Comments on: Internet Explorer 7 vs. Firefox 2

By: dutchmarbel

dutchmarbel — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 00:05:15 +0000

I'm still a minority here... I tried Firefox but even my firefox loving spouse is now convinced that opera works nicer...

By: Steve Verdon

Steve Verdon — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:50:15 +0000

What are you running into?

When I use the install/uninstall feature in the control panel nothing happens. Firefox is still there, still boots, etc.

It maybe just a glitch with my ancient home machine, which I desperately need to upgrade.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:43:28 +0000

Boyd: Thanks. The way you're used to doing things is often if not usually easier than a new way until you get used to it. I'll try the new way for a few days and see if I like it.

By: Boyd

Boyd — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:33:27 +0000

To return to the old way of only having a single X to close the current tab, do the following:

1. Type in about:config in the address bar
2. Find the entry browser.tabs.closeButton
3. Double-click that line and change the value from 1 to 3

Easy-peasy. You don't even have to restart Firefox; the change is made immediately. Not that I can understand why anyone would prefer that, but to each his own.

By: Triumph

Triumph — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 19:09:17 +0000

Triumph: I mean the ability to easily adjust to a browser found elsewhere. Once you’ve trained yourself to use one browser, the idiosyncrasies of the other are annoying.

Oh, I get it James--although that really isn't Firefox's fault, rather its the problem with the nimrods who only have one browser on their public machines.

Firefox is actually better for people on the road anyway. Unlike IE, you can load a portable version on a USB flash drive--complete with your mods & bookmarks--which can be booted from any computer:

http://portableapps.com/

By: bithead

bithead — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 16:53:00 +0000

That's funny, Steve;
I've not run into any problems, and I've done it repeatedly on perhaps 25-30 boxes I support.
What are you running into?

By: Steve Verdon

Steve Verdon — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 16:25:43 +0000

Try uninstalling Firefox, its the mother of all bitches and chances are you didn't get all of it. On that point, I bet IE would win.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 16:04:01 +0000

Triumph: I mean the ability to easily adjust to a browser found elsewhere. Once you've trained yourself to use one browser, the idiosyncrasies of the other are annoying.

By: Triumph

Triumph — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:58:57 +0000

Of course, had they considered such things as the ability to easily browse on computers at hotels, businesses, and Internet cafes ...IE might have fared better

I am not sure what you mean here. Why would it matter where a computer happened to be located with regard to "the ability to easily browse"?

By: B. Minich

B. Minich — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:05:44 +0000

So session saver is built in?

No wonder the "Session Saver" extention didn't have an update, and no longer works. ;)

James: I like the new tab behavior better - it makes it much easier to close a tab without actually highlighting it (which I do all the time if I click on a link, and then find that the article is excerpted to my satisfaction on the site I read the link from). I've been using the scroll button to do that (pressing on it does the same thing), but I also use a PowerBook, which does not have a scroll buttton on the trackpad - making this very nice for that purpose.

By: bithead

bithead — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:04:16 +0000

The “restore session” feature is nice, if not 100% perfect. It recalls the windows you had open so that, in the event of an unexpected system failure, you don’t lose the results of your browsing.

this is particularly useful if, as I do, you ahve a multi-monitor setup, and generally do the 'sphere with multiple sessions open, one in each screen.

By: Steven Taylor

Steven Taylor — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:55:02 +0000

Another nice feature of 2.0 is that if you close it on accident and reopen it, it can restore all of the tabs you had open--i.e., it restores you previous session.

It also has a new spellcheck feature like the one in Word (misspelled words are underlined and you fix them with a right-click).

That may be the result of an updated plugin, however.