• IE 7 Vs Firefox 2.0

    IE 7 Vs Firefox 2.0

    Frazier Barretto, Nov 12, 2006 1100 hrs IST

    How about exploring the on-going tug of war between veteran browsers Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox 2.0?

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Tabbed Browsing

And IE finally changed; that's what you must be saying for sure after all the reading but have they done a good job of it? In fact, Microsoft has added a few more features to the default setup of tabs. They have added the Quick Tabs and the Tab List feature one of which is the default in Firefox as well and the other can be added with a mere free add-on. Tabbed browsing is a good feature to any browser, but the fact still remains with many tabs opened at the same time, for any browser, the tab bar gets congested. Both these browsers support 9 tabs displayed at one point of time before they are hidden to the left or right at standard 1024 x 768 resolutions.

Firefox manages to show more of the tab titles than IE does, which makes Firefox the better tabbed browser out of the two. Actually, earlier I did mention that bit about relevance in the previous paragraph, here it is. If you make the buttons on the tab bar a drop-down, does it increases the single view of tabs to 13 at a time? Why couldn't it just be a simple separate tab bar altogether?

Add-ons

This is the most crucial part for a browser; support for add-ons. These mere add-ons add life to the browser or provide you with a lot more functionality; be it just information like the weather forecast or outright utility like the mouse gestures. IE never had support for Add-ons; this time with the new version released they have included support for Add-ons. Firefox, from the very start, supported add-ons.

If they both support add-ons, then what's the difference? IE add-ons are paid; while Firefox, being an open-source project, all its add-ons are free. Firefox, at the moment, also faces problems regarding its add-ons as this version isn't backward compatible with the add-ons made for Firefox 1.5. It is just a matter of time before all of them are recoded by their developers to work with Firefox 2. Most of the popular add-ons have already been re-written, so that you won't feel handicapped. Also, Firefox just released an update of 1.5 which you can access here so that you get the full support of even the previous add-ons and themes while they are ported to Firefox 2.0.

Themes are also a part of add-ons in the new Firefox and the add-ons are called "extensions". IE, being a part of the whole windows package, doesn't require a separate themes section, but it wouldn't be a bad option, after all they were anyways at it; cosmetic changes.

