Monday, December 06, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ONLINE GUY: Firefox gets raves from readers

A few weeks ago I suggested you try a new Internet browser, Firefox. And many of you did. You liked it, for the most part.

One thing I forgot to mention was Apple Macintosh users need to be running OS X to run Firefox, and several people pointed out that Windows users should not try to uninstall Internet Explorer, as it could create problems they wouldn't want to face.

Here are some of the Firefox comments I got from readers:

"All I can say is WOW!!!!," wrote Lance Fogel. "I am really impressed, and for the first time I feel like I really do have 5 megabits per second from Cox. The pages load in lightning fast; if you blink you would miss the page flying by. The feature I really enjoy the most is tabbed browsing ... what a joy to have multiple sites opened without draining your system resources. I could go on and on, but I'm having way too much fun surfing the Web again."

Clark Stafford writes: "I switched to Mozilla Firefox last week and will not be going back to I.E. Its simplicity is what is really intriguing. However, there are some downfalls of switching to a new browser,"

"The majority of all applications, extensions and plug-ins that have anything to do with Web browsing were written for Internet Explorer. Naturally, this means the majority of them are currently not compatible with a foreign browser such as Firefox. These applications or plug-ins like to reside on the toolbars of the browser as buttons for quick access," he said.

One of the extensions Stafford mentioned was a pop-up blocker. Pop-up control is a built-in component of Firefox, so there's no need for this additional pop-up control, or others that prevent spyware or adware. Keep it simple and resist the urge to modify Firefox.

Reader Matthew, who didn't give his last name, said users running Windows should visit the Microsoft Download Center (www.microsoft.com/downloads/) to determine what updates they need for their system before installing Firefox.

Joe Wong says his 27-minute Firefox download on a dial-up connection was worth the wait. He claims his browsing is now 40 to 85 percent faster than with Explorer, depending on page content. He also likes the alphabetized bookmarks, lack of pop-ups and improved audio quality, even on a dial-up connection.

James Hill writes: "I went beyond the new browser. Changed the whole operating system. About a year and a half ago I switched over to Linux, haven't regretted it a bit. It has Mozilla, Firefox and Opera browsers standard. Since I switched over I haven't had a single virus, haven't been hacked and best of all no blue screens of death. Not a single glitch in that time. That speaks volumes to me."

Share your Internet story with me at: agibes@reviewjournal.com and be sure to visit The Online Guy Web site at: (www.reviewjournal.com/columnists/onlineguy)