My transition from IE to Firefox: a small rant

[jrtman]

My transition from IE to Firefox: a small rant

I used to be a huge IE fan even though my computer was constantly filled with spyware because of it. I used to laugh at people who used Firefox because this question kept popping into my head: How could people give up the mighty Internet Explorer, product of the multi-billion dollar corporation Microsoft, for some alternative browser made by a non-profit corporation?

I had downloaded Firefox to see what it was like, but I just couldn't get used of the look and feel so I never used it. It simply remained in the back of my hard drive waiting for me to wake up and realize what a superior product it is.

When the Lost Desert plot rolled around, trying to manage the countless new windows I had open to participate was a nightmare. But, not only that, IE also either kept causing errors and closing down or locking not only itself up, but my computer as well. In the past I had accepted this as something I couldn't do anything about, however time was of the essence if I wanted to get the best prizes at the end of the plot so I bit the bullet, so-to-speak, and started using Firefox for, if no other reason, the tabbed browsing.

Things were shaky at first, I couldn't get used to the menus and such, the way pages loaded was different from what I was used to; it just felt weird and alien to me. In short, I didn't like it, and I swore to myself I would quit using Firefox right after I finished the plot.

Slowly but surely I stopped noticing the differences and even began to "pimp it out" with some new extensions I had found on the Mozilla Addons site -- Adblock being among them. Then as quickly as it began the Lost Desert plot was over (yeah right) and I opened my beloved IE back up for the first time in a few odd months.

Why isn't my middle mouse button opening this link in a new tab?
Why are these pages loading so slowly?
Where did all these ads and popups come from?

I soon found myself shaking my head, I had become one of them... an IE hating Firefox user. I couldn't believe I had ever used that horrible, horrible browser and felt I owed an apology to the whole Firefox community for my ill-thoughts towards them.

Since then I've tweaked Firefox to exactly how I want it and couldn't be happier. So in conclusion, if you're one of those Internet Explorer users like I used to be, then for the love of humanity switch to Firefox. You, like me, will never regret the change.

[Machiito]

It's really just a matter of different people's tastes.

I was using Netscape myself, I enjoyed it because it also had Tabbed Browsing, but it was slow, going around Neopets just loading pages took me about 10 seconds. (You can bet THAT was annoying playing Neoquest.)

Some of my friends introduced me to Firefox and I've been happy with it ever since. It loads so much faster plus the ability to block ads with the add-ons makes it even sweeter.

Although even with all of this - my mom and brother still prefer to use IE. It's a little frustraiting for me when I have to constantly clean up the Spyware and Adware they pump onto the computer while using it, but hey, they can like what they like.

[Christopher]

I despise firefox. But I don't like IE either. First of all, much of firefox's claims, or what people tell you about it are total lies, it is not faster to start, not faster to load, infact it is quite noticably slower. It wasn't the first to use tabbed browsing either. On top of this it also has numerous issues, the most frustrating of them being:

Selecting some text and attempting to copy it. It only works half the time, you can ctrl+c all you want but something seems like it doesn't feel like working today.

Typing apostraphes. '''''''' <-those things. In firefox when you type one it opens up the search box. I want to abreviate, I dont want all my text transplanted into the blasted search box.

This is nothing when compared to the fact that 50% of the time it can't figure out that the internet is on and refuses to even go to the home page.

[TDG]

I despise firefox. But I don't like IE either. First of all, much of firefox's claims, or what people tell you about it are total lies, it is not faster to start, not faster to load, infact it is quite noticably slower. It wasn't the first to use tabbed browsing either. On top of this it also has numerous issues, the most frustrating of them being:

Selecting some text and attempting to copy it. It only works half the time, you can ctrl+c all you want but something seems like it doesn't feel like working today.

Typing apostraphes. '''''''' <-those things. In firefox when you type one it opens up the search box. I want to abreviate, I dont want all my text transplanted into the blasted search box.

This is nothing when compared to the fact that 50% of the time it can't figure out that the internet is on and refuses to even go to the home page.

That doesn't happen at all for me with Firefox What version did you have ? Did you have the extensions such as Adblock, Fasterfox etc ?

I Ctrl+C all the time and it hasn't ever failed on me and I don't know what you mean by the ''''''''''''' search box.

I hate having to use IE whenever on a school computer etc, I crossed over to FF a long time ago and haven't looked back

[Carson]

I've never had a problem with IE in the past and have no intention of changing my web browser at all. Oh and IE does block pop-ups. If you keep it updated that is.

[Ixistant]

I've never had a problem with IE in the past and have no intention of changing my web browser at all. Oh and IE does block pop-ups. If you keep it updated that is.

Oh, you weren't joking.

When I used IE, it always let pop-ups through. ALWAYS! Even when it was the most up-to-date, it still kept letting the pop-ups through and the Spyware and Adware into my system. I switched to FF and the only problems I've had is that it sometimes chrashes when I have tonnes of things running at once.

I never want to switch back to IE. FF is much faster for me, and although it doesn't load up as fast as IE, the pages take about 1-2 seconds to load up, compared to the 10-15 seconds of IE.

