I'm sick of hearing people talk about how amazing FF is, when really, it's a crap browser. Even IE's faster. Most of you will say something like "tabbed browsing" or "free," well...Opera has that too, and Opera's the fastest, and I think safest browser out there. So yeah, I just wanna know why you guys like it.

I don't really mind what browser i use : i use IE or Firefox. If i can surf on the net, it's ok.

I prefer Firefox over IE, because:
1. Popups. I'm getting crazy of IE's incapability of blocking those bitches. I know you got special programs and stuff, but it just sucks.
2. Ctrl+T option. In IE, you got like 8 screens opened, resulting in just one 'button' on your windows bar, so you have to look everytime where the hell that specific site is. Real annoying. Firefox is just one screen.
3. Simplicity. Small top bar, but every info is listed. Gives you plenty of room to view the website, more then IE.
4. Picture loading. Works faster because of different type of loading.
5. Stability. Windows products crash faster. IE is no exeption.
6. Download window. Lists your downloads in one screen.

Though, there are some website features FF can't handle (like multi on-site popup menu's or certain movies). Therefore, I still use IE. By the way, I saw a preview of the newest version of IE, which got my points 1, 2, 3 and 4 included. I think the competition between both browsers is good. Makes them both better.

lufiamanaelf

Even IE's faster.

This assertion is based on what exactly?

GoldenApe

I prefer Firefox over IE, because:
1. Popups. I'm getting crazy of IE's incapability of blocking those bitches. I know you got special programs and stuff, but it just sucks.
2. Ctrl+T option. In IE, you got like 8 screens opened, resulting in just one 'button' on your windows bar, so you have to look everytime where the hell that specific site is. Real annoying. Firefox is just one screen.
3. Simplicity. Small top bar, but every info is listed. Gives you plenty of room to view the website, more then IE.
4. Picture loading. Works faster because of different type of loading.
5. Stability. Windows products crash faster. IE is no exeption.
6. Download window. Lists your downloads in one screen.

same reasons why i definitely prefer firefox over ie. other few reasons include

CTRL+Enter (also in ie) for www.website.com
Shift+Enter for www.website.net
CTRL+Shift+Enter for www.website.org

since ie is the business standard, it is definitely prone to spyware attacks and hijacks. i have tons of problems in IE since windows 95. opera is a good browser too and i also agree that it is the fastest. but i'm not that comfortable in using it as much as firefox. basically, it's all a matter of personal preference. if you're good with ie then use it to all your heart's content. =)

I personally don't really like any of the browsers out there. I'm a man who likes his HTML to be standards compliant and find ECMA script (JavaScript) to be more of an annoyance than useful. Not even Firefox is strict in its Strict mode but its more compliant than anything else I've tried.

lufiamanaelf

I'm sick of hearing people talk about how amazing FF is, when really, it's a crap browser. Even IE's faster. Most of you will say something like "tabbed browsing" or "free," well...Opera has that too, and Opera's the fastest, and I think safest browser out there. So yeah, I just wanna know why you guys like it.

It depends on the person's computer setup. To me firefox was faster than Opera. Also Opera was free but then it had adds till they removed them, so those who were using FF during that like it. I personaly like FF because at the time someone suggested that instead of opera to me and once i made the change i never wanted to change once i saw how fast it was.

IE is faster because it was put into windows itself, if your on boardband which is as fast as your computer you would think that, those on dailup however is a differnt story.

hatesyou

lufiamanaelf

Even IE's faster.

This assertion is based on what exactly?

Cold Hard Facts...
According to every independent benchmark IE6 performs better than FireFox 1.0 and 1.5
( http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html#winspeed )
In the above benchmark ie6 outperformed Firefox in 6 out of 7 speed tests (Opera proved to be the fastest though)!

All this thread is going to prove as i just realised is the fact that everyone is different and the programs that we each us on our own computers is going to be different. Some like IE, some like FF and some like Opera. Not to menchon the other broswers that are out there.

Theres no reason for a fight over it because if we all used teh same thing and did the same things then this would be a very boring world!

pbjorge12

Cold Hard Facts...
According to every independent benchmark IE6 performs better than FireFox 1.0 and 1.5
( http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html#winspeed )
In the above benchmark ie6 outperformed Firefox in 6 out of 7 speed tests (Opera proved to be the fastest though)!

interesting benchmarks. though results may vary from system to system. like what he says on the disclaimer, there is a possibility on obtaining different results for each of the browsers.

in my case, i only tried 3 browsers: namely ie, firefox and opera. i'm most comfortable with firefox since i'm more used to the shortcut keys and navigation. though i have all three installed in my pc. i am using ie in my office and i also have no problems with that. my only observation based from personal experience is that ie requires more proactive maintenance to make it run the way it should be (most of the spyware pop-ups that are exibited by spyware infection are usually ie-specific. to tell you the truth, there aren't any firefox hijacks i have personally seen... so far...) hopefully, ie7 fixed that...

pbjorge12

hatesyou

lufiamanaelf

Even IE's faster.

