Firefox > Explorer > Opera > Mozilla (mozilla is defunct to me) Opera was ahead of the curve long ago, but the other browsers have in my opinion have gained a huge edge against opera. Explorer 7 finally has tabbed browsing, but once you install it you'll find it difficult to uninstall and go back to IE6 Firefox has extensions, and make no mistake they add great user value. 1) adblock, you will see so fewer ads once you block things with wildcrad, ie http://ads.cnn.com* or http://adtracker.* and any webpage that sticks that is ignored by firefox. You can also disable it too. http://adblock.mozdev.org/dev.html 2) TrackMeNot throws random search queries so google, yahoo, and msn have harder time profiling you. http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/TrackMeNot/ 3) Session Saver, if firefox ever crashes it'll save your pages you had opened. You can also disable it too. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/436/ Themes offer a new look to your browser. I like Quote and Mostly Crystal.

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I mean with adblock that it ignores that part of the code, so it'll ignore that image for example

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and if you are an anonymity freak then there is Torpark, a portable browser based on Firefox (1.5.0.7 or RC2 as of yet available) with built-in web proxy connector. http://www.torrify.com/ Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.' icq 10183575

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The thing I can't stand about Firefox is the tab browsing. To me it is just a royal pain, I haven't spent the time to figure out if you can turn it off. Also having to D/L an addon for EVERY little thing that will make Firefox simulate IE (or at least make it perform up to snuff) is also a real hoot! Every time you turn around...Plugin required...download here! Quicktime is also required by Firefox because they won't use WMV....OH BOY, and the list goes on. Then to top it off, IE7 came out with the tabs. I hate when you try closing off a page and you get that NAG screen asking if you want to close all tabs....useless in my mind. First thing I did was turn it off and I'm back to smooth sailing again. I think Firefox is just a spinoff of the old Netscape Browser that I also had no use for. Don't get me wrong, I DO have 3 different browsers for certain things, the place where I build websites uses Firefox exclusively so I'm pretty forced into using it which I do reluctantly as they don't give IE support. I think Sabertooth and Domass gave the best answers. Try them all and choose for yourself, touche! I won't buy a car based on any reviews...I'll take a test run, and if I like it..that's the way it goes. Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks

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mattie I don't like torpark but yes it is great for privacy advocates and bad guys too. It is slow to use, sometimes dies in connection (I have DSL), and it makes you shut down any active firefox pages. You do not need to try mozilla or netscape to find out they suck. Trust me review on it. The add ins I suggest do not in anyway mimick explorer. Session saver saves session if computer ever locks up and crashes or if firefox crashes *an unfortunate occurance in any browser* occurs, Adblock prevents embedded ads, and finally TrackMeNot throws random queries. Also, Macromedia, QuickTime, and Java were the only required things I recall needing to download as a necessary thing, but firefox will popup a you need to download this item to browse this webpage and directs you to the direct link that automatically downloads and installs the plugin. A very small price to pay to not be subservient to microsoft I guess, and for me it has only happened for those 3 instances that I can recall and the download was done in less than a minute. Also, you don't have to have that warning when you close the tabs, you just check Do Not Show Me This Warning. I personally see it as useful warning because I open one firefox with many tabs, and it is easy to accidentally click the upmost top right corner. "I think Sabertooth and Domass gave the best answers. Try them all and choose for yourself, touche! I won't buy a car based on any reviews...I'll take a test run, and if I like it..that's the way it goes" I think some opinions probably don't fit most people. Mud taste worse than candy (for most people) I hope you can trust me review of this as I believe firefox > explorer. Explorer in my opinion is a bad monopoly (Monopolies are an OK thing, just not when they corrupt). Here is why Explorer is a corrupt monopoly in the browser market, first did you notice their Web Search, a smaller market to google is in the default search in the top right corner? They embedded a defunct Java http://news.com.com/2100-1001-93705... Also, Opera was once upon a time rendered by MSN as this page can't properly display when it obviously could! news.com.com/2100-1023-983500.html Two, with the extensions like adblock, flashblock, session saver, themes, and many others it in my opinion wins hands down. If I was a noncomputer junker I'd put confidence in this review, just as I put confidence in the car crash test reviews and customer complaints, I don't need to find out the problems.

