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Thoughts on Firefox
So, on the urging of several people, I'm giving Firefox a spin. This means between my work computer and my two home computers, I'm now using four major browsers, 5 if you count different versions of Netscape. (NS 4.7, NS 7, IE 5, Safari and Firefox.)
So, my thoughts on Firefox.
The good:
It's fast. God, is it fast. I can't believe how quickly pages load. For this alone, I downloaded it for my home computer after trying it out at work. It's also really small and tidy. Both NS and IE have become such bloated monsters that this is a nice change.
I like the tabbed browsing (I've heard you can enable it for Safari too, but haven't tried) since I habitually have multiple windows open at once. I like the pop-up blocker too, but need to figure out how to disable it for certain pages where it blocks legitimate content.
Like Netscape (unsurprisingly) it has useful status and error messages, unlike IE's stunningly unhelpful "loading page" and "page cannot be displayed".
The bad:
It multi-tasks worse than (the new) Netscape. I like to have several windows open at once and have something loading or downloading in one or two of them while I read the content in another. Especially when javascript-based downloads are going on (something that happens frequently on certain sites I use at work) the program likes to freeze up and display the Spinning Beachball of Doom while it finishes one task before starting another.
When the downloads window is at the front, the menu commands don't work.
I don't like the interface for editing bookmarks. It's very clumsy and counter-intuitive. It might get easier once I work with it a bit more. All I'll say for it is that it's better than IE.
The browser crashes on some sites -- certain javascript and/or pop-ups seem to cause it to choke. Unfortunately one of these sites is a weather site I check frequently.
Can't import my bookmarks at home. I don't know why not; it imported my NS bookmarks at work with no problem, but it can't see the other browsers at all for some reason.
Final verdict: I wouldn't want it as my only browser, mainly because it's buggy enough that I'm not confident it would load every page accurately. But between the speed and the pop-up blocker, it makes a really good all-purpose surfing browser. Between Firefox and Safari, I think Safari has a slight edge because it doesn't have as many negatives as Firefox does (but it's not as fast). Both are miles ahead of IE, and, to a lesser degree, Netscape.
So, my thoughts on Firefox.
The good:
It's fast. God, is it fast. I can't believe how quickly pages load. For this alone, I downloaded it for my home computer after trying it out at work. It's also really small and tidy. Both NS and IE have become such bloated monsters that this is a nice change.
I like the tabbed browsing (I've heard you can enable it for Safari too, but haven't tried) since I habitually have multiple windows open at once. I like the pop-up blocker too, but need to figure out how to disable it for certain pages where it blocks legitimate content.
Like Netscape (unsurprisingly) it has useful status and error messages, unlike IE's stunningly unhelpful "loading page" and "page cannot be displayed".
The bad:
It multi-tasks worse than (the new) Netscape. I like to have several windows open at once and have something loading or downloading in one or two of them while I read the content in another. Especially when javascript-based downloads are going on (something that happens frequently on certain sites I use at work) the program likes to freeze up and display the Spinning Beachball of Doom while it finishes one task before starting another.
When the downloads window is at the front, the menu commands don't work.
I don't like the interface for editing bookmarks. It's very clumsy and counter-intuitive. It might get easier once I work with it a bit more. All I'll say for it is that it's better than IE.
The browser crashes on some sites -- certain javascript and/or pop-ups seem to cause it to choke. Unfortunately one of these sites is a weather site I check frequently.
Can't import my bookmarks at home. I don't know why not; it imported my NS bookmarks at work with no problem, but it can't see the other browsers at all for some reason.
Final verdict: I wouldn't want it as my only browser, mainly because it's buggy enough that I'm not confident it would load every page accurately. But between the speed and the pop-up blocker, it makes a really good all-purpose surfing browser. Between Firefox and Safari, I think Safari has a slight edge because it doesn't have as many negatives as Firefox does (but it's not as fast). Both are miles ahead of IE, and, to a lesser degree, Netscape.