This assertion is based on what exactly?

Cold Hard Facts...
According to every independent benchmark IE6 performs better than FireFox 1.0 and 1.5
( http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html#winspeed )
In the above benchmark ie6 outperformed Firefox in 6 out of 7 speed tests (Opera proved to be the fastest though)!

This is obviously before the program is blighted by spyware attacks and whilst most here are likely on top of these, most in general I can assure you are not.

I use firefox because it's more secure, and has lots of extensions and themes. Opera is good too, but it still had problems viewing websites content, and the memory usage compared to the firefox is not so different anymore also. Though I have not tested the new version 9 of opera yet.

I used IE until something happened that screwed up IE that also screwed up Windows, causing me to reformat. Basically, I don't use IE because it is so closely integrated into the OS. As a precaution, I use Firefox because I know that if something screws that up, the chances of Windows also screwing up is really slim. However, if something happens to IE, then I'm under the impression (through horrible experiences reformating) that the chances of Windows going wonky on me are much greater.

So it's not a matter of browser preference for me. It's just a precaution against me doing something stupid.

I still use IE because I want to maintain my WindowBlinds skin in my browser window and in FF my skin doen't appear the way I want it to appear.

pomorales

I used IE until something happened that screwed up IE that also screwed up Windows, causing me to reformat. Basically, I don't use IE because it is so closely integrated into the OS. As a precaution, I use Firefox because I know that if something screws that up, the chances of Windows also screwing up is really slim. However, if something happens to IE, then I'm under the impression (through horrible experiences reformating) that the chances of Windows going wonky on me are much greater.

So it's not a matter of browser preference for me. It's just a precaution against me doing something stupid.

"The issue of not being part of the Operating System is an interesting one though that is frequently the subject of misunderstanding. IE is part of the Windows Operating System so that parts of the OS and other applications can rely on the functionality and APIs being present. IE in turn relies on Operating System functionality to do it's job. To be clear there are no Operating System APIs that IE uses that are not documented on MSDN as part of the platform SDK and available to other browsers and any other software that runs on Windows. The security of any browser is irrelevant to if it is part of the operating system. If we are to debate security of browsers then let's bring in relevant arguments and accurate details about different possible attacks rather than rely on the irrational fear that because IE is part of the operating system it must be exposing OS functionality to the web. This is not the case as any software has access to the same set of OS APIs and can therefore expose the same set of OS functionality as IE." ( http://blogs.msdn.com/dmassy/archive/2005/03/22/400689.aspx )

And also - FireFox is far from "secure."
As seen in Secunia's, an independent vulnerability finder, pie chart firefox is not invulnerable to attacks.

(108 security vulnerabilities total)

It also suffers from many of IE's problems

"Visit the same page in FF and, with the JRE up and running, the below happens. Being a curious soul, I agreed to the install - and quickly wished I hadn't! In a flurry of remote downloads, numerous changes to the registry took place and a sizeable amount of IE specific installs began downloading. Amongst the assortment was DyFuCA, Internet Optimizer, ISTsvc, Kapabout, sais (180 Solutions), SideFind, Avenue Media and something called djtopr1150.exe lurking in the Temp folder."
http://www.vitalsecurity.org/2005/03/firefox-spyware-infects-ie.html

"Earlier this week, I blogged about a site doing a bunch of different exploits, depending on what you are running. One of the things the site will do is detect if you have Firefox, and attempt to exploit it, using the InstallVersion.compareTo() vulnerability. There are actually a number of sites running this exploit, and one of our researchers, Adam Thomas, was kind enough to take some pictures. Going to a site with an older version of Firefox got him just a bucket-load of Spyware."
http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/pssstyou-wanna-see-firefox-exploit-in.html

"Internet Explorer with Windows XP Service Pack 2 installed provide the same level of Spyware security as Firefox. SP2 includes a built-in Pop-up blocker, a Download installation warning system and removes MSJVM from the system. This eliminates all the known security exploits some Spyware applications used to auto install themselves. Anyone who claims Internet Explorer cannot be secured from Auto-installing Spyware either doesn't know how or is lying."

Most of the info I am quoting has been gotten from this website - http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/FirefoxMyths.html

And as a "disclaimer" - None of my posts are meant to incite argument or flames. I am just playing the devil's advocate and wish to get the truth out and dispell many firefox myths...