Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Got Firefox!

Have finally taken the advice of my many technologically advantaged friends and downloaded Mozilla. This sounds like something that belongs on a pizza but it’s actually a much more useful web browser than Internet Explorer – so I’m told by everyone who’s used it. I’m willing to believe this after my recent experiences with blasted Windows XP.

I have the standard version of Mozilla Firefox, not the customised one, since I don’t plan to do anything fancy with it yet. So far it doesn’t feel all that different from IE, except for the undeniable advantage that you can open several sites within the same window. Will learn about other features over time. No major unfamiliarity problem (which, apparently, is one of the reasons many people are loath to abandon IE – interesting how the Microsoft monopoly snowballs because of such silly little reasons). And I’m told it has a built-in anti-virus/firewall/whatever. All good.

(And yes, this is my first post from the new browser.)

Also, read this.

24 comments:

  1. Welcome to the world of Firefox. :D hope you enjoy using it.

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  2. welcome to enlightenment !!

    Firefox will get u addicted.

    Try out some of the plugins on their site. They are awesome.

    And to take it to the next step try the greasemonkeyed.com plugins. They are easy to install and do a tremendou s lot.

    And tabbed browsing....WTF is IE still thinking....they could have introduced it in a SP.

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  3. Welcome to Nirvana! Now, I won't go around spamming you with multiple useful extensions available. However trust me, anytime you think "what if FFox could do this...?", most probably there is a Firefox extension to solve that prob.
    Hope that IE extension in prevs comment did it's job. Will just add one more. An extension for BugMeNot(bugmenot.com). It's one of those extensions, I can't believe people still don't use it. Install this and never again you will write in parentheses "(free reg. reqd)" or "grab it before it goes behind a free reg. firewall", for all those hundreds of sites(NYT et al) we come across.

    Enjoy :)

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  4. It has a popup blocker - no firewall and AV. Download Zone Alarm if you want the former.
    DD

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  5. Whoa! Firewall, Anti-virus? No sir, not at all! Firefox is generally a more secure browser (but it has also had security issues) and comes with a built-in popup blocker. But there's no built-in firewall or AV.

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  6. There's a Microsoft versus the-rest-of-the-world war brewing here. Stay tuned.

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  7. I've had some problems with basic functions of Firefox.

    One is, it tends to freeze when I click on a link to a PDF. It loads for awhile, but then never opens it. I have to right-click and "Save as..." to get PDFs in Firefox.

    There are also sometimes problems with multimedia at some sites.

    Now that IE has improved/resolved its spyware problem with Microsoft Anti-Spyware and improved security in IE (i.e.,it doesn't download software without asking you), I may go back.

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  8. me too

    ...has downloaded Mozilla, ie

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  9. First time to this place. Nice one.

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  10. LOL - you really pick some prickly issues.

    *wondering whether all those links will ever be clicked upon*

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  11. Hi mr.jabberwock..... How r u?? I am in the pink of my health... Glad 2 knw tat u hav dloaded firefox.... Nxt time around try 2 catch a flyin fox!!!! Howz ur wife's leg pain??? Ask her 2 take care.....

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  12. IE is a pain. Perhaps it will stop being a pain in the near future.

    In the meantime, I have Firefox. And I'm happy - it does NOT freeze, hang, trip or blow gum.

    J.A.P.

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  13. Btw, Yahoo has a vested interest in plugging IE. The Yahoo-SBC browser is based on IE. Also, they are rivals to AOL, remember?

    Amardeep - that may be caused by an incorrect version of Adobe Reader. Download 7.0 and it shuld be okay. I've never faced a problem with PDFs.

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  14. I tried firefox and found it disappointing. I tried it first on Linux, where it kept crashing and then on Windows, same problem. It has huge issues with CSS compatibilty (IE rocks on this count), freezes, hangs and crashes. My preferred browser is Opera. It's mail client is awesome. The RSS feed reader is mindblowing. It is fast and stable. Opera also has some issues with CSS, but on the whole it is a magnificent piece of software.
    Firefox just seemed like so much hype to me. Hope your experience is different.

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  15. Opera 8 is nice and quick but it has hassles with online chess-playing sites and also with handling passwords on some secure banking and web-trading sites. It also doesn't have a decent e-mail client. And, it has the ad-bar installed unless you buy the bloody thing.

