Seeing all this talk about FireFox has got me intrigued. But, I have a few questions about it that hopefully some of you can answer for me. I am always nervous about installing software (in particular open source stuff) on my machines.

I see Firefox is from Mozilla, but I thought Mozilla was really just Netscape. I have always had problems with Netscape since about version 4, so I've always stayed away from it. From what I've read it seems Mozilla and Netscape are related but not the same thing. What's the deal here?

After Googling Firefox, I saw a lot of claims that it was more secure than IE 6. However, most of these claims seem to be written before XP sp2. Is anyone aware of an IE 6 (on xp sp2) vs. Firefox security comparison?

About the only benefit I can see with Firefox is increased W3C compliance. (I comfortably run multiple instances of IE when browsing, essentially accomplishing the same thing as the tabs in FireFox I think). Is there something else I'm missing?

You're right about the comparison between SP2 and FF. They're about on equal ground as far as security goes. However, the FF redering engine is a rewritten mozilla engine. They used alot of the same stuff, but tweaked it all to ****.

i surely wouldnt call sp2 "secure" by any stretch of your imagination!
they covered up a few holes and they are already filled with new ones

netscape wasnt mozilla they just tried to use the underlying mozilla engine, and netscape 4 was the worse thing to happen to the net since m$! haha

one of the main differences between the 2 is that firefox doesnt let certain activex scripts to run so u dont get most of the spyware and script born virus'

also firefox has a very nice google search built in and then there is the built in popup blocker that smokes anything on ie, then there are the extensions and themes, then there is the fact thats its a compliant browser, and then there is the developtment tools and there is tabbed browsing and then there is the much smaller foot print, then there is the etc, u get the idea

firefox is a modern browser, ie is not
u can also easily customize it to your tastes in seconds

check out www.browsehappy.com

and welcome to the good side!

The FireFox rendering engine beats the pants off of IE not only because it is compliant but it's just plain faster! By a long shot too. I'd NEVER say that IE is "secure" - It's a part of the OS for crying out loud. If by any chance your browser gets hacked, yer screwed as is evident by all the anti-hijacking tools out there. Lofty is right - SP2 just patched a few holes and more are being found everyday - it's the nature of the beast that IE is...untill MS decides to change the architecture and philosophy of how they look at the web browser - it will ocntinue to be riddled with security holes.

Firefox is a web browser plain and simple. It makes no claims to be anything other than that. It's lightweight, fast, compliant, secure, and extensible. There are new add-ons being created everyday for Firefox, whereas you';ll have to wait on MS for the next version of IE...that is if they can spend any time on R&D between security patches...

Get Firefox & you will begin to experience the web the way it SHOULD be...Secure & Accessable...

lol no doubt!

i have to say one of my fav extensions is foxy toons

puts your choosen media player controls at the bottom of the browser for easy control

stupid maybe but it let me get rif of ms media player as it was the only one that u could control from taskbar

now my belpved jetaudio has same funtions

Sage - the Integrated RSS Reader - gotta love it

Ok, I may have to try this out (on a virutal machine for now).

loftboy - don't you get nervous installing all these 3rd party plug-ins on your machine?

I don't... I'm usually a pretty good judge of what's going to cause problems and what's not. Of course sometimes I'm wrong, but usually all the info that you need you can find on the dev's website or via google...

do i get nervous? not at all

firefox isnt like ie, there is nothing to be nervous about, espesially when u find the extensions on the mozilla site.

and they dont install per say like they have to on ie, there are not .exe files, i believe they just write into an xml file.

just like with thier themes, nothing harmful at all

i wouldnt even bother doing it on a virtual machine

u have to get the whole paranoid IE thing out of your head, there are not even close to being the same

once u do it u will start to understand


welcome to the good side!

about u being comfy with multiple ie windows open
i was too, i thought "who needs tabbed browsing?"

i was wrong, dead wrong
tabbed browsing is amazing!
plus when u have a lot of ie windows open it really drains your system resources, not that way with tabbed browsing.

and with ff's built-in popup blocker, u dont have pop ups going off everywhere and not knowing which window its coming from

but when u do get ff and open it up, right click on the top bar and customize it before u begin. the one thing i didnt like about it right away was there wasnt a go button but once i right clicked there it was just drag and drop till ur happy

ewww the go button CLICKER CLICKER!!! *points* I removed all but Stop, the address bar, and my developer tool bar... everything else I use the keyboard for... (alt+left arrow = back, alt+right arrow = forward, f5 = refresh, etc)... but I can't remember what the stop key is... ever.

thats funny, i took my stop button off
i have forwards and back, refresh, home, copy , paste, print, email, addy & go & dev & foxytoons

lol

*brreeeaaattthhh* Dave, I am your father *breeeaatthhh* *saber sound*

wouldnt that mean i'd have to "off" u?