool feature that if my browser crashes, it will offer to restore my session data from before the crash. comes in handy when some windows preferred/only plugin tries to load on my linux box.

[LChisum]

Originally posted by 5Gs
I use firefox unless some site requires IE. Also, in the new version 2, it's got a cool feature that if my browser crashes, it will offer to restore my session data from before the crash. comes in handy when some windows preferred/only plugin tries to load on my linux box.

Did you know you could get a Firefox "add on" from the Mozilla site, which let's you instantly switch to an IE engine if a web site requires IE? You can add that site to a Firefox table of IE URLs, and Firefox will automatically switch when you go to the site again. Also there is an add on that gives you Windows Update in the Firefox Tools menu, and switches to IE for the update....

Larry

[krygny]

Originally posted by 5Gs
I use firefox unless some site requires IE. Also, in the new version 2, it's got a cool feature that if my browser crashes, it will offer to restore my session data from before the crash. comes in handy when some windows preferred/only plugin tries to load on my linux box.

I find the only sites that require IE, are using Active X controls. That's exactly why I DO NOT use IE. I only use IE for Windows update and that's because I have no choice.

[LChisum]

Originally posted by krygny

I find the only sites that require IE, are using Active X controls. That's exactly why I DO NOT use IE. I only use IE for Windows update and that's because I have no choice.

One way I used to avoid opening an IE session before I discovered the Firefox Windows Update add on (which I know doesn't beat IE but compromises with it), is to use the Help button on the start menu, search for "windows update", and click on a couple of links to open windows update in a browser like page. I do not think this was the full blown IE engine. Could be wrong!

Larry

[5Gs]

why firefox is better...

http://www.squarefree.com/pornzilla/why-firefox.html

[john802]

Originally posted by krygny

...I only use IE for Windows update and that's because I have no choice.

I never use the Windows update since it forces you to use IE, instead I update my OS manually by downloading here using Firefox.