[Archived] Goodbye Internet Explorer

[Tom Pringle]

It you want secure system and fast browsing, go Linux and get rid of MS crap completely.

I'm desperate to install Linux again but i'm waiting for my new hard drive to arrive (Or should that be waiting for money to get one!) so i can make myself a little tester system.

Tried it a while ago and had nothing but trouble.

[LeChuck]

That's just utter nonsense.  Microsoft do indeed make some good programs

Micro$oft don't make any progammes at all.

Hmmmm...Windows Media Player is easily the best media player I've used, and I've tried a hell of a lot, so I'd say that's a good program.

[BMan]

For all IE browser users, I suggest you give Avant Browser a try. I've been with this nifty piece of software since the early days of its development and it really is the dog's dangly bits.

Its features are too numerous to list here, but include:-

* flash animation & pop-up stoppers

* tabbed windows (only one entry on your Windows task bar)

* auto-page refresh

* built-in Googleand Yahoo search engines

* multi-page auto-load when you start the software

* user-definable url shortcuts

* full IE configuration compatibility

Give it a try - you won't be disappointed.

Well Pabby, I gave Avant a try

But unless I am not edumacated in using it, I have to say I still like Mozilla Firefox better.

The whole tabbing thing seems more convenient in Firefox then in Avant.

But thanks for the link. Always good to try new things

[Glenn]

I've been a Firefox user since it was Firebird Just about every machine I use regulary has it configured as it's default browser.

My only bit of advice is install the TabBrowser Extenion plug-in, so it will tab new pages by default. For web developers, the live-http headers plug-in is fantastic.

The only thing it lacks is the latest incarnation of the google toolbar (the one included is based on an older version) and it can take a bloody age to start, although once started it is MUCH faster than IE.

What's more, less and less websites won't reneder properly in it. I can't remember the last time I had to switch to IE to view a page. However, there are a few places that use some sloppy cookie checks and will warn you your browser doesn't support cookies (when it plainly does).

More and more users must be using it, 5% of all visitors to another site I manage are now Firefox users, whereas 12 months ago ALL the other browsers combined generated less than 1% of the traffic. Maybe Microsoft will lose the browser war after all.

[American]

That's just utter nonsense.  Microsoft do indeed make some good programs

Micro$oft don't make any progammes at all.

Hmmmm...Windows Media Player is easily the best media player I've used, and I've tried a hell of a lot, so I'd say that's a good program.

I MUCH prefer Real Player. Loads faster and doesn't take 10 seconds for the picture to come back up if you move the time bar forward.

[Derbyshire Blue]

Cheers Sam well pleased with the results so far….just one thing how do I reset my desktop internet explorer links on my desktop to Mozilla, when I double click Mozilla does take me there but still get the bar coming up saying internet explorer blah blah, just need to change them, how?

[samtheozzy]

Cheers Sam well pleased with the results so far….just one thing how do I reset my desktop internet explorer links on my desktop to Mozilla, when I double click Mozilla does take me there but still get the bar coming up saying internet explorer blah blah, just need to change them, how?

Promised i wouldn't reply again in this thread but hey, it would be rude not to under the circumstances.

I am not experiencing the same problem but some cursory googling suggests that the solution may be to disable DDE for the registered filetype (which i believe is (NONE) URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol). THis is done as follows:

***USE AT YOUR OWN RISK***

To disable DDE, open My Computer and select Tools > Folder Options > File Types. Select the registered file type that shows (NONE) URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol. Highlight it and select Advanced. In the advanced config, highlight Open and select Edit. Remove the checkmark next to Use DDE.

Again i stress that i don't have this problem so i'm not sure it will solve your problem. I did however do the above fix anyway and my computer didn't crap itself

NOTE: You will probs have to do the same for URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol with Privacy id you are linking straight to secure sites.

[Tom Pringle]

I MUCH prefer Real Player. Loads faster and doesn't take 10 seconds for the picture to come back up if you move the time bar forward.

Well, talk about different opinions!

I can't stand real player, got that stupid live update thing running in the background, takes too long to load on my machines and rips cds into a stupid format that only Real Player seems to support.

My iriver supports WMA files, therefore, i love it.

[American]

I MUCH prefer Real Player. Loads faster and doesn't take 10 seconds for the picture to come back up if you move the time bar forward.

Well, talk about different opinions!

I can't stand real player, got that stupid live update thing running in the background, takes too long to load on my machines and rips cds into a stupid format that only Real Player seems to support.

My iriver supports WMA files, therefore, i love it.

Probably a Mac vs. PC thing. On the mac the live update thing isn't on all the time. You can disable it on a PC if I remember correctly. For MP3s I use ITunes. Only real player for video.

[Parasyte]

WMP for video, and Winamp for everything else. WMP is good, but can take a while to load as it seems to be tempermental. Cant stand Real Player myself, but then again, I'm stuck in routine with WMP and Winamp, and I dont like change.

And RP seemed to havea thing against any Ogg Vorbis files.

