Mark Forrester

Internet Explorer 7 vs Firefox 2.0

Over the course of the last couple days I have downloaded and installed the latest version of Internet Explorer, and the latest version of Firefox.

Lots of debates have sparked off on numerous big blogs. Which is better?

I’m pretty biased, but so are most web designer’s. < –There are 3 hyperlinks hidden here, all three of them are worth visiting.

I am warning you now, this debate is very one-sided. I don't think I can even call it a debate. Maybe I could call it a debate after some of you have left your insightful thoughts in the comments area 🙂

Firefox rocks. And the latest features that Firefox 2.0 boasts makes it even better.

Firefox 2.0 looks awesome. The new interface has some great glowing mouse-over effects, and more 3D looking navigation buttons.

The tabs look neater and work better. No more opening new windows when you click on a link. Only tabs. And finally there is a close button on each tab. Something IE7 betas has had the upper hand on Firefox with.

Firefox 2.0 seems way faster.

Firefox has also been hard at work making them nasty, geeky hacker people 's lives more difficult by toughening up on the phishing protection. This basically means they won't be stealing your credit card information whilst making a paypal transaction. Well not as frequently at least.

What impresses me the most is Firefox's new spell check feature. Firefox has managed to point out 2 spelling mistakes in this post already, with a simple right-click I can select the correctly spelled word and Bob's your uncle.

There are a whole bunch more new features that excites geeks like me. I'm not going to rattle them off, just look at the release notes.

I’m not even going to waste my time in rattling off the benefits of IE7, the only one I can really think of is that it is a little less resource intensive. Although some beg to differ. Obviously, Firefox can’t win all the fights, after all Firefox has to work on a Microsoft Platform.

Maybe I can give IE7 the trophy for better web feed handling, although Firefox 2 seems to have fixed all their little problems here.

Anyways, run along and download either Firefox 2.0 or Internet Explorer 7. Oops I forgot to hyperlink the second one. Sorry 🙂

What are you using? Are you with me or against me?

In

14 responses

  1. tris Avatar
    tris

    Firefox all the way!!!

    Reply
  2. Meri Avatar
    Meri

    Definitely with you. Although also glad to see IE7 happening, not least because AT LAST we might be able to design with standards and not have to hack so much. 😉

    Reply
  3. AndyHadfield Avatar
    AndyHadfield

    must say, was a firefox convert – prob for Quirk’s cute little SEO plugin – and have recently given IE7 a go – very impresseed – even-thoughMicrosft-and-all. Only thing that kills me about firefox – load time, and this BLOODY PADDING THING. 🙂

    although i’m on the picket fence at the present mo, the multi window view (ala the phantom product that is vista) is verrry cool.

    Reply
  4. Colin Avatar
    Colin

    Well, I’m with you – Firefox all the way. I use 3 different operating systems on a daily basis and Firefox is the only browser that is consistent across them all (and I can share my bookmarks with ease). Believe it or not, but Opera, which claims to be the most consistent, isn’t that consistent when it comes to running on Solaris.

    Firefox 2 is awesome compared to 1.5.x. I like the new look and overall it feels a lot smoother and cleaner to use. Whilst I’m still running RC3 on Solaris 10, I can say I haven’t spotted anything different between RC3 and the final release running on Linux or OS X.

    Whilst it still doesn’t pass the Acid2 test, I can’t say I’ve encountered any situations where it’s not rendered things correctly – except for those annoying sites that insist on using Windows specific things like ActiveX.

    Reply
  5. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    I am using Firefox and Safari (IE 7 isn’t an option for the Mac) and I enjoy using both. Safari is my main browser because of the little ways it integrates better with Mac OS but Firefox is far better at handling certain sites and services.

    The new Firefox look is very cool although after using Safari the menu bars on Firefox seem a little fat.

    Reply
  6. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    Paul, firefox is crap on Mac OSX, use Camino instead. I prefer Camino to Safari because I prefer the quick keys but Safari as a straightforward browser takes a lot of beating.

    Reply
  7. hash Avatar
    hash

    I’m with you on this – Firefox is going to come out ahead on this one. In fact, with the way IE7 is breaking a lot of websites, I would venture to say that Firefox might get a healthy chunk of market share out of this.

    Reply
  8. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    Looks like this “debate” is remaining rather one-sided.

    I must be honest and say Firefox has crashed on me a good few times since the installation of Firefox 2.0. Is anyone else having this problem?

    At least when Firefox crashes now I don’t get the irritating message “There is another instance of Firefox running”. Instead I get something like “blah, blah, blah, Firefox did not shut down properly last time, Would you like to: Restore the current session or start a new one?

    Reply
  9. Manfred Avatar
    Manfred

    There are very few reasons to retain IE7: it’s part of the OS, so you can’t easily rid yourself of it, you’ll need its bewildering array of DLL’s for some obscure application you have installed and lastly: there are still sites out there that work in nothing else but IE. Other than that, Firefox is the way to go!

    Reply
  10. Peter Avatar
    Peter

    Mark, I was having the crashes you talk about with FF2 very frequently (at every 10 minutes or so while browsing) until I discovered yesterday what the problem was.

    Wait for it… *drum roll*

    GOOGLE TOOL-BAR.

    Yes, Google really is the devil. Disabled the tool-bar: not ONE crash since!

    Reply
  11. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    You so right dude!!

    I thought I had tried that, but then i thought the Google toolbar would be the first one they test! Obviously not! Dumb asses!

    Thanks, working like a charm. * Touch wood

    Reply
  12. Peter Avatar
    Peter

    It’s such a pity ‘cos the Google toolbar is really useful. Ag well such is life… 🙂

    Reply
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  14. Marc Avatar
    Marc

    Have not used Firefox at all, but recented had the misfortune of using IE7.

    Horrible chunky interface, poorly laid out, and still with a poor rendering engine.

    It wasn’t my machine but I immediately installed Opera9 on it anyway.

    Reply

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