Firefox- What are the downsides?

[Nerak the Numb]

So I've been getting a little information on Firefox. After numerous annoying trojans, loads of spyware, buying a firewall, reformatting, etc., it might just be time for the switch. What are the downsides to this browser?

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

So I've been getting a little information on Firefox. After numerous annoying trojans, loads of spyware, buying a firewall, reformatting, etc., it might just be time for the switch. What are the downsides to this browser?

Major downsides?

None


Minor downsides?

You can't run Windows updates or download anything from Micro$oft in Firefox without jumping through a bunch of hoops that M$ calls "Security features". So keep IE on your PC only to download updates.

Occasionally, you will run across a website that is optimized for IE, and it won't format quite correctly on the screen. This is actually caused because IE uses a few non-standard codes which Firefox and other browsers don't conform to, because the IE formatting is not correct. It's not a problem with Firefox, but a problem with IE. But since IE is the most common browser, some sites have chosen to use poor code to work with the popular browser, becasue M$ won't fix the problem on their end.

You need to install a bunch of plugins (Java and some others) which come preinstalled on IE. I actually like this, as I can choose to ignore things I don't wnat, instead of having M$ tell me what must be installed for my browser to work.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

I haven't found many downsides to the new Firefox release. Make sure to add in the java extensions (since so many sites use). The Firefox community can probably answer your questions better than anyone

http://forums.mozillazine.org/index.php?c=4

 

[IronWolf]

I don't think there are any major downsides to running FireFox. I have been running it for a long time and rarely need to use IE for anything other than Windows Updates and one of our vendor's support pages.

Installing FireFox does not uninstall IE, so it will still be there to fall back on should you really want to or run across a site that just doesn't render correctly in FireFox (though this seems to happen less and less often).

And just think of all the major downsides to Internet Explorer you will be doing away with:

numerous annoying trojans, loads of spyware, buying a firewall, reformatting, etc.

 

[MaxKaladin]

I've been using it for a couple of months and the only thing I've really noticed is that it seems to "give up" faster than IE when you're trying to get to a site that's slow in responding. There may be a setting for the timeout, but I have not bothered to go looking for it yet.

 

[Smart]

My wife and I have gone to using Firefox exclusively at home, and we're so glad to have made the switch. Spyware problems are zilch, firefox has built-in popup blocking, which works for most sites, and has some features, such as tabbed browsing, that I can no longer do without.

Make the switch for daily use. You won't regret it.

 

[raineym]

I've been using Firefox since 0.4, and the only downside I've found so far is ... None.

Firefox is far more expandable than IE with plugins, there are absolutely zero pop-ups due to the built-in blocker, you can customize the look with numerous downloadable themes or create your own look.

And since nearly every high-volume site is coming more inline with web standards, the sites will look as the designer intended without "fixes" and "work-arounds" to make it look the same in IE.

 

[Macbeth]

Downsides in the browser itself? None. Th eonly real problems you'll find are in compliance issues, as mentioned above, with non-standard IE specific pages (which happen less and less often these days) and Windows Update (the only reason I stil have IE). I just bought a new computer, and Firefox will be the first thing to go on it (or maybe second, after some antivirus software). I really can't find a downside. It's stable, it's a whole generation past IE as far as function is concerned, and it's free. Plus the number of cool plug-ins is great. I use FoxyTunes, Gmail Notifier, and a few less obvious extensions, and it really makes Firefox one of the few programs I ALWAYS have running (Thunderbird and Trillian being the others).

 

[Allanon]

A handy program to use which can speed up your browsing experience with FireFox is FireTune which one can download directly from here. Although anyone who knows how to config firefox itself will have probably done this himself through "about:config" or the config file itself, it's a great for those with less knowledge to use. On my machine it did indeed make FireFox feel more responsive and load pages faster.

On the topic of FireFox problems the only one I know of is the one already stated. IE centric pages don't load or don't load correctly. Besides that it's smooth surfing all the way with FireFox.

 

[gtJormungand]

My complaints are very slight, but Firefox does slow down when looking at large images. This is not a big problem, and the other features (like Tabbed Browsing) make running it so much more enjoyable.