14 replies to this topic

[Darryl A. Armstrong]

I'd just like to say that I think FireFox is pretty darn awesome. My friend installed it last week on my machine and I've been thoroughly impressed.

[Ann D.]

I'm using it, and I love it. The only problem I have is that occasionally I have to use IE for some sites. But I can deal.

[theoddone33]

I can't live without tabbed browsing these days. It's the best web browsing innovation in the last... I dunno, 5 years. IE will be seriously behind until it adds tabs.

I think there are probably extensions you can use with Firefox to fool sites that require IE into thinking you're using IE. If it's a serious problem you might want to look for "useragent" switchers in the Firefox extensions.

By the way, Firefox used to be named Phoenix long ago... sadly it's actually declined in quality since then.

[Darrel Manson]

How does Foxfire compare with Netscape? I'm swapping out computers at Christmas. I've always used Netscape instead of IE and Outlook Express. I especially prefer Netscape to Outlook for mail. Netscape has never worked very well on things like live fantasy draft, so I'd crank up IE for those. When the time come to download browsers etc for new pewter, is Foxfire enough better to go through a new learning curve (remember I can almost get into movies with a senior discount)

[BethR]

How does Foxfire compare with Netscape?  I'm swapping out computers at Christmas.  I've always used Netscape instead of IE and Outlook Express.  I especially prefer Netscape to Outlook for mail.  Netscape has never worked very well on things like live fantasy draft, so I'd crank up IE for those.  When the time come to download browsers etc for new pewter, is Foxfire enough better to go through a new learning curve (remember I can almost get into movies with a senior discount)

I always used Netscape instead of IE (with a few exceptions, as you've noted), but Firefox blows Netscape out of the water. It's great. Our campus IT guys use it. And it takes up less space than Netscape. Learning curve? What learning curve? Sure, there are bells & whistles I could pick up on, but it's been virtually painless, and I'm no techie.

I'm pretty happy with the Mac's Safari browser (which is also uses tabbed browsing), but I'm still going to download Foxfire, 'cos it's the coolest. If our bank will allow us to use it instead of IE for online banking--yay!

[Darrel Manson]

are they related? googling <foxfire browser> starts off showing a link to upgrade to Netscape 7.2 built with mozilla and also having tabbed browsing.

[opus]

I'm pretty happy with the Mac's Safari browser (which is also uses tabbed browsing), but I'm still going to download Foxfire, 'cos it's the coolest. If our bank will allow us to use it instead of IE for online banking--yay!

I use Safari for pretty much everything, but whenever I hop on over to a PC, I use Firefox as much as possible.

BTW, if you're using a Mac running OS X 10.3 (aka "Panther"), you might want to try out Shiira. It's a small, open-source browser that's based on Safari's codebase, but with a few interesting enhancements. It's still in beta, but I've been impressed with it so far.

And yes, I have no idea how I was able surf the web before tabbed browsing. God bless whoever thought it up.

[theoddone33]

are they related? googling <foxfire browser> starts off showing a link to upgrade to Netscape 7.2 built with mozilla and also having tabbed browsing.

Yes, Firefox uses the same rendering engine as Mozilla/Netscape, called Gekko. Phoenix/Firefox was started to provide a wrapper around Gekko that was as small and fast as possible. It was always supposed to be "Mozilla Light" basically.

If you're a fan of Netscape's email, you may want to look into ThunderBird, which is basically "Mozilla Email Light", and is being touted as a serious competitor to Outlook Express. It may not be quite as useful as Firefox yet, but I got my mother to switch to ThunderBird/Firefox a while back, which says something.

And yes, I have no idea how I was able surf the web before tabbed browsing. God bless whoever thought it up.

Opera invented all major web-browsing innovations. It's a great browser, maybe even ahead of its time. Aside from tabbed browsing, the biggest innovation is mouse gestures. Sadly, even Firefox hasn't duplicated the niceness of Opera's mouse gestures yet. Not many people use Opera because it costs money, but I keep a copy around because it's handy sometimes.

Edit: Here's something funny. Talking about Opera made me check it out again. I think it will be my primary browser on Mac from here on out. It is... blazingly fast, and they've cut out the advertisements that took up half the toolbar in the free version. Plus, it has better tabs than anyone around and, of course, mouse gestures. Seems like an obvious choice for me.

[opus]

Edit:  Here's something funny.  Talking about Opera made me check it out again.  I think it will be my primary browser on Mac from here on out.  It is... blazingly fast, and they've cut out the advertisements that took up half the toolbar in the free version.  Plus, it has better tabs than anyone around and, of course, mouse gestures.  Seems like an obvious choice for me.

I haven't look at Opera in years. Maybe I should check it out again.

Mac users might find this recent browser comparison of interest, especially now that OS X users actually have a number of choices. Here's part 1 and part 2. The winner was a bit surprising to me.

[theoddone33]

(I actually liked Shiira quite a bit, also.)

[opus]

Mac users may be interested to know that the latest build of Camino was released earlier this month (12/6, to be exact). Camino uses Gecko, the same layout engine as Mozilla, to render websites - but the interface is drawn by Cocoa - OS X's interface engine. In other words, it's a Mozilla-based browser that looks like a Mac app - unlike Firefox, which, for all of its benefits, has a very PC-like look and feel to it.

[Darrel Manson]

Mozilla has a calendar program, Sunbird -- current version 0.3.1 I think. I just loaded it. Anybody have useful tips other than what I might stumble across on my own?

[Darrel Manson]

Thunderbird had an update today, but I had trouble installing it. It would never complete, and so couldn't open. After I found the support forum, others were having the same problem. Somebody said they got it to work after they disconnected their webcam. That worked for me. So if others of you get stuck, there is a possible solution.

[mrmando]

So, you can install Thunderbird as long as no one is watching you do it?