Firefox: What's the hype?

steveland?

When I first downloaded it i though "meh... another browser... whats the point? I'll stick with IE". Really doesn't make a difference to me... the way I see it is it's just a browser. But if it came to a choice between IE and FireFox after using FireFox for a while I'd choose FireFox.


One really subtle extension I've found is one that makes pressing Ctrl+; bring you straight to the first text field on the page. Perfect for when I'm signing into my DCU email account... another is a calender add-on.

Another i got was MAB (Mozilla Amazon Browser). Means you can browse Amazon using FireFox without having to visit amazon.co.uk.

Most of these add-ons are completely frivolous but I use them anyways

jonny68

Well i took the plunge and downloaded Firefox and so far so good,its far better than IE especially the Tabs which is cool,but i need some tips,my home page still comes up as being in IE browser,also when i went to upload photos from my digitalcamera to my PC instead of allowing me its giving me a message saying something about safely removing hardware,whats all that about?also how can i change this cursor its closer to the text than what it was in IE,apart from them few things grand but any tips at all would be appreciated.......

penexpers

doodle_sketch wrote:

The point of the plugin system is to provide the functionality that you would like, not what the designer decides everyone should use. You don't want it, don't get it. Simple as that.

The problem arises then when Mozilla claim that Firefox is a "light, extensible browser". It's anything but. It a) runs slower than Opera (especially rendering pages I find) b) uses up more ram c) uses up more disk space.

Under Linux, a base install (before any extensions are installed) of Firefox uses approximately 22MB of disk space. Opera uses 8MB of disk space. Opera also includes a kick ass mail client (M2), but with Firefox you'll need to download Thunderbird (another 17MB of disk space). So you have 39MB of diskspace for FF/TB and 8MB for Opera, and that's even before any extensions are added in to get the functionality of Opera. (I'm talking about things like mouse gestures, decent bookmark manager etc..)

Granted, FF is probably a simpler step up for an IE user, but if you spend about 30 minutes configuring Opera (as opposed to 30 minutes downloading extensions) you'll find that it's simply a much more powerful browser.

penexpers

SteveD wrote:

Another i got was MAB (Mozilla Amazon Browser). Means you can browse Amazon using FireFox without having to visit amazon.co.uk.

Most of these add-ons are completely frivolous but I use them anyways

That's not an add-on as such. It's using XUL, Firefox has a parser built in. It is kind of cool though.

edit : didn't realise there was an extension for it as well.

jonny68

Anyone got any tips as to why i cant seem to upload photos from my digital camera to my PC?Is it because ive switched from IE to Mozilla?when i plug the connection into the USB port and switch the camera on it usually says found new pictures or something to that effect,now its just saying safely remove hardware,any ideas?

aidan_walsh

jonny68 wrote:

Anyone got any tips as to why i cant seem to upload photos from my digital camera to my PC?Is it because ive switched from IE to Mozilla?when i plug the connection into the USB port and switch the camera on it usually says found new pictures or something to that effect,now its just saying safely remove hardware,any ideas?

There's probably a very, very, very small chance of what your internet browser is effecting whether or not hardware is being detected...

Gangsta

how do you get 5homepages when you start firefox?

Dinner

Gangsta wrote:

how do you get 5homepages when you start firefox?

Do you mean Tools > Options > General?

jozi

Gangsta wrote:

how do you get 5homepages when you start firefox?

Open each page in a tab and then Tools > Options > General as mentioned above.
I assume you know how to get tabs (middle mouse)?

Gangsta

jozi wrote:

Open each page in a tab and then Tools > Options > General as mentioned above.
I assume you know how to get tabs (middle mouse)?

ah got it. Thanks.