Alternate Browsers have an edge over Internet Explorer
General Thoughts, Web Browsers November 13th, 2004
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Tags: Linux, Microsoft, Solaris - OpenSolaris - Project Indiana
Alternate Browsers have an edge over Internet Explorer
The basic fact that Internet Explorer comes preinstalled on all machines shipped with Windows Platform is a good enough pointer to why it is the most used browser out there. It is not the best browser in the market and it is definitely not the most secure (as Microsoft would want us to believe). It is shipped with OS that runs on 90%+ of all the computers there are. The People use it either because they do not know that there are better alternatives out there, or they do not consider browser an important enough tool in their daily activities to worth experimenting with.
There are other advantages that come with alternative browsers. One is the lack of complacency that Microsoft is displaying with Internet Explorer. With IE, you get fixes when Microsoft finds problems too big to be ignored. There are no active official forums or channels to ask for support (if there are, please make me aware of them). I once tried to get some help at microsoft.com newsgroups, but my problem disappeared in the millions of messages there.
Alternative browsers like Firefox and Opera on the other hand are actively developed and updated. You can find a new updated release almost every month (even daily in case of Firefox Nightlies). They are more open to ideas and suggestions. Bugs and Security issues are easier to submit. There are official IRC Channels with sometimes actual developers accessible in them. Forums are buzz with activities with regular users ready to help new users.
Another advantage with Firefox and Opera is the alternative platform support. Firefox is released for all the major platforms in Windows, Linux, and MacOS. Solaris also seems to have a Firefox version. The source code is free for anyone to download, so it can be made to run on any platform. Opera on the other hand have official installers available for Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, QNX, and many mobile platforms. Microsoft limits Internet Explorer to Windows platform on PC and handhelds. The advantage is even if you move to a different OS; you get access to your browser of choice. And there is a feature similarities, which makes it easy to transfer settings and preferences. Microsoft killed their only version of IE for Non-MS Platform when they decided to stop development of MacOS IE.
So, the logical step is… Move to alternative browsers. You get more freedom and better choices and features. Security comes as a perk.
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I have to agree! I always have problems with IE, so I use Apple’s Safari Browser, which is much faster, much better, much easier to use, and definately much cleaner. You can download it for free here or not in link form at http://www.apple.com/safari/ .
I triede Firefox and it had a tendency to crash. Safarai is altogether a more stable browser and the next version WILL have RSS support
I enjoy the popup blocker of firefox but the people that presume that open source software is more “secure” than the rest are crazy. Recently for every IE vulnerability addressed there are 3-4 for alternative browsers. They just don’t get as much publicity. Overall firefox is great, I just downloaded 1.0 yesterday.
I never said Firefox was completely secure. The difference is updates are out quicker. And, they are not as big as some of the Microsoft’s patches. infact both Opera and Firefox installers can be smaller than some of the regular MS patches.
I downloaded and used firefox 1.0 for the last couple og days–it is quicker–but while is has not crashed–I noticed my screen go blank for a few seonds between some web pages—100 percent no nothing—-the jury is still out here!!
I’ve tried Firefox but some pages don’t display properly. It’s annoying.
You’re right - some pages don’t display because developers are lazily building web sites which only cater to the great MS - if the web site is important then complain!
I run Firefox across a fleet of Mac OS X and Win XP machines and find Firefox very stable. The ability to use tabs and block popups make it a great browser.
I disagree that it is easy to report bugs with alternate browsers like Firefox. For a couple of weeks I used Firefox 1.0 pre-release as my primary browser for Windows XP. However, I found everytime my wifi connection dropped and reconnected Firefox would stop working until I had run IE to open at least one webpage and then restarted Firefox. I wanted to report the bug, but I found the instructions where too complicated. First I had to install Mozilla. Then I had to determine if the bug also occured with Mozilla. (Which means waiting for another WiFi drop while browsing with Mozilla.) Then if it failed with Mozilla check bugzilla for a previously reported Mozilla bug, otherwise check Firefox for a previously reported bug… If I wanted to use Mozilla, that is what I would have installed to begin with. How absurd.
I use both IE6 and Firefox. Generally, I find Firefox to be better because it is a bit faster, more stable (not crashed at all) and tabbed browsing. However, some major sites (eg. The Australian newspaper online letter page) use IE only Javascripts. You can also ad a plugin to Firefox that means pages that would normally open in a new window instead open in a new tab.
hmm. i never actually submitted a bug in firefox considering I use opera 95% of the times. But there is a bugzilla in place and there is IRC to help you with submitting bugs.
I would like to know where IE accepts people’s bug reports… :) Opera is pretty simple. I have done bug submission with Opera.
Maybe I over simplified the statement…
Oh yeah - and the popup blocker. Another point is the ease with which you can control and delete cache files, cookies, history, form content etc. I also agree that the process for reporting bugs in Firefox is far too complicated.
Another interesting thing in firefox is the search. The searh dialog does not block the browser window. Try CTRL+ F and check it out.
Also, firefox themes seem cool to me.
Opera is a good browser. But I think you have to buy it to get rid of the ads. Correct me please if I am wrong.
yes, you do.
I am using Firefox with XP and love it. I surf the web quite a bit and never had any reason to complain. Firefox is fast and allows me choices unlike IE.
I didn’t like Firefox because I couldn’t use it full screen. I am a full screen fanatic, I hate menu bars.
Hey bubba, try hitting F11 for full screen. I don’t know about Windows, but that’s the key command for full screen in Linux.