Also, I don't know what you're talking about Christopher with the apostrophe opening up the search box. For me, it types an apostrophe. F2 opens the search box for me. And it always copies for me.

In other words,

[Kugetsu]

I despise firefox. But I don't like IE either. First of all, much of firefox's claims, or what people tell you about it are total lies, it is not faster to start, not faster to load, infact it is quite noticably slower. It wasn't the first to use tabbed browsing either. On top of this it also has numerous issues, the most frustrating of them being:

Selecting some text and attempting to copy it. It only works half the time, you can ctrl+c all you want but something seems like it doesn't feel like working today.

Typing apostraphes. '''''''' <-those things. In firefox when you type one it opens up the search box. I want to abreviate, I dont want all my text transplanted into the blasted search box.

This is nothing when compared to the fact that 50% of the time it can't figure out that the internet is on and refuses to even go to the home page.

Nah, it is faster loading (heck it even starts more quickly for me, but I'm sure it wouldn't for everyone). And those other things... just don't really happen, in fact, they've never happened to me. o_0

ALT+F Opens the search box

Apostrophes... type apostrophes
----

IE rarely blocks pop-ups, it's blocker is a joke. It's the only browser (that I know of) to be plagued by stupid search bars and toolbars that are unknowingly installed into your computer. I like to keep my computer from crashing every time I load up my browser, so I'll stay with Firefox (well heck, any other browser other than IE would work).

BTW jrtman, you can get an IE-style theme for FF that looks somewhat closer to IE. I used it for a while, but after my computer was reformatted, I haven't installed any themes yet.

[jrtman]

I despise firefox. But I don't like IE either. First of all, much of firefox's claims, or what people tell you about it are total lies, it is not faster to start, not faster to load, infact it is quite noticably slower. It wasn't the first to use tabbed browsing either.

While it's true that Firefox is slower than IE to start up, this is simply because it has to load your extensions plus a lot more features than the incredibly basic IE. Regarding Firefox not being the first to used tab browsing, my question is who cares?

On top of this it also has numerous issues, the most frustrating of them being Selecting some text and attempting to copy it. It only works half the time, you can ctrl+c all you want but something seems like it doesn't feel like working today.

I think you're using an old version of Firefox, definitely not version 1.5+. I do know for a fact that the really old versions had some problems with copying.

Typing apostraphes. '''''''' <-those things. In firefox when you type one it opens up the search box. I want to abreviate, I dont want all my text transplanted into the blasted search box.

I think that's a computer problem, a bad setting, or maybe even a bad extension because I have never heard anything about apostrophes opening up a search and this has definitely never happened to me.

This is nothing when compared to the fact that 50% of the time it can't figure out that the internet is on and refuses to even go to the home page.

Again I think this is a computer problem or bad settings as this has never happened to me ever or anyone else I know for that matter.

[Carson]

I've never had a problem with IE in the past and have no intention of changing my web browser at all. Oh and IE does block pop-ups. If you keep it updated that is.

Oh, you weren't joking.

When I used IE, it always let pop-ups through. ALWAYS! Even when it was the most up-to-date, it still kept letting the pop-ups through and the Spyware and Adware into my system. I switched to FF and the only problems I've had is that it sometimes chrashes when I have tonnes of things running at once.

I never want to switch back to IE. FF is much faster for me, and although it doesn't load up as fast as IE, the pages take about 1-2 seconds to load up, compared to the 10-15 seconds of IE.

Also, I don't know what you're talking about Christopher with the apostrophe opening up the search box. For me, it types an apostrophe. F2 opens the search box for me. And it always copies for me.

In other words,

Have you checked your pop-up blocker settings? Perhaps you need to set them to a higher filter level? I don't think it's fair to blame spyware on IE. Sure IE doesn't really help it has in the past allowed itself to be very open to threats, but I've had no problems with Spyware or Adware, because I purchased protection for my PC's. Should I have to pay for Adware and Spyware protection, Shouldn't it be safe enough already? Well you pay for Virus protection so why not Spyware.

And Jrtman. What's wrong if IE's basic? Some people like basic. And as to your suggestion that Christophers problems with Firefox may be down to his computer, did you ever consider that your problems with IE are down to your computer?

I like IE, it's easy to use, it's fast and when used correctly it's reliable and when protected with the correct utilities and software it's safe enough.

[Ixistant]

I've never had a problem with IE in the past and have no intention of changing my web browser at all. Oh and IE does block pop-ups. If you keep it updated that is.

Oh, you weren't joking.

When I used IE, it always let pop-ups through. ALWAYS! Even when it was the most up-to-date, it still kept letting the pop-ups through and the Spyware and Adware into my system. I switched to FF and the only problems I've had is that it sometimes chrashes when I have tonnes of things running at once.

I never want to switch back to IE. FF is much faster for me, and although it doesn't load up as fast as IE, the pages take about 1-2 seconds to load up, compared to the 10-15 seconds of IE.

Also, I don't know what you're talking about Christopher with the apostrophe opening up the search box. For me, it types an apostrophe. F2 opens the search box for me. And it always copies for me.

