Goodbye MSIE, hallo Firefox

Introduction

I've been using Microsoft Internet Explorer for about the last 3 years as my main browser; prior to that I used various versions of Netscape. I liked Netscape; it was quick and easy to use and did pretty much everything that I wanted from it. However, along came the Google toolbar, and I really wanted to use it, but Netscape didn't support it. Consequently I switched to Internet Explorer to be able to make use of the utility. Now however I've switched again, and this short article explains why.

Problems with Internet Explorer

As time has gone on, I've become less and less enchanted with Internet Explorer; there's been little if any development of it and it's become subject to more and more problems as the rest of the net has moved on. I have various programs installed on my machine, specifically AdAware, Spybot Search and Destroy and PestPatrol. They help to keep the amount of pop-ups down, but increasingly programmers have found ways around them by changing popups for small flash animations that do exactly the same thing, but are much harder to block. Taking a quick look at the number of blocks on ads I got via the Google Toolbar, and estimating that it takes me a second to close an ad window, I think I've saved around 2 hours of my life so far, and that's great, but popup killers don't do much for these new annoyances, and I really don't want to waste those two hours by spending my time clicking close buttons. (Seriously, 2 hours is a lot of time - that's a whole football match, just clicking to close windows I didn't want to see in the first place!)

MSIE annoys me for a number of other reasons as well. I find it irritating that if I want two windows open at the same time, I have to open two versions of the same browser. That's absolute nuts! I've got the shell of the thing on my desk already displaying a page - why do I want to waste time and resources calling up another version of exactly the same thing? I've then got to flip back and forwards between them; it's another waste of my time that I could do without.

Other MSIE problems are that it's slow, clunky and very un-user friendly. I could go on and on, but you probably use it yourself, so you're going to be as aware of the problems as I am, so I'll move onto why I think Firefox is a superior product.

Why I use Firefox

• The installation is quick and simple. The download is small and it takes up less space than MSIE.
  • When installing you can copy all of your MSIE data across, such as bookmarks and passwords for example, so you don't have to start all over from scratch
  • Downloading is much faster
• There's a lot more functionality with Firefox
  • Tabbing. This is useful because I can stay in one browser window, open up a new tab and go to a different page, while keeping my existing page intact. Various utilities allow me to do this really easily - I can just highlight a URL, drag it to somewhere else on the page and release, and a new tab opens at once. I don't need to have multiple copies of MSIE open at the same time, using up resources.
  • Installing new utilities. Installing is a doddle, and I have a lot more control over installation, and it's very easy to clear out files (such as setup files) that I don't need any longer with one mouse click rather than having to go off and find them and delete them manually.
• Searching capabilities
  • I can add any number of search engines to a small window in the tool bar, so I don't need to waste time going to the site concerned. It's like having a toolbar for every search engine out there!
  • The Google toolbar works as well in Firefox as in MSIE - even better in fact!
  • I've installed a utility which allows me to highlight some text, drag it elsewhere on the page and release, and that text is sent straight to Google to search for.
• Other utilities
  • A lot of people have produced a lot of utilities for the browser
    • Copy URL and text and title in one go
    • I can use mailto: links directly with my Gmail account
    • I can delete elements of a page (such as adverts) and get a page down to bare bones before printing
• Different skins and themes
  • Not of any interest to me, but you can customise the look and feel of the browser very easily.
• Security
  • The popup blocking is far superior to that offered by MSIE. I've not seen a single popup since I switched
  • It blocks ActiveX by default
• Live bookmarks
  • Useful if you take RSS feeds, since you can read updates as they are syndicated.
• More reasons to switch
  • There are plenty of other reasons as to why you should switch from Explorer to Firefox

Links to useful Firefox utilities

• Adblock
  • adblock.mozdev.org
    • I've not need to download this since I don't see any unwanted ads, but it's there if you need it.
• Bugmenot
  • extensions.roachfiend.com
    • This evades those annoying registration details you have to input for reading content in newspapers and magazines by providing a nuser name and password ready made.
• Copy URL
  • copyurlplus.mozdev.org
    • Superior cutting and pasting
• Googlebar
  • googlebar.mozdev.org
    • Google toolbar - what else to say?
• Nuke anything
  • ted.mielczarek.org/code/mozilla
    • Kill the annoying elements of a page - great for printing!
• Tab browser preferences
  • www.pryan.org/mozilla/site/TheOneKEA/tabprefs/
    • Even more control over how tabs work
• Superdragandgo
  • superdragandgo.mozdev.org
    • The utility that allows you to open new tabs with a mouseclick and drag, or copy text for searching

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