Dont worry mayfair, the firefox will not affect the speed of your computer at all, it takes minutes to download and install (depending on your internet speed) and like everyone said, if you dont like it, you can just uninstall it and go back to your IE 6

 

Don't take the FF soap box as anti-microsoft.... that's another topic all together!

But, FF has had far few security problems that IE. Probably only because IE / MS is the biggest target because they own the biggest share of the market. If Macs had the market share microsoft has, then it would be OSX and Safari being the big targets for security.

I am a windows admin, I live in the microsoft world. Yet, I do my best to get my users to leave IE alone unless absolutely necessary. It just hasn't had a good security history.

As far as being forcefed IE7, yes, eventually it will happen assuming you want to continue recieving patches for windows. From what I've seen, it's being pushed harder next month even for those of us that run our own update servers. Not sure when the formal cutoff will be, but rest assured it will happen eventually.

 

As far as speed, I think you'll see FF to be faster than IE as well. At least, that has been everyone's experience that I've talked to.

 

So....this firefox is the new buzzz, new to me at least. For years I've avoided Internet Explorer, and had used Netscape. I didn't want to be one of Microsoft's minions either. Hell, I've even toyed with the idea of ditchin windows altogether next time to buy a puter and try an apple. I've heard that the latest version of window (Vista), really sucks.

And this fire fox is an offshoot of Netscape. I'm guessing by all the support here it runs fine on this forum.

Well I ain't skerid......come on Marfair, let's give it a try. With the XP, we can always do the system restore to remove it if ya don't feel comfortable.

 

Just gonna step up here and back up Methos....

Not liking IE doesn't mean I don't like ol'man Bill. He did great things for my industry & with out him I probably would be unemployed (or at least working a heck of a lot harder).

The big problem with Microsoft products like their OS & Browsers (IMO) is that they are to big. They want EVERYONE to use their product. They expect everyone to use their products. So they have to cut little holes in everything so everyone can stick their piece in and work with it.

BehindBars...thanks for the compliment...glad I could help!!!

 

Mayfair,

Eventually you will be forced to get IE7, its just a fact of life. If the virus/spyware/malware doesnt get to your system, Microsoft Update/Silverlight will force you to get it in order to continue recieving updates. IE7 has come along way since it was first released....and I use it daily. I also have FireFox installed and I use it as well. Somedays I prefer one over the other, just depends on what websites I'm using.

Both are good products, and FireFox is more secure out of the box. This comes from being able to choose what plugins you download and run. IE has most of it from the get go and you have to either tweak, turn off, or turn on features.



I'm going to disagree here......and for a simple reason. Name me one other operating system that supports as many products as Microsoft...

You cant. The harsh reality is that the other companies dont try. Linux is a great operating system, but good luck with getting everything to work without a lot of work (average user, not someone who knows Linux). Apple is similar as well, although they have more support, but they still are very proprietary on alot of things. Not to mention, you still cant use an Apple to play games or walk into many stores and purchase upgrade components.

Microsoft is NOT the best company in the world. They havea bunch of positives and a bunch of negatives. This just comes from being the largest software company in the world. Would your operating system be faster, more secure, better protected if you had to support at least a million different software programs? Could you plan or foresee all the security factors? Nope...I doubt anyone could and I doubt any software operating system would be as secure.

For the record, Apple is exactly like Microsoft only smaller. They force you to purchase proprietary equipment (very little in the way of upgrading) the software comes with their own versions of Internet Explorer (Safari) and so on.... Apple isnt as bad, but they're all 1/10 the size of Microsoft...

 

That is why I put IMO in there (10 years of running patches & playing the registery game gives me a right to an option don't it?)

When 3.1 / 3.11 was standard...it wasn't as open as XP or Vista is today. Microsoft has grown. To keep up with that growth it has had to (and needed to .... and wanted to) have everyone who writes software write software for it's operating systems. That is the nature of growth. That is why the OS is written the way it is. That is why applications are written the way they are.

 

I still fear change ...

I'll probably download #7, but I doubt I'll do the FF switch. That's WAAAAY too much change for me. I don't even know what it's going to look like. And as far as the whole "you can just uninstall" thing, I have no clue how to do that, and I'd probably wipe out my whole rig doing so.

By eliminating the ad's, aren't you also dissing the forums sponsors?

 

The Forum only generates money if you click on one of the ads and go to the external site. Not viewing them doesn't cost them anything.

Once you run IE7 you'll basically know what FireFox looks like (well the basic out of the box format ) cause it is very similar.

 

But Mayfair (all all you other ol'timers) there is one feature in both IE 7 & FF that you will fall in love with....

<ctrl> <+> / <->


It makes those little pages bigger easier for you ol timers to read.....big font is goood