Firefox

Hey,

Hows everyone going? Its been a while since I posted in this forum, but I had to share my experience with a new browser from Mozilla called FireFox.

I quite like both Netscape 7 and Mozilla 1.0+ however I find that as an application suite its far too bulky to use. All I needed was a browser, so when I read about FireFox I thought it sounded great.

Heres my experience so far;
OS - Windows 98
Version of FireFox 0.8

The download was easy, and at 6mb was quite reasonable - since I am on dialup I dislike very large downloads. The installation was simple and easy - and did not require a reboot!

The interface is simple and easy to use, basically even a new user like myself is able to setup/install/and start to use FireFox easily. I think this is important for software, especially beta software.

The features all work as expected, and indeed the browser seems quite stable. In fact much more so then Internet Explorer 6, which I also have installed. The popup ad blocking is definately a plus, as it means there is no third party applications needing to be installed.

The best feature - its fast. VERY fast. Seems to load webpages very quickly, I have no idea how they do this, but its very effective and very impressive.

From what I have seen so far I am impressed, and would reccomend the software to family and friends. This software will have a strong platform to launch itself into a stable 1.0 version, and perhaps may take back some market share from Internet Explorer down the road.

dan

 

I have been testing all different manufestations, since 0.1, with names like Phoenix, and MozillaFirebird, and now Firefox.
I also have Win98, and, with a cable connection, I can work with all the "nightlies" as Firefox progresses to the next incremental, i.e.0.9. And, some of these nightlies have been rather facsimiles of the real thing. I installed Firefox0.8 final, but, my recommendation is to work from a .zip build unzipped. The folder should be renamed, and, I send a shortcut of the "firefox.exe" to the Desktop, and that's it.
I have been able to use the same profile, but it is important to keep up with advice on this matter.
Firefox is incredibly customizable. Otherwise most of its features are found in Netscape7.x and Mozilla 1.4 and following versions. I have to list one "Extention ", part of the program customizability, which is particularly useful, i.e. External Application. A number of shortcuts to different applications can entered, so that it is possible open them without minimizing Firefox.
I don't know if this works with dialup, but it sure does with broadband. I have access to any number of Mail Clients, and other programs. I can open Netscape Communicator Mail, Thunderbird, Eudora or Outlook Express without messing with the preferences.
And, I can just delete the unzipped folder, if I don't like it or want to use a new one. How is that for convenience!

 

Thanks for all of the encouraging comments for "FireFox ". Will probably switch when it goes 1.0 final. Do appreciate the simplicity of zip iinstalls when uninstalls are required. The question that looms is the email client, have not heard a lot about that module. With the ease of calling another program, thinking about using a "stand-alone" such as "Eudora ". Will consider overall size of the programs, along with stabilty. Do enjoy "spam control" currently available in Mozilla, which would continue in "Thunder ".

 

Just want to make sure

I downoaded a zipped file of Firefox [Firefox-0.8.zip, 6.2M. 11 Feb 2004]] and I'm assuming that is the one for Windows XP since I saw no other zipped files. Is that correct?
My understanding from your remarks is that I should create a folder, let's call it Firefox, then unzip the downloaded file into Firefox, and then create a shortcut on the desktop to Firefox.exe, which will be in the folder after unzipping. When I open the shortcut I should have a working version of Firefox and if I want to remove it, I simply delete the folder. Is this all correct?
A profile will be created in a different location, so if I want to upgrade, I remove the folder, while the profile remains intact, and then install a new version, hopefully using the same method. right?
Thanks for your help.

 

Dennis L wrote

• "The question that looms is the email client, have not heard a lot about that module. "

I've been using Thunderbird as my sole email program for almost a year, and have experienced few problems.

Tbird is still officially pre-beta, but, for my money (it's free, of course ), I've found it to be rock-solid, especially if you're using a single POP3 account, as opposed to multiple IMAP accounts.

 

foxfire

foxfire's download,

click on windows, its an exe

I use it and it only

 

Download Mozilla

this is a must, the download is sooo small compaired to Internet Explorer.

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/0.8/FirefoxSetup-0.8.exe