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JustinCS, that was a good last ditch effort, nice synopsis. Just tell me if you've ever bought something after you read all the reviews (without trying it first) and really found the product to your satisfaction. I would say that the answer is almost nil. You HAVE to try something out yourself to really get a feel for it. All the reviews in the world couldn't make up my mind, I guess I'm just more of a realist by nature. What is good for one isn't always good for the other. I still stick with: "I think Sabertooth and Domass gave the best answers. Try them all and choose for yourself, touche! I won't buy a car based on any reviews...I'll take a test run, and if I like it..that's the way it goes" Firefox IMO has a LONG way to go to surpass IE. Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks

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with the release of ff 2.0 the session saver has become obsolete. and don't forget 'NoScript' when recommending ff plugins. Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.' icq 10183575

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JustinCS, The Mud taste worse than candy analogy is not appropriate for a browser argument and definitely irrelevant in a FF vs other browsers evaluation IMHO...................LOL Now I know what kids trick-or-treating in neighborhood come Halloween day will end up with, when you run out of confectionery - yuck ;-(

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Good info from all, but I had to correct this one... many adware/malware infections are transmitted through Direct-X (MIE product) and Firefox and Opera are invisible to them. I assume you meant ActiveX, not DirectX. DirectX is the API for software developers to interact with various parts of hardware. Among other things, ActiveX allows you to nest and use COM components inside a web page when you have to do something that can't be done via normal HTML/Javascript. ActiveX has gotten a bad rap...Keep in mind it's a FEATURE that can be turned off zone by zone in IE. The fact that other browsers don't allow it at all is a weakness, not a strength. Just recently at work I had to write a web application that had to provide the user with a list of printers installed on its machine. I've also had to provide interfaces for users to select more than one file to upload, start a local executable when clicking on a hyperlink, etc. All these things use ActiveX, and companies with large, full-featured intranets will never switch to firefox until it can provide similar functionality. -SN

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"Just tell me if you've ever bought something after you read all the reviews (without trying it first) and really found the product to your satisfaction. I would say that the answer is almost nil. You HAVE to try something out yourself to really get a feel for it. All the reviews in the world couldn't make up my mind, I guess I'm just more of a realist by nature." LOL Let me see...just off the top of my head I buy dvd burners solely from recommendations from reveiws...same goes with graphic cards, sound cards and many other computer related products...Can you compare one hdd against a different one solely by testing it...I don't know who allows that free testing before you buy any way... ohhh maybe only a car dealer... I have never seen it advertised to come check out this widescreen for a week before you buy. In The Matters Of Style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, Stand Like A Rock A lost Cause! computervitals.com

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In the "Firefox vs I.E." debate, the deciding factor for me is security. The simple fact is that I.E. opens too many holes. While you can't remove the I.E. core from XP (or can you?), you can remove the browser itself. In my opinion, anything you can do to plug (at least, some of) the security holes would be advantageous. Keep in mind that any browser you are unfamilar with is unlikely to completely satisfy you. You need to get to know the browser and learn how to tweak it to your requirements. That's the advantage of extensions. Only install the extensions you need for the desired functionalty. Further tweaks can be applied to Firefox via about:config. (I.E. is nowhere near as configurable as Firefox.) Then again, if security is a major concern to you, you could always give Windows the flick altogether and install Ubuntu Linux (which doesn't take a geek to use). Please let us know if you found someone's advice to be helpful.

