Fox ravages Explorer (Mozilla Suite)

Member Name: dididave

Product:	Mozilla Suite
Date:	06/05/05 (279 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy installation, Extra features, customisable, Safer than IE

Disadvantages: Some pages do not view properly, Some may prefer the alternatives

I have to admit that I went six months blissfully unaware of the problems a broadband user using Internet Explorer (IE as it shall now be known) experiences. It was not until I found my computer running slower, displaying irritating and often-inappropriate pop-up advertisements and crashing on frequent intervals despite regular security downloads from Microsoft. On running my spyware scanner and antivirus software I discovered my computer was plagued with Trojan's (software which consumes hard disk space and can make your computer behave strangely) and adware (programmes installed by websites to monitor and even hijack your internet usage). Irritated by the lack of protection IE was offering me I began looking for alternatives which provided more protection but the same simple user interface IE is famous for. A friend pointed me in the direction of Mozilla Firefox and I have not looked back since.

What is Mozilla Firefox?
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Mozilla Firefox is a web-based browser that is used to browse pages on the Internet. Those who use Internet Explorer will find it very similar in look and style and that is its aim. The idea behind Firefox is to provide a free (yes it's free!), secure alternative to IE with a similar user interface enabling new users to become instantly familiar. Indeed initially you may well wonder what the differences are.

IE versus Firefox
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The look and feel of both browsers are very similar. Buttons along the top of the page are standard with forward, back and home buttons virtually identical. Indeed the only true difference is in the terminology with refresh renamed reload and favourites now saved as bookmarks. The option to "drag and drop" websites onto a quick links bar remains unchanged for both browsers and you may find yourself wondering why bother switching at all?

It is in the little things in which Firefox is in so many ways superior to IE. One of the primary annoyances with IE is the amount of spyware it allows onto a system. Running the admittedly inferior Windows 98SE I would often run my spyware scanner to find forty plus items needing removal some of them deemed critical. Running Firefox this is down to one or two negligible objects inherent to the programmes I have installed (Windows Media Player and Realplayer histories being a good example). Firefox claims this is because it does not load the potentially harmful Active X controls inherent in the IE system. This is supported by the definition from netdictionary.com which describes Active X as, "A software technology developed by Microsoft that allows programmed capabilities or content to be delivered to Windows-based personal computers via the World Wide Web. Active X is notable for a complete lack of security controls; computer security experts discourage its use over the Internet." Add to this a pre-installed pop-up blocker which blocks most annoying ads and what we have is a far superior browser.

I remain unconvinced
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The main reason many others and I choose Firefox over IE is it entirely customisable to individual needs. Lets start with the fact the search engine is built into the toolbar. Discreetly placed in the right corner of the screen I have instant access to Google, Yahoo, Askjeeves and countless other engines if I so wish. It is in its ease of use that Firefox continues to surpass IE.

Tabbed browsing is perhaps my favourite advantage Firefox has over IE. Do you browse multiple websites perhaps browsing ebay while looking at dooyoo reviews and checking your email? The multi-taskers amongst us can do this by a simple open in tabs option in the bookmarks section in the Firefox toolbar. No more multiple and obtrusive windows instead have your webpages neatly organised in a filing style system along the top of the page. No waiting for separate pages to load either as they all load pretty much at once. What I also like is unlike IE there is no chance of you accidentally closing a window down as Firefox asks for confirmation first. No more losing dooyoo reviews due to a misclick (which I know I should prepare offline but I hate MS Word!).


There are an assortment of skins, plug-ins and themes available to make Firefox even more suitable to your needs. I hate the ads prevalent on sites such as dooyoo and yahoo yet by installing adblock as an add on to Firefox I merely have to right click on an ad to remove it. Indeed by clicking on adblock I can remove all the irritating ads on a page!

The amount of plug-ins and extensions available is amazing. Just last week a found a handy ebay one that with the right click of a mouse displays the negative feedback of a member. Of course none of this would be any good if Firefox was incompatible with popular software. Fortunately, Firefox is compatible with nearly all popular programmes including Java and Realplayer. Indeed downloading programmes such as these is made even easier with Firefox's simple download manager that shows how long an item has left and downloads it straight to the desktop. No more searching files and folders and you can even open the installation files from the download manager itself.

I cannot be bothered with the hassle
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Do not worry. Firefox is made for ease of transfer and automatically transfers all your favourites, Internet history, cookies and passwords to its system. At a small 4.7MB download it really could not be any easier. Firefox works on a fairly minimal PC and all operating systems Windows 98 onwards including Linux and Mac.

How fast is it?
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Fast! A little faster than IE with its basic configuration but you can tweak it to warp speed by typing about:config into the address bar and changing network pipelining to true then max requests to 500. Page loading then becomes virtually instantaneous.

Any disadvantages?
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A couple. It can be slower on initial start up than IE and some websites may not appear as they should under Firefox. However, this is usually a sign the website is insecure and such sites should probably be avoided. Nevertheless there is an extension available for Firefox called IE view which allows a page to be loaded in IE if necessary.

What about the other options?
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Of course there are other free browsers out there. Avant and Opera are supposed to be at the very least on a par with Firefox and certainly better than IE. However, I am happy with Firefox and considering the increased security and extra features would not at present consider switching to any other browser.

Where to download?
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For those who are convinced download Firefox at http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/. For those who are not enjoy your pop-ups and adware.

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