[Archived] Firefox

[Paul]

From time to time I read comments here and other places recommending Firefox. My lad has it installed and I tried it recently only because he'd left his desktop open and I wanted to quickly access the office. Firefox seemed to be marginally quicker than IE and I quite liked the look of it. When I tried to run "gotomypc" (a piece of remote access software) Firefox simply wouldn't let me, the moment I logged on to IE I got the software to run as usual.

So the question is this. Is Firefox really superior or is it just something used by folk who dislike Microsoft and IE? Why would Firefox make it so difficult (I gave up) to run a very simple piece of software like "Gotomypc" which runs beautifully in IE? I was considering installing Firefox but can't see any point if it then requires a lot of messing around to run very simple software?

[dave birch]

I've found firefox to be heaps quicker than IE.

With regards to your problem, get on the Mozilla website, the answer may well be there. I've found their website to be extremely informative.

[Guest Kamy100]

Been using firfox for 3 years and it much much better that IE. It is deffo faster than IE and stops all of those annoying "popups", the other thing is that IE used to crash a lot whereas Firefox very rarely does.

[LeChuck]

Paul...Firefox doesn't make it difficult to run programs, PLEASE don't make that mistake.

Lazy programmers don't make their programs browser independent (and believe me, it's not difficult to do), it's nothing to do with Firefox. Having said that, it's extremely rare to find a program now that will only run in IE. In the current browser market it's ridiculous that a program can't run on different browsers - it's gotomypc that is the shoddy piece of software here, not Firefox.

To answer whether it's better or not; it's faster (even by default, tweaks can make it even more so), highly customisable (great for removing adverts/flash content etc) and more secure.

Virtually all of the 'new' features added to IE for the last few versions have been stolen from Firefox or another open source browser, like tabbed browsing for example. If these superior alternatives didn't exist we'd probably still all be using a basic version of IE5 or something.

[dave birch]

LeC, if Paul emailed firefox about gotomypc, they'd have something back pretty soon I reckon.

[LeChuck]

Worth a try I guess, and another plus point for open source browsers.

I've seen adverts on TV for that program so I'm surprised someone hasn't picked up on it already. I just Googled quickly and it seems gotomypc claims to support Firefox, but there seems to be a lot of people complaining about it crashing.

[Paul]

OK that's all interesting. I shall persevere, having a problem the first time I used Firefox was a bit off putting hence the post on here.

I don't know if GoToMyPC is good or bad software but I've run it for three years with only one issue which occurred because I hadn't loaded an update. I think it's marvellous software as for $100 per annum I can access all my office stuff from anywhere in the world. If I want to work from home, hotel etc I just fire up the web browser and off I go. I'm sure there are other alternatives but this one works for me and the cost is negligible.

[LeChuck]

Well...'shoddy' was probably the wrong word, but it is irritating when companies help Microsoft monopolise parts of the market, it's not like they need any. The market share of non-IE browsers is now such that it's incredibly irresponsible (to say the least!) of companies to do it.

I think Firefox can suffer from it's naturally innovative nature sometimes, almost constantly adding new features does put pressure on developers to 'keep up' so to speak. Like I said though, if it wasn't for Firefox (and others) coming up with these features browsers probably wouldn't have evolved at all.

Anyway...a little Firefox add-on which makes it a little less painful when a site/application is IE only: IE Tab. Adds the capability to open an IE tab within Firefox, as well as changing which browser your current tab is open with by a single click in the taskbar.

[AndyH16]

Flicked through a few of the replies, but I'm certain Gotomypc works with firefox as I'm sure I've used it myself (or one of the other Goto range from Citrix). Looking at their site it uses Java and supports Firefox. The only thing that wouldn't work with Firefox was if it was an ActiveX control. I've had a lot of experience with Citrix stuff and it wouldn't be like them to only create an ActiveX method as they're a multi-OS company...if that makes sense.

[Eddie]

Certainly prefer Firefox, although over the past two or three months it has started to crash a lot more regularly.

[DE.]

Firefox is far better than IE for me, for most of the reasons stated previously. Also uses up less resources, so my PC runs faster than if I'm using IE.

[b12_simon]

Firefox is far better than IE for me, for most of the reasons stated previously. Also uses up less resources, so my PC runs faster than if I'm using IE.

Not necessarily - parts of IE are always sitting in memory so it launches quicker. I'm not sure if you can turn that off. Personally I prefer Firefox as it's so much less annoying.

[LeChuck]

Not necessarily - parts of IE are always sitting in memory so it launches quicker.

Only because Microsoft writes part of IE into the startup sequence, a little bit presumptuous on their part you have to say.

You can do the same with Firefox too if you want, just install this Firefox Preloader. Like IE, some parts of Firefox will run in the background at startup, making the loading time significantly faster.

By the way...anyone who finds Firefox is crashing more - the problem is 99% likely to be with one of your add-ons/plug-ins. Mine started doing it after a recent update and it was because my Flashblock add-on wasn't up to date. An add-on has always been the root of the problem in my experience.

[DE.]

Not necessarily - parts of IE are always sitting in memory so it launches quicker. I'm not sure if you can turn that off. Personally I prefer Firefox as it's so much less annoying.

IE may launch faster, but when it's running it uses up far more resources than Firefox (on my system anyway). With IE open I can't even have Winamp open at the same time, because it causes windows to slow down and/or crash. Never had that problem with Firefox.

[Iceman]

Anybody using Safari or Opera as their browser? I remember a website where they did tests and compared IE, Opera, Firefox and Safari. It was interesting that Opera had alot of advantages over the rest, but cant remember what they were.

[Mc Love]

According to some tests carried out, Chrome is the fastest browser but to the untrained eye, you would not notice. I use it from time to time.

Love the auto-pager function with firefox, come in super handy on this forum and many others, also good when using google, it makes you stay on the same page even if there are more pages!

[Paul]

That's interesting. When we get a little quieter I'll have a play with it. Thanks

[OhmiBRFC]

Anybody using Safari or Opera as their browser? I remember a website where they did tests and compared IE, Opera, Firefox and Safari. It was interesting that Opera had alot of advantages over the rest, but cant remember what they were.

I've been using Opera for years!