Mozilla

[The Andy-Man]

After reading a certain other thread about someones PC woes, it was suggested he get Mozilla, what is so good about it, and why is it better then ie?

[mrmitchell]

It doesn't use ActiveX scripting, so it can't get most spyware. (You'll still get it however if it's installed with a proggie you downloaded.)

It has tabbed browsing and a bunch of other little goodies that make it better than IE

[The Andy-Man]

yeah

If i left IE on my PC, will it cause problems?

[Spiffor]

Also, with a little tweaking, it blocks unwanted popups without you having to use separate software to this effect. Besides, it has the magical ability to "block images from this server", which means you can wholly obliterate advertising pics that come from a dedicated advertisement site.

It's the browser I use, and I recommand it to everybody.

There are however downsides:
- It starts up slowly, because it is an all inclusive package that includes mail client, adress book, and homepage composer. You don't have to use any of these features, but they are included nonetheless.
- Some pages are incompatible with it, and some pages require the popups to be not-blocked to work. If you encounter such pages, you should start IE.

But overall, Mozilla is really, really worth it. If you go to their website (http://www.mozilla.org), download the latest "stable version". Betas work quite well, but they still tend to be more buggy than older stable versions.

[mrmitchell]

no because you're not using it. it's just there.

you really should leave it on, too. just in case you don't like moz.

(iirc it's a pain in teh ass to uninstall it on any Windows anyway)

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by The Andy-Man
If i left IE on my PC, will it cause problems?

None at all.
IE is installed on my PC, and I use it about once a month, when I visit a page that is incompatible with Mozilla. I haven't experienced any problem from this.

[mrmitchell]

- It starts up slowly, because it is an all inclusive package that includes mail client, adress book, and homepage composer. You don't have to use any of these features, but they are

You can install it without these features.

- Some pages are incompatible with it, and some pages require the popups to be not-blocked to work. If you encounter such pages, you should start IE.

[Kassiopeia]

As far as my knowledge goes, on a Windows system it is not possible to completely "remove" IE, you can just refrain from browsing with it and tell your firewall to deny it access to the Internet. Leaving it on your system is perfectly fine, if you make your alternative browser the default browser (it'll usually prompt about this on the first run) and don't use IE. Besides, Windows Update is IE-only.

- It starts up slowly, because it is an all inclusive package that includes mail client, adress book, and homepage composer. You don't have to use any of these features, but they are included nonetheless.

Which is why I use Firebird. It does eat a noticeable amount of memory from my own experience, but I can't tell whether it's more or less than what IE does, it's been a while since I used it for that long.

Some pages are incompatible with it,

Sadly, yes. Inevitable with 99% of Internet users using IE.

and some pages require the popups to be not-blocked to work. If you encounter such pages, you should start IE.

You can tell the popup stopper to ignore certain pages, at least Firebird's can. I have yet to encounter a website I would have needed IE for, though, but I'm sure someone will be able to come up with one. Whether I'd want to browse that site is a completely different question.

You can also install a whole load of plugins to add extra functionality, like enhanced adblocking, link downloading, and so on. You can also modify its appearance with skins.

IE will have tabbed browsing and pop-up blocking, but I'm not sure when. By Windows XP SP2 which is due this year I think.

[Skanky Burns]

I use a dual Mozilla - Opera arrangement. The only time I fire up IE is to talk to my router.

[Spiffor]

I never tried Firebird, so I can't hosnestly advise it.
IIUC, it's simply the browser of Mozilla, without the rest of the package, and with a few new features. If Kassiopeia says it's a stable software, and that it's faster than Mozilla itself, I'd say go for it

You can find Firebird at http://www.mozilla.org as well

[The Andy-Man]

thx for the help, i am using it now, it is quite good

can't find the options/settings bit though then again, it is late

[Spiffor]

Edit menu
then Preferences

It's a bit confusing. If you want to block popups right away, click on "advanced" in the left frame, and then uncheck the box "open unrequested windows" or something like that (for some reason, the option completely disappeared once I unchecked it )

[Kassiopeia]

Tools -> Options. In Firebird that is.

If Kassiopeia says it's a stable software, and that it's faster than Mozilla itself, I'd say go for it

It's crashed and frozen on me every now and then, about once in two months maybe (it is 0.7 after all). I can't give an honest opinion on whether IE would crash more often or not on my setup, however. Also I've used Mozilla only on my older comp that had 1/8 of the RAM of my new one, so I can't really tell about speed either. Mozilla was horribly slow then though, and I used Opera. I'd gather it'll be faster since it hasn't got the extra stuff.

[The Andy-Man]

thnks spiffor, i look like an idiot now though

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by The Andy-Man
thnks spiffor, i look like an idiot now though

If you have trouble with computers, you certainly don't look like an idiot by having some starting difficulties with Mozilla. I needed several hours to find the option when I first discovered the software, yet I'm quite familiar with computers (without being an all-out geek )