    If you really want perfect IE compatibility without going through IE related hassles, try Netscape 8 - that has IE embedded so it can effectively mimic the MS experience if a site is not configured to work with anything else.

    Netscape 8 is built around the mozilla engine so it offers a firefox-like experience most of the time. Netscape 8 also has a very good automatic security configuration which allows you to blow all usage tracks, remove cookies, etc with one-click. (very useful if you're surfing porn on the boss' machine)

    Unlike IE, Netscape doesn't have the Alexa spyware embedded, which automatically transfers info back to MS via Alexa. (You can remove and deregister Alexa without loss of browser functionality but it's probably illegal to do this according to the IE EULA)

    But compared to firefox, Netscape 8 is a long download. And nothing gives you the access to hundreds (thousands) of freaky third-party plug-ins that firefox has.

    Basically Jai, my advice would be to stick to Firefox or enhance the experience by going to Netscape 8 if you intend to surf porn on a comp you're sharing with somebody else.

    DD

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  16. also useful thing to do with Firefox: the scroll wheel on your mouse can be used to click on a link- this will open it in a new tab. no need to right click and do 'open in new tab'

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  17. [Firefox] has huge issues with CSS compatibilty (IE rocks on this count)...

    Ummm. Misconception. That statement was accurate, maybe in the year 2000, but if you've kept up with the progression of CSS over the last 4-5 years, you know how hard the tables have turned. IE really is holding the web back.

    And on the freezing thing, it's probably caused by a bad extension. That, and the memory bloat if you have lots of extensions and don't shutdown your browser for days.

    The rule seems to be, only install extensions you really use.

    Check this link to see what the web could have looked like if IE had decided to implement more support for CSS than just CSS 1.0 core.

    Specifically, check the "Complex Spiral" and "Pure CSS Menus" links. All that with no Javascript!

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  18. IE has popup blocker built in. If you want tabbed browsing capabilities get http://toolbar.msn.com/.

    Or use

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  19. Amandeep,

    Regarding your problem with opening PDF files in Firefox, I had a similar problem. I am using Firefox 1.0.6.

    I was able to solve the PDF Reading problem as follows:

    In the toolbar at the top of the screen click on Tools > Options

    Click on "Downloads" in the sidebar

    Click on "Plug-ins".

    This should display a list of file extensions for which Plug-ins are currently enabled. Find the .PDF extension in this list and uncheck the check mark against it. A dot will replace the earlier check mark, and the installed plug-in for PDF files will be disabled. Click OK and then again OK to get back to the browser window.

    Once a Plug-in for a file type is disabled as described above, Firefox downloads files of that type rather than trying to process them with the enabled Plug-in.

    The first time after this that you browse a site and click on a PDF link on that site, a dialogue box should appear asking you which file you would like to use to open the downloaded file. You need to know/find out where on your PC the Acrobat Reader is installed. For specifying the Reader file Click on the drop down menu arrow in front of the "Open with" box. Choose "Other...", navigate to the folder which has the Acrobat Reader file, and selct the Acrobat Reader file.

    The name of the Reader file should now appear in the "Open with" box. Check that this reader file name is correct. Then check the "Do this automatically for files like this from now on" box at the bottom of the dialogue box.

    You should be able to solve your PDF reading problem with this procedure.

    By the way, if you again click Tools > Options > Downloads, in the "File Types" pane you should see the PDF logo, and in front of it, "Open with" followed by the name of the reader file selected by you.

    Hope this works for you. Please post back and let me know if it does..

    PS

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  20. Hi Amardeep

    Sorry for getting the name wrong on my earlier post and addressing you as Amandeep.

    PS

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  21. Pankaj,

    Thanks for the detailed pointer. I should have done it long ago. Seems to be working just fine now, and one of my biggest pet peeves with Firefox is solved!

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  22. Amardeep,

    Glad to know you the PDF problem is gone now.

    BTW I like your blogs on the Lehigh website.

    PS

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  23. Pankaj,

    Kuddos!..Buddy. Thanks millions for the fix re: PDF's in FireFox...driving me bonkers until I unearthed your comments and instructions.

    Your instructions worked like a charm.

    Best,

    /jc

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  24. btw: if you dont know already... use Foxit Reader instead of that bloatware called Adobe Reader. Foxit loads in a split second, and has most of the useful options that are included in Adobe Reader, as well as some of the options you don't get! :D

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