Wednesday 13 April 2005

Firefox kicks explorer butt

I've become curious about a browser called Firefox since starting this blog, because according to my Site Stats about forty percent of you are using Firefox to read this instead of Microsoft Explorer or the other legion of other browsers. A quick check seemed in order to see how this blog looks with Firefox.

I have to say that I'm enormously impressed - and not just with my blog. :-) With Firefox I'm more than impressed: I love it! Explorer has gone, and I'm now I'm a big Firefox fan. It just would not be possible to do a blog such as this without it, for which most of you are no doubt very, very sorry. It opens quickly; easily integrates News Feeds; is smooth and logical; so easy to import existing settings? And those cool tabs I've lived with for a week but now couldn't be without! (Did I mention I like it a lot?) :-)

So what do you lot think about Firefox? Nearly half of you are using it - which clearly points to a discerning readership - so has anybody tried it and didn't like it? Are there any snags? Or great stories? Or tips? Anybody demur from my opinion of one week?

NOTE: Worldwide stats give different stats to my small sample (which clearly shows my discerning readership). Read those stats and find out about the browser wars here.

Find out about Firefox here, and download it here. You won't regret it.

And if you do start using it, here's a link to make your Firefox scream. It does!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Firefox is extrememly useful. Check out some of the extensions; "Adblock" is my favourite because it makes browsing a lot less annoying.

I.e. No more animated ads on Granny Herald!

Anthony

ZenTiger said...

I use both Firefox and Explorer. I have found some sites that one or the other browser will not work.

In general, Firefox does not quite display some pages as well, but is more forgiving.

A few times, its been with online banking or booking a plane flight, so I've been glad of the alternate browser (and its not just ActiveX controls, scripts and pop-up Window settings)

Rather than blind devotion to the one great browser (whichever one you deem to be infinitely more beneficial) it is nice (as always)having a choice.

I am surprised at the stats you mention. Does this mean less people are checking their blogs during working hours than I supposed?

Anonymous said...

Uh, duh! Firefox is better than IE? No, really?

Of course. I've never looked back since I got it a week after it launched. Have you tried some of the themes and stuff you cn get from the firefox website? There are some great ones.

Also, what you haven't mentioned here, is that (apparently) Firefox is much much much more secure than IE, and doesn't have the security loopholes that hackers are just dying to exploit.

I've kept IE but I now only ever use when I find a site that Firefox can't handle. And that is becoming rarer too. I read somewhere that the sites which won't display properly in Firefox are those in which the webdesigner has manipulated the code to get around and/or take into account all IE's little ticks and to make it display properly on IE. As a result, they bugger it up for the rest of us. Same, according to the article, applies for Opera.

Anonymous said...

As for that steroids link, oh my GAWD! That's impressive. Thanks.

Aaron Bhatnagar said...

Firefox is great om the mac too. If you get the chance, borrow a friends mac and try browsing websites with Safari - the Apple browser. It's a pretty nice browser and very very rapid to render pages.

Peter Cresswell said...

Wow, mention Firefox and all of a sudden of the last one-hundred visitors sixty-eight are Firefox users. How 'bout that?

I will keep IE for a while for reasons you lot have alrady canvassed. But happily all my usual visiting places are working fine with FF. :-)

Semaj said...

I Was blog hopping and came across your site, yes, FF is wonderful. I only use IE for format issues with my blog, sometimes.
FF runs so fast.

Paul McDonald said...

Cool blog! I look forward to reading more.

Peter Cresswell said...

Just found that FIrefox can't be used at MSN music. There's a surprise. :-)

Anonymous said...

PC, forgot to mention that presumabl Firefox's open source credo fits in very well with your Libertarian leanings too.

Berend de Boer said...

Many browsers identify as IE, while they might be something else such as Opera, or a search engine indexing your site. The percentage of people not using IE might be a lot larger than you think.

Richard said...

My favourite Firefox feature is being able to click on a link with the mousewheel and have the page load in a new tab. Great for traversing blogrolls and opening lots of blogs, for example. Clicking the mousewheel on a tab closes it, too.