Also there’s a comment way up top about security: remember, just because there’s 1/3 or 1/4 the NUMBER of bug reports in IE, that doesn’t take into account the SEVERITY of those reports. I would rather use a browser with 1000 cosmetic bugs versus a browser with 5 critical security flaws.
In any case, some of the worst flaws in Firefox have so far been due to underlying vulnerabilities in Windows. And even problems that weren’t Windows-related were fixed very quickly (like hours, days, or weeks). There are bugs in IE that are 6-8 years old! (CSS rendering, PNG transparency, and much more) Firefox and Mozilla are just a lot more responsive to security and bugs, and a lot more adherent to standards.
To me, the best reason to use Firefox is that fact that it’s actively developed, and the developers are not a horde of money-grubbing monopolists.
opera goes pure full screen on F11. Firefox has addressbar which is kinda necessary. :)
Firefox has more page viewing area by default: the same cannot be said about opera. Its popup blocker is also better than both IE and Opera’s. The ieview extension allows to view the occasional noncompatible pages (notably http://www.windowsupdate.com). Lastly, it hasn’t crashed on my computer for ages, with 20+ pages opened. Also take note that my computer is a AMDK6-2/500 with 64mb RAM and running windows me. Lastly, firefox’s rendering engine, Gecko, is a lot faster and more compatible with website quirks than Safari’s rendering engine, which is based on KHTML. Also, Mac users have to option to install Camino, which is Mozilla’s native Mac browser: it integrates with Mac OS X’s contacts, spell checking and Rendezvous.
If you want to get support on MS products, try the forum links from the support.microsoft.com pages. It can take a bit of digging to get to the exact support forum you need, but there are a Lot of people answering tech questions in there.
Browsers are like zippo lighters, a dime a dozen. I just have never given it much thought. The “IE has flaws” tune is old, all software has flaws, and if you automate your windows updates…Windows and IE are secure. I have never been hit by a virus, or a Windows bug, because my stuff is patched. IE has never crashed on me….ever. It now has a pop-up blocker with SP2, and before that I ran google bar.
I have firefox 1.0 been using it, and its good. The tabbed stuff is about the only advantage I see. Its no faster to me, and it does not display some pages correctly. My work has the latest version of Exchange…2003 and the Outlook Web mail is incredible. Problem is you get the old dumbed down version with Firefox………..no thanks.
Don’t believe the Hype - yet… I wanted so much to dump IE for Firefox, but I can’t. Why… ? Some pages / websites do not display correctly. I can’t use my business internet banking with firefox because it does not handle the java correctly. Firefox is a burden for web designers like me.(getting FF to display pages like it should. It doesn’t always.) This is my 3rd try at it, I thought 1.0 they might have fixed the major flaws - but no, they haven’t.
I’d reccomend using both browsers - I mean no-one says you have to use only one right ? Use Firefox is you surf the seedy underbelly of the net such as xxx, cracks, hacks all that. Cause FF deals with malware, hijackers, trojans, popups etc etc much better than IE.
Use IE for everything else. At least it will display pages like they are meant to be displayed, and websites will function like they are meant to function.
Yes, you need to continue to use IE for some sites - at least until the site developers at each one decide that there are enough firefox user that they have to make the necessary changes.
In the meanwhile, I have set all my IE security “zones” to “high” - except for the “trusted” zone. I then add sites that I have to use IE for (like Windows Update) to my trusted zone. Oh - and I’ve turned off the “https only” check box in my IE trusted zone.
Have been using various alternatives for the past several years such as Firebird and now Firefox. As an IT consultant I’m online constantly and use my Dell M50/WinXP notebook as my primary tool to run my business. I started using Firefox around v. 0.7 (if I recall correctly), installed the Preview release about one month back and now v. 1.0. In sum it’s been a great tool. I run various malware detection/remediation tools on a regular basis and since moving away from IE I’ve seen Spysweeper, Pestpatrol and Spybot S&D largely come up with zip. Likewise have been moving clients over to Firefox and so far feedback has been quite positive. On the very small downside I have seen a few sites that don’t render correctly particularly when ctl+ is used to enlarge the text. Otherwise excellent results.
@ 21 :: Chris >>
I’m wondering if you’ve ever heard of W3.org?
If you call yourself a webdeveloper and seriously think that IE is better at displaying valid code than FF, then I feel very sorry for you clients…
I’ve been doing webdevelopment for some 5 years and I know what I’m talking about. My sites are usually 100% valid XHTML/CSS according to the validator at W3.org and yet the only browser that cannot display them correct is IE. (Try validating your sites and see what it says… I can tell you now that code generated by FrontPage never validates.)
When you have a site written in valid XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS2, you’ll see that Firefox, Safari, Opera and Konqueror all shows pretty much what you’ve asked. Then try watching that site in IE… If the site is something more than just very simple XHTML/CSS, you’ll find out that IE renders CSS rather badly.
But, the problem isn’t really the browsers, it’s the webdevelopers, who doesn’t care to write cross-browser compatible code. They just focus on the most widely used browser and don’t give a damn about the standards. Personally I’ve chosen to disregard IE and just write valid code.
The only reason I would ever have to fire up IE is for netbanking, which I hardly ever use, since I have no Windows[tm]… I guess I could run IE in Wine or something, but that would be like using ones brand-new Porsche for a toilet.
Ignorance is the problem, not the solution…
I think Opera has a lot more featurs than IE and I hv not used Fire Fix yet but Opera is dafinatly far better than IE.