[Dr Rich]

RealPlayer is a complete and utter pile of irritating crap. It is so poor it's unbelievable. Not a big fan of Media Player either, but it looks the best product ever when compared to anything from Real. And I use Mac and PC, it's slightly less bad on the Mac, at least currently, don't know how long that will last though. Generally use Quicktime myself.

[Tom Pringle]

I MUCH prefer Real Player. Loads faster and doesn't take 10 seconds for the picture to come back up if you move the time bar forward.

Well, talk about different opinions!

I can't stand real player, got that stupid live update thing running in the background, takes too long to load on my machines and rips cds into a stupid format that only Real Player seems to support.

My iriver supports WMA files, therefore, i love it.

Probably a Mac vs. PC thing. On the mac the live update thing isn't on all the time. You can disable it on a PC if I remember correctly. For MP3s I use ITunes. Only real player for video.

Ah explains everything.

Yeah RP isn't to bad on the macs at work. Prefer itunes on it though at times.

Quicktime isn't a bad video player either...

[samtheozzy]

WMP for video, and Winamp for everything else. WMP is good, but can take a while to load as it seems to be tempermental. Cant stand Real Player myself, but then again, I'm stuck in routine with WMP and Winamp, and I dont like change.

And RP seemed to havea thing against any Ogg Vorbis files.

My god i actually agree with you on something Parasyte. Realplayer is a horrible program that tries to be an all-in-one app (browser, media player, CD Burneretc) but just winds up feeling horribly bloated. All i want in a media player is for it to play media, anything else is unnecessary.

THanks for the info on the TabBrowser Extension Glenn, I was wondering how to do that.

[pg]

Legion - I like the way you think. If I wasn't married I'd probably want to have your babies

A good read on a 'true' innovator of the Silicon Age can be found is this book :

The New New Thing : A Silicon Valley Story, by Michael Lewis.

Amazon link

This is the story of Michael Clarke, the guy that developed Silicon Graphics, Netscape and much of the audio/visual compression technology that we use today. He was the first person to have three one-billion-dollar companies. He's also a bit of a looney.

Michael conceptualised the internet and modern-multi-media broadband before Bill Gates had ever coded a graphical user interface.

There are some interesting sections on the Internet Explorer vs Netscape battle as well.

Of course, one could argue that Clarke just ripped off the mozilla team anyway.... but that's a topic for another book.

Edited June 30, 2004 by pg

[Nate]

I had to use Mozilla for Uni this semester, for basic web design. I hated it. Was very slow. Not sure if it is the same release of Mozilla you guys are talking about though.

[samtheozzy]

I had to use Mozilla for Uni this semester, for basic web design. I hated it. Was very slow. Not sure if it is the same release of Mozilla you guys are talking about though.

Pretty sure its not DUR.

[Nate]

I'll give it a go then.

[Nate]

I had to use Mozilla for Uni this semester, for basic web design. I hated it. Was very slow. Not sure if it is the same release of Mozilla you guys are talking about though.

Pretty sure its not DUR.

It was actually Mozilla 1.9. Installed Firefox, well impressed!

[American]

OK, started using Mozilla at work. Only one major complaint. I have to use the web to access my work email, and when you download an attachment off of Mozilla, it doesnt' read the entire file name if it has any spaces in it. Other than that (which is a big deal considering how many attachments I get), it works great. LOVE the tabbed browsing.

[Glenn]

Try searching the plugin list. For every little thing that can annoy, somebody will have written a plug in to handle it. There are quite a few that give improved handling of downloads.

I found about about the space in filename problem whilst writing a website that allows secure downloads and for hours I though it was my website doing it, it was only when a friend tried it with IE and it worked I realised it was a firefox problem.

[cn174]

I've just downloaded Firefox and I'm well impressed with it.

I've downloaded the web developers extension, the duplicate tab one, the single window extension.

The only bit I cant seem to get working is for view source to come up so it can be edited. At the moment I can only view it. I installed MozEX which says you it can be used to view source, but when I use that, notepad just loads with a blank page. Any ideas on this one?

[FourLaneBlue]

This is an old thread but I must say...just downloaded mozilla firefox and the difference compared to IE is amazing! It takes barely nothing of the space in comparison as well.

If you have Internet Explorer...you shouldn't. As an example this site loads pages about three times quicker than IE I would say. As someone who knows bugger all (or indeed wants to) about computers all I can say is that this is excellent!

[Drummer Boy]

I'm with American on this - get OS X, get Safari and your troubles are over - it's quick, has Google built-in and doesn't introduce the pop-ups and things that IE seems to pride itself on. I will give Firefox a try though as I hear lots of good things about it from different quarters - this MB being the latest.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Is anyone having problems with Rovers World on Mozilla like me?

I can only load up the Rovers World Match Engine thingy on IE...is there a way so I can run it through Firefox?

[USABlue]

OK you lot have me interested, I usually take the stance if it ain't broke don't fix it and as long as IE works for me I have not really cared.

I would like to try this, what initial problems can I expect to encounter.