Browser face-off: Firefox versus IE

Funny how the antiphishing seems to be in favour of IE7 for them, when a recent test showed that the Firefox one was better :)

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127894-c,mozilla/article.html

Comment by Guido at November 16, 2006 03:36 PM | Permalink

The day IE starts supporting font switching (substitution) will be the day I consider using it again. As it is, IE is the ONLY major browser that fails in this area. Why font switching matters? Maybe not so much to users of European languages, who benefit from a wealth of Latin fonts. But if you happen to write in a less supported script, well, it's simply indispensible.

See: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/intl/fonts.html

Comment by a-giâu at November 26, 2006 11:18 AM | Permalink

All I can say is Firefox comes to the people by the people and that feels right to me. I just made the switch from Internet Explorer and there were no technical reasons involved. It was more about freedom of choice.

And now that I am here, I feel confidant that Firefox is certainly as good if not better than windows in terms of performance and options. But the best aspect of Firefox is that it allows (every)one to be involved. And therefor, I expect that IE7 will never really be able to gain, or if so, certainly not maintain the upper hand.
................................................
I am not a developer. Just a simple user with HTML being the only code I am moderately knowledgeable in. So I depend on the wisdom and advice gleaned from the internet and other users - hopefully I remain sensible and intuitive enough to avoid the wrong choices or "selections" and the wrong advice.
I had been using IE6 for some time without much thought until one day I turned on my computer, opened IE6 and saw a lot of rapid activity going on and before I could even grasp what it all was- BLAM! I was now going to use IE7 to gain access to the internet! No choice given, no options offered, I was not even involved in the change. I had, essentially, been slammed. Sure, it looked OK, and I liked the tabs, but it made me uncomfortable being forced to use this new version. It felt like a big brother move had been made on me. So, with much more ado than should have been required, I tried (in vain) to get back to IE6 however it seemed like it was going to an all or nothing situation and there were no options or "help" to be found. I felt that control of my own system was being eroded. (Later - after removing IE7 I tried to get IE6 back, just to have it, but every link for the the stand-alone program download I found was in fact only for updates, various packets and or IE7-pretty fishy.)
I called my son for help and he reminded me there were other and better options. I decided to download Firefox and make my partial escape from the overwhelmingly pushy world of Microsoft.

I am very glad I made that choice and removed IE7 from my computer. I intend to get a new laptop this year but want to eliminate dependence on Microsoft as much as possible. I will be looking into Linux (for a start) and am open to hearing what others have to say about making this change.

I have no idea if I will be able to purchase a computer that does not come with windows (or that will even allow me to refuse it) nor how to get a totally new operating system loaded onto a computer without an OS. I suppose I would have to learn how and make a starter disk. But would this be the best way to begin?
I would appreciate comments, advice and guidance from anyone who cares to share their own knowledge and experience, and offer suggestions, and links to information (that a non-developer such as myself could work with).