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If you try any change in life, make the switch. It is easy, you can keep all your bookmarks, and you will thank me, or maybe Unplugged, since it was he who brought it up.
 
Firefox over IE any day. :biggrin: :clap_1:
My tech dept at work has also recommended Firefox even tho' some sites won't open or you have to use IE on some of the Government sites we use for information and updates for Policy.
 
Firefox - hands down. Been using Mozilla browser product (as primary browser) for years. Switched to Firefox as primary around V1.0.4 (current is V1.5.0.2).

As SJ pointed out, there are still some sites that continue to produce non-standards (W3C) compliant, IE-centric HTML (IMHO, the scarlet red letter of the amateur developer). I keep IE around only for when I absolutely must deal with such a site (and those are few and far between, since I treat them like I would treat a 40 year old biker with a social disease trying to date a teenaged daughter of mine ;-)).

Tabbed browsing is a major productivity booster for me, popup blocking is stellar (and improves with each release), and there's a wealth of extensions available to further tune the product to fit your needs. Some of my favorite extensions:
  • Tabbrowser Preferences (V1.2.8.9): Provides additional Tab features, like opening a new tab in the background, opening page embedded links in a new tab, etc.
  • Copy Plain Text (V0.3.2): Lets you copy just "text" (cut & paste) from browser. For when you just want the text, not the 64 point bold italics purple font and other similar noxious markup.
  • IE View (V1.2.7): Provides a context menu that lets you open a link in IE (launches the selected page in a new instance of IE) instead of in Firefox. Another context menu item configures the browser to always open that page in IE (so you don't have to select that option all the time).
Security wise, more like Brink's armored car vs. wallet-on-a-chain (IE).
Windows, Linux, and Mac variants all behave & present uniformly.

Firefox is the number two "do first" modification to an out of the box Windows installation I recommend to all who ask (number one is AV software ;-)).
 
OhioBeachBum said:
Firefox - hands down. Been using Mozilla browser product (as primary browser) for years. Switched to Firefox as primary around V1.0.4 (current is V1.5.0.2).

As SJ pointed out, there are still some sites that continue to produce non-standards (W3C) compliant, IE-centric HTML (IMHO, the scarlet red letter of the amateur developer). I keep IE around only for when I absolutely must deal with such a site (and those are few and far between, since I treat them like I would treat a 40 year old biker with a social disease trying to date a teenaged daughter of mine ;-)).Tabbed browsing is a major productivity booster for me, popup blocking is stellar (and improves with each release), and there's a wealth of extensions available to further tune the product to fit your needs. Some of my favorite extensions:
  • Tabbrowser Preferences (V1.2.8.9): Provides additional Tab features, like opening a new tab in the background, opening page embedded links in a new tab, etc.
  • Copy Plain Text (V0.3.2): Lets you copy just "text" (cut & paste) from browser. For when you just want the text, not the 64 point bold italics purple font and other similar noxious markup.
  • IE View (V1.2.7): Provides a context menu that lets you open a link in IE (launches the selected page in a new instance of IE) instead of in Firefox. Another context menu item configures the browser to always open that page in IE (so you don't have to select that option all the time).
Security wise, more like Brink's armored car vs. wallet-on-a-chain (IE).
Windows, Linux, and Mac variants all behave & present uniformly.

Firefox is the number two "do first" modification to an out of the box Windows installation I recommend to all who ask (number one is AV software ;-)).
Click to expand...

:lol:

So what if you have AOL...can you still use Firefox?
 
Smiling JOe said:
:popcorn: more info please.
Click to expand...
I've tended to waffle back & forth between Computer Associates and McAfee over the past few years, with Norton (and the remaining bit players) always a distant 3rd.

CA stuff has been on my work desktop (I don't have any choice there) for near a decade - enterprise grade stuff.

Used CA at home until about 4 years ago when I switched to McAfee. First of this year (when I switched ISP to RoadRunner), I downloaded the CA "Internet Security Suite" TimeWarner makes available to RR subscribers (for free), and I'm now back in the CA camp again.

Even if I had to pay for it, I'd stay with CA now. Firewall is tight as a drum out of the box - so tight that you have to specifically tell it (in the beginning) that it's OK for things like Outlook & so on to use the net. Very friendly non-technoid oriented pop-up's guide you through the process. BTW - 3rd party firewall S/W is an absolute must if you're running a high-speed (DSL or cable) link to your desktop. The CA product had logged a couple of hundred "probes" of my system within the 1st 90 minutes after I lit up the the RoadRunner channel on my home system.

The included anti-spam product is ok (I have a separate discourse on anti-spam products; I don't think anybody has got that "right" yet) - it does cleanly separate the s*** from the apple butter.

I haven't spent any time fiddling with PestPatrol (though it's installed on my work desktop, again by fiat). In that department, I tend to just use SpyBot and AdAware (both freebies) periodically, but you do have to be careful what you tell either one to "burn" (a few things AdAware ID's as suspect are needed for certain IE & related functionality - go figure).

Final note on the AntiVirus component (any vendor's product): Make sure it's configured for "heuristic" scanning (in addition to the primary "signature" type scanning). Shaves a bit off performance (barely detectable on 3GHz+ processors) but worth it.

(whew - that sure turned into a "download" :biggrin: )
 
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