Comments on: Firefox to surpass IE? Yes, but only among the geeks

Firefox will soon surpass IE in market share...but not among the mainstream.

[Sylvestk]

It's the plugins.... being a web developer, having the following add-ons are a lifesaver.

- Web Development Toolbar (a must for any web guy/gal)
- Firebug (top noch html/css/javascript debugging and development tool)
- IE Tab (swtiches the user agent to IE... view a page in IE directly in FF)
- Image Zoom (get a close look at graphics... great if you make web graphics)
- Flashblock (handy flash blocker)
- Clear Cache Button (one click to clear your cache)
- FireFTP (It's an FTP client built into FF, awesome!)
- DownThemAll (download manager with better resuming than the default)

Of course, I have about every other browser under the sun (Opera, Safari, Netscape, etc) for cross browser compatibility testing.

Other tidbits on my browser experiences.
- Firefox is the most powerful, but it does tend to crash if you overburden it. Even in FF3. But has crash recovery.
- Opera is fast, slim and reliable
- Safari is the most standards compliant.
- Netscape useful for compliance testing. NS7/8 uses FF engine, NS5/6 use Mozilla engine, NS4... well it won't even load netscape.com correctly. ha!

[istill316]

I use IE7 and Opera. Firefox after verison 1 got bloated. Other browsers are faster, have all the features I want, etc. Oh, and I definitely qualify as a 'geek'.

[Morisot]

I hate (sorry, I know that is a strong word) Firefox. The IT guy at work puts it on all of our computers. I hate the tabs. (You are about to close 8 windows...GRRRRR ARRRRGGG.)
I hate the bloody updates all the time. It wastes my time. I could easily find all my open links in my system tray with IE 6 (I hate tabbed browsing.)

[Trane Francks]

Try only opening links in a new window (it's in preferences). Try disabling asking before closing multiple tabs (it's in preferences). RTFM, it's not all that difficult to make it work as you desire. Then there'd be nothing to hate.

[Morisot]

Trane - I like IE!

(...and IT locks down our computers so we can't make any changes. RTFM.)

[Snoopy2222]

Guys get real, Firefox is faster than Internet Explorer. ( http://www.highspeedsat.com/geostationary-satellites.php ) Lots of people still don't know for Firefox and they are using IE cause they get it with Windows.

[k9fe]

I use both, but with Firefox and its plugins it is much more powerful. I only use Windoze on 2 machines, all the rest are linux. On the linux machines I prefer Firefox to the other linux browsers. I definitely use Firefox on my servers (windows server 2003) because of the pain-in-the-neck security checks on Server. I guess I qualify as one of the Geeks, and proudly one of the geeks.

[Crunchy_Frog]

The last 3 companies I worked for had built their entire infrastructure on IE6, non could even use IE7. I don't understand why any thinking organization would spend millions to develop portals and front ends on one of the most unstable and highest security risk browsers on the planet. I have been told that all or parts of the federal government have banned the use of IE6 because it's considered such a security risk.

[Crunchy_Frog]

The last 3 companies I worked for had built their entire infrastructure on IE6, non could even use IE7. I don't understand why any thinking organization would spend millions to develop portals and front ends on one of the most unstable and highest security risk browsers on the planet. I have been told that all or parts of the federal government have banned the use of IE6 because it's considered such a security risk.

[will_5050]

" would call my self a computer "geek" and I use IE everyday (i'm using IE8 beta). Of course being a web developer I have firefox 3 too, but if I'm just browsing the web, I'm using IE. Maybe I'm just weird, but it does the job for me. "
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I agree with vicquad84 comments above. I am not a "geek" per se, however, I am an avid computer user with above avg computer skills and I browse the Web religiously. I have used most of the Browsers available and I fnid while IE doesn't do all things great, it isn't as "bad" as most make it out to be either. It does the job for me and I find that I use is quite a bit more than the other "supposedly" superior browsers. I really don't see what all the fuss is about with IE. Can someone tell me? as it does appear to do everything that the other broswers do and at times, do it better.

[compudoc318]

I'd have to say its all about the set up nowadays. Which ever one has the buttons where u want is what u use. Neither is gonna stop a virus, they both have their share of exploits. Heck they found major exploits in ff3 less than 5 hours of it hitting the shelves. Work environments will lean towards ie7, firefox wont even run our apps at our work, and its a large world wide company. Not to mention ie comes on machines, so i dont see ff winning this battle.

