Same reason it takes Ford and GM and the other big guys forever to re-design their products, but the guy in the corner garage can do it over night.

The bottom line is who's product do you buy and who do you trust more with your hard earned money?

 

My gut instinct on this is to wonder what KPayne thinks about all this, before downloading anything.

Especially a "FREE" anything, since anything FREE usually has a hidden price tag...


~Wolf

 

I can show you at least 4 computers that were crashed by using IE... I have a cousin that won't listen and has to reinstall windows every 3 or 4 days because he gets bugs in through IE... It's a nasty program that hogs up memory. Hey Nightowl, why do I use firefox? It's elimintated the need for the spyware removal prrgrams. That's why... I don't need "watchdog" software running in the background to keep my systems clean..

 

I think that's a "wee bit of an exaggeration." Windows has to be activated. If you try to activate the same serial number more than once in 90 days they require you to call in to activate. Do it more than about 4 times in a 90 day period and they'll refuse to activate your copy.

IE doesn't install spyware. Programs downloaded from the net do. Those programs can be stand-alone (requires the user to install them), plug-ins (requires the user to click ok or yes to install) or Active-X controls (requires the user to click ok or yes to install). I've used IE for years (and Opera, both on a daily basis --- Opera blows Firefox out of the water when it comes to speed and features but its not free) without any spyware on the system. However, download Gator or any of several various "free" programs out there and you'll have spyware installed regardless of which browser you use. Without user action spyware wouldn't happen.... (though some spyware software incorrectly flags browser cookies as spyware and in that case all browsers are "vunerable" to this type of so-called spyware).

I have to laugh at all these Firefox fans.... Opera has been doing everything Firefox has done for many years. And much more with a smaller memory foot-print. What happens when you click the left border in Firefox? Nothing. Try it in Opera and you get a side bar full of goodies. Tabs? Its got them, top, left, or bottom. Or get rid of the tabs altogether and make easy window have its only screen. Want a browser that can go back on a screen, even a form, without hitting refresh? Opera. Not even Firefox can do that with some forms... Opera can. Download manager? Opera's had it for years. Nothing can touch its wand and pass-word managers... IE and Firefox try but they don't even come close (just hit Ctrl-Enter in Opera and it autofills it).

Chat? Opera's got it.
RSS? Opera's got it.
Email? Opera's got it.
Notes? Opera's got it.
Newsgroups? Opera's got it.
Instant changing of browser id (ie, make Opera look like Mozilla, IE, Netscape, etc. to the server). Yup.

I could go on and on. Generally the only people who like Firefox over Opera aren't using the paid version and haven't spent the time to learn all the things it does. Its worth every penny.

 

He has a not so legal copy of windows.... Yes GATOR, and BonziBuddy are really bad about spyware. I used opera for a while, but didn't like it.. The problem is that MOST people just click YES, instead of reading what's in the window...

 

Almost forgot... Opera's great for designing web sites to view on PDAs/cell phones. It has drop-down box to instantly change to print-preview mode, or PDA view mode if you want. Tired of an animated graphic on a page? Pull down the quick-preferences bar and temporarily turn of GIF animation!

 

I use Safari and am virus-free.

 

I'd forgotten about the web page designer in opera.... I used it a few times.... They used to have a free version that was ad supported...

 

As far as spyware and other nusiances, it depends on the popularity of the program. IE as well as windows is the target most of the times because its the "big boy" on the block. Case in point, the security hole in firefox was only found recently because of its popularity and so many people switching from IE.

I use it for the greater security, and less spyware. The reason for less spyware is most cases is fewer plugins on firefox. I also hate any company that manipulates the market like M$ does. It is impossible for a user to totally get rid of IE and still have a functioning computer running windows.

I have never tried opera, so I cannont speak of it, but if it uses IE's engine, then I don't want to. As far as being free, Wolf, it does not have a hidden price. Firefox has its background from Netscape. It is a team of volunteers that wrote it and keep it running. "Open source" programs are begining to find their way into more and more computers, just look at the linux craze.

Its also a personal choice. A personal preference.

 

Good to see an expert's comments and not just anectodal examples.

BTW,
I can show you three computer users who only use IE and everyone of them has spilled drinks on their keyboards.

 

Mozilla, because I use an IBM P-series computer with the AIX operating system much of the time, not Windows, Linux or MacOS. Netscape is supplied by IBM and Mozilla has a version for it.

Jim

 

Depending on the computer I am on, I use Mozilla or Firefox. But some computers I must use IE. As for page errors with Mozilla and firefox, I have only found about 5 web pages that have problems or errors. That is about the same rate as IE. I don’t get the pop-up with Mozilla or firefox and the annoying information bar of IE about pop-up. I have never had Mozilla or Firefox hijacked or re-directed by a hacker!

P.S. I have used Mozilla and Firefox for about 3 years.

 

Bumpzter... Just so you know I own my own PC service company. You would not believe how many people blindly use IE because "It came with windows, so it's better!". Let me tell ya, IE runs about program that gets sent to it. So it's a HUGE security hole. It could potentially run a VB script that can run "format c:" with the proper tags to just do it and not ask questions.

 

I agree, but... At work I use Firefox daily and Opera almost daily (I use Opera for non-work stuff at work...hehe). I start Opera with a bunch of regularly-visted sites already open in tabs. It works well for up to 10 or so, after that it bogs down. At home I just use Firefox. I've used Opera for years but for some reason Opera just doesn't grab me enough to make it my primary browser. Maybe it's the interface, too complicated, too many toolbars. Yeah, I know you can customize all that but there are just too many options.

 

I don't think that's evidence that Opera and IE use the same engine. What version of Opera are you running? Opera runs on many differnet platforms; Solaris, QNX, OS/2, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, BeOS. So how do they get an IE engine for all those platforms?

The fact is, I've used Opera for years, mostly browse sites I did NOT want to visit with IE. Sites with popups, home page hijacking, etc. I've never had any intrusions with Opera. So worst case if Opera is based on IE, they've tweaked the hell out of it to get rid of security problems.