I switched to Firefox about a week ago after having tested a few browsers over time but finding IE rendered faster (despite criticisms of other, my own testing substatiated that), however, this latest version seems to render just as fast as IE so that is no longer an issue. I've also moved to ADSL a month ago so that has helped as well.
What do I like about Firefox?
* Tabbed browsing - yeah but its not a biggy. You could get that in IE with Crazy Browser.
* Mouse gestures - This is the big one for me. With the Extension installed it is simply brilliant. I never have to right click an wait for a menu, or mouse to the top left icon, just to go back a page. Now it is just a right click and slide left and I'm back. Brilliant. I know Opera has had this for some time, but you either need to pay, or put up with the advertising with Opera.
* Adblock - this is just so useful that I wonder how I ever browsed without it. I no longer have to put up with those flashing banners anymore. As I find them I just add a suitably wildcarded filter to adblock and it is bye-bye ads. Love it.
* Privacy - I like all the options for easily clearing stuff out as well as setting up exceptions. I like to regularly clear out my cookies but there are a few I like to keep. It's good to be able to exclude these from the clearance. I also found that IE keeps its own database of visited sites beyond what shows in the cache. You can delete all your IE5.content files but if index.dat remains it is possible to spot old data from months ago.
* Bookmark Sorting - one feature of IE that I really liked is that it only displayed recently and regularly visited favourites which reduced the onscreen clutter. FF doesn't do this yet, but at least with the Bookmark Sort extension, it is possible to sort the bookmarks so that most recently visited ones rise to the top.
* Mozex allows me to view pagesouce code in my editor of choice (HTML-Kit). I know it takes longer than the internal viewer, but I still prefer the control over the syntax highlighting in HK .
* Lauchy has helped establish good linkage with my own choice of email clients (Pegasus), office applications (OpenOffice), and media players.
* Themes - I like the theme implementations and have opted for Qute which I find very easy to use.
So lots to like, only a niggle or two (bookmark closure, not as much status bar info), and another step further away from M$. I'm ready to jump to Linux, just waiting to clear some time for the initial learning curve.
What do I like about Firefox?
* Tabbed browsing - yeah but its not a biggy. You could get that in IE with Crazy Browser.
* Mouse gestures - This is the big one for me. With the Extension installed it is simply brilliant. I never have to right click an wait for a menu, or mouse to the top left icon, just to go back a page. Now it is just a right click and slide left and I'm back. Brilliant. I know Opera has had this for some time, but you either need to pay, or put up with the advertising with Opera.
* Adblock - this is just so useful that I wonder how I ever browsed without it. I no longer have to put up with those flashing banners anymore. As I find them I just add a suitably wildcarded filter to adblock and it is bye-bye ads. Love it.
* Privacy - I like all the options for easily clearing stuff out as well as setting up exceptions. I like to regularly clear out my cookies but there are a few I like to keep. It's good to be able to exclude these from the clearance. I also found that IE keeps its own database of visited sites beyond what shows in the cache. You can delete all your IE5.content files but if index.dat remains it is possible to spot old data from months ago.
* Bookmark Sorting - one feature of IE that I really liked is that it only displayed recently and regularly visited favourites which reduced the onscreen clutter. FF doesn't do this yet, but at least with the Bookmark Sort extension, it is possible to sort the bookmarks so that most recently visited ones rise to the top.
* Mozex allows me to view pagesouce code in my editor of choice (HTML-Kit). I know it takes longer than the internal viewer, but I still prefer the control over the syntax highlighting in HK .
* Lauchy has helped establish good linkage with my own choice of email clients (Pegasus), office applications (OpenOffice), and media players.
* Themes - I like the theme implementations and have opted for Qute which I find very easy to use.
So lots to like, only a niggle or two (bookmark closure, not as much status bar info), and another step further away from M$. I'm ready to jump to Linux, just waiting to clear some time for the initial learning curve.
My two cents.
I'm off to try it out; though
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