[Benf]

FF is a good browser, what keeps it from being great is that there is still web content that it is not compatible with, IE works with everything FF doesnt and all this foolishness about security is simply made up by tech people to help promote FF, for every site that says FF is more secure there is an equal number of reputable sites that say IE is more secure, come on people quit being a bunch of sheep, think for yourself and stop letting others make up your mind for you..

[jdyoungs]

Lawds, 'technical elite.'

[GERRY RAINS]

As more and more technically non-savvy people turn to techies for help, more and more of them become acclimated to FF. I have converted three people who could not zip a file to FF and to an easy file zipper-unzipper.

[linuxisamazing]

I hate Internet Explorer.
On my Windows PC I run Safari because it is the absolute fastest of all the browsers I've tried, and to be honest I want to get off my Windows PC as soon as possible which is why I use the fastest browser on it. Let's all be honest and remind ourselves that dealing with Windows Vista is one of the worst experiences ever.
And on my Linux PC I run Firefox because it is the best browser overall and it comes pre-installed, and I'm pretty sure it's one of the few browser compatible with Linux.

[linuxisamazing]

I hate Internet Explorer.
On my Windows PC I run Safari because it is the absolute fastest of all the browsers I've tried, and to be honest I want to get off my Windows PC as soon as possible which is why I use the fastest browser on it. Let's all be honest and remind ourselves that dealing with Windows Vista is one of the worst experiences ever.
And on my Linux PC I run Firefox because it is the best browser overall and it comes pre-installed, and I'm pretty sure it's one of the few browser compatible with Linux.

[AMDCam]

I know cnet doesn't attract the most savvy groups of people, and the editors (like Don Reisinger) and less-than-basic and almost useless reviews on everything but home theater components don't help to get many intelligent nerds on their website, but come on people. What's Firefox's advantage? It's more secure? That was a problem with IE years ago, sure it'll always have small security flaws, but when everyone uses you someone's bound to try to screw with you. It's like how Apple used to brag about being virus-immune. Tabbed browsing has been around since IE7 with internet explorer, so it's been years since you HAD to have firefox to tab. Every other feature is exactly the same as IE- and some of them just renamed- like the "awesome bar" in firefox 3. The worst part about it is compatibility, you use functionality with Firefox because of security flaws in IE that'll never be breached on your computer and have probably already been fixed anyway? WHY?! So you can be like every other ignorant wannabe-geek out there and say "I use firefox, I'm educated". If you enjoy having to find and install plugins for every little streaming video or app you see in your browser, and having compatibility issues and lack of support for plugins, drivers, web design, and support for security measures like CAC card authentication on secure websites, well have fun using Firefox and bragging to all your other ignorant 'Revenge of the Nerds' buddies about how you use it, and let the real computer guys stick to what's smart.

[jpmccloud01]

Here is comment for you. As a person who has used xp version of safari, Firefox1 thru 3, opera all incarnations, something called spaces, navigator all versions till 3 yrs ago, and to you microsoft haiters all versions of IE; including like I am now IE7; I like IE7 scary as it sounds, it fully works, I get my graphics and wording all at once, I never get that funny x in the left top corner because a graphic will not load like other browsers, It doesn't wiggy like Firefox 3 or opera, The words are actual looking not cartoon like in firefox3, The picturers work unlike spaces, I can send without waiting to like firefox. Though I wish Navigator was still around, not sure if it is because that webbrowser is the true great one out their of all and I'm sad that IE push it under, but IE7 is a good peace of work and if you do like you should and use a good virus, spyware, firewall and other things then you need not worry about though people writting all that bad and dangerous code out there. So all you no to IE people if you want to tought yourselves as techie then get netscape nav back and strong again then place the arguement, then that will be a good one because it trully did what ie does and better

[sekander94]

I am a web designer, and I use firefox almost exclusively. I check every so often to see how badly IE messes up my pages, and see if I can fix the problem, though I refuse to use blatant workarounds

[JS82712]

May people doesn't know much or care much about computers so they think what microsoft offers is always better or even the only solution. and the second reason is because IE is "bundled" with the windows OS.

[rick_rollington]

RE: " it does beg an equally intriguing question"

There is no question being begged here.

http://begthequestion.info/

[zacarrell]

What do you think I'm using to write this comment?
I'll give you a hint: Firefox.