In other words,

Have you checked your pop-up blocker settings? Perhaps you need to set them to a higher filter level? I don't think it's fair to blame spyware on IE. Sure IE doesn't really help it has in the past allowed itself to be very open to threats, but I've had no problems with Spyware or Adware, because I purchased protection for my PC's. Should I have to pay for Adware and Spyware protection, Shouldn't it be safe enough already? Well you pay for Virus protection so why not Spyware.

And Jrtman. What's wrong if IE's basic? Some people like basic. And as to your suggestion that Christophers problems with Firefox may be down to his computer, did you ever consider that your problems with IE are down to your computer?

I like IE, it's easy to use, it's fast and when used correctly it's reliable and when protected with the correct utilities and software it's safe enough.

I always keep all things to do with internet security at high, and the IE pop-up 'blocker' did diddily-squat to block pop-ups.

[Carson]

I've never had a problem with IE in the past and have no intention of changing my web browser at all. Oh and IE does block pop-ups. If you keep it updated that is.

Oh, you weren't joking.

When I used IE, it always let pop-ups through. ALWAYS! Even when it was the most up-to-date, it still kept letting the pop-ups through and the Spyware and Adware into my system. I switched to FF and the only problems I've had is that it sometimes chrashes when I have tonnes of things running at once.

I never want to switch back to IE. FF is much faster for me, and although it doesn't load up as fast as IE, the pages take about 1-2 seconds to load up, compared to the 10-15 seconds of IE.

Also, I don't know what you're talking about Christopher with the apostrophe opening up the search box. For me, it types an apostrophe. F2 opens the search box for me. And it always copies for me.

In other words,

Have you checked your pop-up blocker settings? Perhaps you need to set them to a higher filter level? I don't think it's fair to blame spyware on IE. Sure IE doesn't really help it has in the past allowed itself to be very open to threats, but I've had no problems with Spyware or Adware, because I purchased protection for my PC's. Should I have to pay for Adware and Spyware protection, Shouldn't it be safe enough already? Well you pay for Virus protection so why not Spyware.

And Jrtman. What's wrong if IE's basic? Some people like basic. And as to your suggestion that Christophers problems with Firefox may be down to his computer, did you ever consider that your problems with IE are down to your computer?

I like IE, it's easy to use, it's fast and when used correctly it's reliable and when protected with the correct utilities and software it's safe enough.

I always keep all things to do with internet security at high, and the IE pop-up 'blocker' did diddily-squat to block pop-ups.

I simply cannot believe that. IE won't even let me open a page from a link at the highest setting.

[jrtman]

And Jrtman. What's wrong if IE's basic? Some people like basic. And as to your suggestion that Christophers problems with Firefox may be down to his computer, did you ever consider that your problems with IE are down to your computer?

I was in denile too back when I used IE, Parrot.

My problems with IE are lack of functionality, lack of security, instability; the list goes on. None of these problems can be contributed to my computer since these same problems are happening to every other IE user who spends more than 15 minutes online per week.

I like IE, it's easy to use, it's fast and when used correctly it's reliable and when protected with the correct utilities and software it's safe enough.

I don't think you should have to pay to protect your computer from your own browser. What IE amounts to is a trojan horse that hides another trojan horse, and that's the number one reason you should switch to Firefox or at least another more secure browser.

[Carson]

And Jrtman. What's wrong if IE's basic? Some people like basic. And as to your suggestion that Christophers problems with Firefox may be down to his computer, did you ever consider that your problems with IE are down to your computer?

I was in denile too back when I used IE, Parrot.

My problems with IE are lack of functionality, lack of security, instability; the list goes on. None of these problems can be contributed to my computer since these same problems are happening to every other IE user who spends more than 15 minutes online per week.

I like IE, it's easy to use, it's fast and when used correctly it's reliable and when protected with the correct utilities and software it's safe enough.

I don't think you should have to pay to protect your computer from your own browser. What IE amounts to is a trojan horse that hides another trojan horse, and that's the number one reason you should switch to Firefox or at least another more secure browser.

You were in denile? was it wet? =:0p Nah, I'm not in denial I'm very happy with my choice of web browser and disagree with you completely, I don't suppose there's much point in either of us trying to change each others opinion, all we can do is explain our experiences to one another.

[jrtman]

You were in denile? was it wet? =:0

Not only that, it was self-destructive and on many an occasion extremely frustrating, infuriating, and bad for my sanity... which brings me full-circle back to the whole self-destructive statement

I'm very happy with my choice of web browser and disagree with you completely, I don't suppose there's much point in either of us trying to change each others opinion, all we can do is explain our experiences to one another.

That's true. However, I can guarantee that if you were to spend one week with Firefox you wouldn't look at IE the same way you do now. Of course you'll disagree with that statement, I did too, but look at me now

[Paul]

You were in denile? was it wet? =:0

Not only that, it was self-destructive and on many an occasion extremely frustrating, infuriating, and bad for my sanity... which brings me full-circle back to the whole self-destructive statement

You didn't get his joke.

Last edited by Paul on Thu Apr 27, 2006 7:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.