Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Firefox vs Internet Explorer (IE)
Well, I have tested it out for a couple days and I must admit 2 things. 1) I like the firefox interface and 2) I hate the mozilla browser. At this point you might say, wait aren't they the same thing? Well, simply put the answer is no. Firefox is an extention of the mozilla browser and is mainly a reworked interface. The engine behind it all is still mozilla. I quite like many of the things that firefox attempts to do and I admire what it wants to be. However, I must say it kind of falls short on some of the basics. The main selling points to firefox are 1) Tabbed browsing - a quite nice feature that mainly allows for multiple windows inside one main browser. However, I'm not sure if this is a bug or not, but firefox's implementation of tabbed browsing gets significantly slow if used with a large number of tags. 2) Security - mainly this is achieved by higher default settings and by eliminating support for things such as activex 3) A built in pop-up blocker along with some other nice features such as google.com search integration 4) probably some other stuff like open source, smaller, quicker, etc.
However, let me say this much. Internet Explorer works. Plain and simple, if I want to see a web page and I want to ensure that it will behave the best as programmed, IE is what to use. As a web developer myself, I understand the need to write pages that are cross-browser compatible. However, it is also quite a pain and thus you make compromises usually by making things IE4+ and Netscape 6+, and we aim in many cases to be netscape 4+ and/or mozilla 1+. First off, a quick plug, if you don't have a current browser - fuck you for making my life difficult and go fucking download something decent, there is no earthly reason not to.
As a user, I must say that after a few days with firefox I am not completely sold.
1) Tabbed browsing - yes, this is nice. However its implementation is slow with lots of tabs. Also, with windows XP this "tabbing" is kind of built into the task bar for all applications. Plus, I can actually pop-up and read the titles of my "tabs" instead of guessing which one I want.
2) Security - yes, it is nice to have default settings that are more secure. However, as an intermediate/advanced user (someone who will actually appreciate things such as tabbed browsing and other productivity enhancements) - I am keen to keep track of security issues and just make it a point to make the correct adjustments to my security settings. Something that might be usefull would be a little script or something that will do a better job configuring the security setting for newbie IE users. As for holes, mozilla has just as many and while you can argue that less people will be attempting to exploit them - proper attention to security issues usually makes them neglible. You're probably more likely to unwarily screwed with some adware than you are to be infected by a virus. There are programs for this to help the unfortunate
3)I can achieve both of these functionalities by using the freely distributed google toolbar for IE. The toolbar also allows for more options and configurations to allow me to determine how I want to use it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that bottom line, I can get the same functionality from IE with a few tweaks as I can from Firefox. The big difference for me is the ability to view webpages without errors, mis-interpretted layouts, scripts that don’t work correctly and other pitfalls. I often have to open a page in IE to see if the problem is with the page's code or with the mozilla browser's lack of correct implementation. And why should I have to use two browser's? Even the firefox website suggests that you will still have to open IE to use sites such as windows upate. Bah! I say, why change browswers when I will just have to change back.
Two other words. Microsoft - get your act together, lets see some browswer improvements. Warning, don't limit it with things such as an integrated MSN toolbar, open it up.
Also, will someone please implement a "save workspace" feature. There are many times when I am in the middle of researching something on the net and will have 10-15 windows open (same with firefox) and I will have to install a shareware to view a file or something silly like that and it requires a restart - then I am forced to go bookmark/save all the open windows when I am not even done with them. Saving the workspace so that I can open it back up and pick-up where I left off would be very helpful.
Also, a better bookmark manger for both browswers. I like the ability of firefox to export to an HTML file, but you can't import very easily. IE, I like being able to save a shortcut to my desktop and then being able to move it into my favorites later if I deem it to be tagged for more frequent/future use, however lack of any advanced tools built into the bookmark manager make it a little clumsy.
I think if microsoft picks up its head and tidies some things up, the browser wars will continue to be over and done with - and maybe then I can stop all this silly extraneous programming for out-dated shitty browswers.
-Cheers
P.S. A tool for testing websites' appearance/function on Safari while in a windows environment would be useful. I wonder if one is available - I will look later (with more open windows)
However, let me say this much. Internet Explorer works. Plain and simple, if I want to see a web page and I want to ensure that it will behave the best as programmed, IE is what to use. As a web developer myself, I understand the need to write pages that are cross-browser compatible. However, it is also quite a pain and thus you make compromises usually by making things IE4+ and Netscape 6+, and we aim in many cases to be netscape 4+ and/or mozilla 1+. First off, a quick plug, if you don't have a current browser - fuck you for making my life difficult and go fucking download something decent, there is no earthly reason not to.
As a user, I must say that after a few days with firefox I am not completely sold.
1) Tabbed browsing - yes, this is nice. However its implementation is slow with lots of tabs. Also, with windows XP this "tabbing" is kind of built into the task bar for all applications. Plus, I can actually pop-up and read the titles of my "tabs" instead of guessing which one I want.
2) Security - yes, it is nice to have default settings that are more secure. However, as an intermediate/advanced user (someone who will actually appreciate things such as tabbed browsing and other productivity enhancements) - I am keen to keep track of security issues and just make it a point to make the correct adjustments to my security settings. Something that might be usefull would be a little script or something that will do a better job configuring the security setting for newbie IE users. As for holes, mozilla has just as many and while you can argue that less people will be attempting to exploit them - proper attention to security issues usually makes them neglible. You're probably more likely to unwarily screwed with some adware than you are to be infected by a virus. There are programs for this to help the unfortunate
3)I can achieve both of these functionalities by using the freely distributed google toolbar for IE. The toolbar also allows for more options and configurations to allow me to determine how I want to use it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that bottom line, I can get the same functionality from IE with a few tweaks as I can from Firefox. The big difference for me is the ability to view webpages without errors, mis-interpretted layouts, scripts that don’t work correctly and other pitfalls. I often have to open a page in IE to see if the problem is with the page's code or with the mozilla browser's lack of correct implementation. And why should I have to use two browser's? Even the firefox website suggests that you will still have to open IE to use sites such as windows upate. Bah! I say, why change browswers when I will just have to change back.
Two other words. Microsoft - get your act together, lets see some browswer improvements. Warning, don't limit it with things such as an integrated MSN toolbar, open it up.
Also, will someone please implement a "save workspace" feature. There are many times when I am in the middle of researching something on the net and will have 10-15 windows open (same with firefox) and I will have to install a shareware to view a file or something silly like that and it requires a restart - then I am forced to go bookmark/save all the open windows when I am not even done with them. Saving the workspace so that I can open it back up and pick-up where I left off would be very helpful.
Also, a better bookmark manger for both browswers. I like the ability of firefox to export to an HTML file, but you can't import very easily. IE, I like being able to save a shortcut to my desktop and then being able to move it into my favorites later if I deem it to be tagged for more frequent/future use, however lack of any advanced tools built into the bookmark manager make it a little clumsy.
I think if microsoft picks up its head and tidies some things up, the browser wars will continue to be over and done with - and maybe then I can stop all this silly extraneous programming for out-dated shitty browswers.
-Cheers
P.S. A tool for testing websites' appearance/function on Safari while in a windows environment would be useful. I wonder if one is available - I will look later (with more open windows)
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