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lurkswithin, that was pretty funny! I guess you misunderstood the drift about the browsers, the comparison between the 2. I should have elaberated on that. What this all boils down to from what I can see, is the jealousy against Bill Gates. Bill was a real nerdy guy when he broke loose and had the drive to get people to do his troubleshooting on his projects by offering free rides on his Beta projects. Great way to make a great product. Bill Gates made history, and maybe years from now someone else will do the same, but IMHO, not in the near future. The other browser companies followed suit and tried real hard to vary from the M$ product. SN had some really good points in his post, hopefully they are not overlooked in this mini debate. From what sci-guy explained is the adding of extensions. Why do you have to keep adding on? Eventually you will have the same running browser as IE....makes sense to me, but it sure is a pain having to keep adding to your product on a constant basis just to keep up with the jonses. I was actually wondering when someone would pipe up about the minority browser Linux. Don't worry, if Linux had come out first, they would be the most targetted browser in the world instead of IE. I've never heard of too many people using that browser, except a few here on computing.net, but I'm sure there are a few others. I still remember the days when any time someone had an IE problem, that people used to try to RAM Firefox and the other minor browsers down the posters throat instead of trying to help with the major problem. The thing of it is, some people, like myself, did try the others and still keep them around for various reasons for different applications. When the dust settles it all comes down to personal preference. Whichever browser you like will surely be the one you will use, whether it be for security, simplicity or whatever. I myself like to use one that's fully functional and efficient without adding on extensions every time I turn around and so far IE has pulled through for me. I also thrive on the challenge of nailing down a technical problem, and believe me, IE gets enough of them at times. Finally,thanks to Justin for having this website as I have learned many things about repairing PC's that I never could have through other sites. Other sites tend to get overly cluttered and extremely hard to navigate (like looking for a needle in a haystack). I have yet to see one that equals in user-friendly pages and valuable user information. Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks

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4Real, If a Firefox user added extensions at the rate you imply as being needed, they'd soon have a browser with functionality way beyond I.E.'s capabilities. I haven't added an extension in more than a year, as I have all the functionality I need with just 3 extensions. While I realise that you were exagerating in order to make your point, my case (and no doubt many other cases) shows your argument (regarding extensions) to be invalid. Also, who mentioned a browser named Linux? I've never heard of a browser named Linux, and don't believe one exists. I did, however, mention the Linux operating system. Please let us know if you found someone's advice to be helpful.

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sorry, I meant OS on Linux, my mistake. Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks

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What this all boils down to from what I can see, is the jealousy against Bill Gates. Yea I'll buy that, people make software and give it away for free because they are jealous of Bill Gates. Bill was a real nerdy guy when he broke loose and had the drive to get people to do his troubleshooting on his projects by offering free rides on his Beta projects. Great way to make a great product. Bill Gates made history, and maybe years from now someone else will do the same, but IMHO, not in the near future. Let's check this out here, Have you ever heard of Phoenix or Firebird, clue: they were beta versions of Firefox, and I and millions of other users were using them before we were actually using beta Firefox to test them for years for the Mozilla foundation long before Firefox ever hit 1.0. Why do you have to keep adding on? Eventually you will have the same running browser as IE... Where do I start, Microsoft put a built in pop up blocker into IE 6 when sp2 came out. Firefox had one from day 1, years before IE ever thought of it. It was not an add on it was built in way back in the Phoenix days. Microsoft put a search bar in the tool bars in IE 7 here recently when it came out. Again Firefox has had this for years built in without any add ons. Microsoft put tabs in IE7 here recently when it came out. Again Firefox has had tabs since it was born, years ago as Phoenix, standard without any add ons. If you don't know this stuff you haven't really even given Firefox a try. You are right about one thing, if IE keeps adding on, copying Firefox, it might one day become the basic Firefox without any add ons. I really don't care if you use Firefox or IE or Opera or any other browser out there. And I understand you trying to stick up for Microsoft and Bill Gate. I'm not a Gates hater or anything like that. And I know what you mean when you say people try to Ram Firefox, but when you say all of this stuff that isn't true, you just make yourself look like you have no idea what you are talking about, to people who actually use both of these browsers and know a little bit about them.

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I agree totally, I was wrong....please forgive me for my freedom of speech, amen Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks

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