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Discussion Board
(36) Comments
Aatif
,Mumbai, on Nov 12, 2006 03:48 PM
both of these dont have 1 thing which opera 9.02 has .. . in that if u press ctrl H. . .the browser minimizes into the system tray . ..VERY useful .. . is there any firefox addon for this??
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Anonymous
,a, on Nov 27, 2006 05:15 PM
there might be an addon for that .. . i cant find one for v2.0 though ..
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shiju
,Bangalore, on Dec 17, 2007 04:44 PM
IE 7 is good, it has good security & good password protection
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mans
,chennai, on Feb 12, 2008 02:13 PM
opera 9.02 is the best browser is the best browser. It's speed dial,wand(multiple passwords manager) are outstanding!!!! mans
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parm
,Chandigrah, on Dec 12, 2006 11:09 AM
I love firefox extenstions, they r very useful. <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions.php">Firefox Extensions</a>
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rajpal
,jhunjhunu, on Apr 08, 2008 11:28 AM
Thankyuo
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PRITISH RAJ
,TANDA, on Jun 14, 2008 01:43 PM
firefox is best
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ghg
,hggf, on May 29, 2008 06:48 AM
hgh
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youssef 123
,pal, on Feb 07, 2008 06:37 PM
ffffffffffffffffffffffffff
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networld
,chhindwara, on Nov 25, 2006 03:02 PM
plz IE-7 version downlod
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shiju
,Bangalore, on Dec 17, 2007 04:46 PM
u can get it from microsoft.com\updates
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Lasantha Manju
,Panadura, on Sep 04, 2007 10:05 AM
yes fire fox is best.. IE7 cant get close to it
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Chandan
,Bangalore, on Aug 17, 2007 03:31 PM
Any day Firefox is better than IE 7 . Simple, fast and reliable.Whats more, it has thousands of themes to enhance the look.IE 7 has only copied the idea from Firefox of tabbed browsing.The great add-ons make Firefox everyones darling.
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virendra
,jodhpur, on May 27, 2007 10:58 AM
vir
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Inigma Gary
,Los Angeles, on Apr 27, 2007 05:32 PM
Horrible. Just stop writing. Get another job.
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Anonymous
,a, on Jan 24, 2007 11:05 PM
horribly written article
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siva
,trichy, on Nov 25, 2006 04:47 PM
gfj
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siva
,trichy, on Nov 25, 2006 04:49 PM
HJK
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Albin
,Bangalore, on Nov 22, 2006 05:46 PM
Hi Guys...IE7 is nothing near to Firefox when we compare the easy readability and useability of the firefox. IE is still leaps behind... if we need the looks mozilla provided with lots of skins to change and the firefox is much faster and it uses less system resources..
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Subbu
,Singapore, on Nov 22, 2006 11:36 AM
Guys, MS has copied all the features of firefox and has released a version. This article also talks about the look and feel of IE 7, if you guys want to try firefox with Vista look, please try Vista Fire Fox 1.5. Its simply amazing guys.. Long live Fire Fox :-)
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Arnov Sarkar
,New Delhi, on Nov 15, 2006 10:00 PM
Mozilla Foundation (Firefox + Mozilla Thunderbird) + Openoffice.org + Linux = Open Source Kings!! Open Source Rocks!!!
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ashish
,shyamlaya, on Nov 12, 2006 07:18 PM
Only empty heads use Internet Explorer.
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Navneet
,Nagpur, on Nov 15, 2006 04:39 PM
Only Bull heads use FF
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rohit
,bangalore, on Nov 15, 2006 02:24 AM
i have been using internet for past 6 years . i have used many types of browsers and all latest browsers too right from ie 5.5 to ie 7.0 beta 3 and opera 7. 2 to opera 9.02 and firefox the day it was released for windows platform. Certainly , i have concluded in overall aspects firefox is the best and it will remain best . ie new version is nothing just copied firefox functionalities mostly,even opened a site for add-ons like firefox got . and firefox got many many features and it's pop bloc is best and the password remembering another good once plus the themes and add ons extensions many extra feature and ie spell check make it really good to use . IE takes long time to open the page and its tabbing browsing actually eats up the space and the password remembering doesn't work properly. where as opera got few good things like thru voice we can do many things and it's pop block up is best,but misses the extra features whch firefox got like extensions addon and download accelerator and ie spelling check .but certainly better than IE . finally ,Firefox is best then opera and followed by internet explorer
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sachin
,goa, on Nov 13, 2006 11:00 PM
when it comes to saving a complete web page (exectly as we see it while surfing),firefox saves a web page in a second or two where as IE takes a much longer time to do so.internet explorer could loose its market share at faster pace now due to addition of stupid genuine advantage with no real advantage seen over firefox.they are just trying to cath up with firefox with IE 7 and upcoming vista story is no different to MAC.
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ab1
,mumbai, on Nov 13, 2006 01:49 AM
As a user of all three browsers,firefox 2 is the fastest browser after u have installed fasterfox beating even opera 9.02 and ahead of ie7 by along way.Just the magnitude of extensions available for firefox should make it the best browser[u can even dl videos from you tube and google video with one extension].Just the fact that microsoft worked with firefox to make it compatible with vista shows its popularity.The only gripe with firefox is that uses a lot of memory compared to the the other two.There is even an extension in firefox which can change the rendering engine to ie.The best browser for me is firefox 2 , period
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rip
,Delhi, on Nov 13, 2006 09:35 PM
dead on mate
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tektree
,yo, on Nov 13, 2006 10:27 AM
y the hell dont u ppl comapre opera and firefox?????????
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Pats
,Bangalore, on Nov 13, 2006 06:08 PM
Opera already is overwhelmingly better than Firefox - no comparison there - i.e why TechTree is not doing a review of Opera vs Firefox. Honestly - other than "Adblock" which I must add is currently implemented from Opera 9 onwards - Opera is way better than Firefox. Extensions do add flavor to Firefox, but then I am so much comfortable with Opera - I have rarely felt the need for another browser. Especially love the mouse-gestures (which Firefox implements using extensions) which are there by default in Opera.
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saty
,New Delhi, on Nov 13, 2006 02:50 PM
long live firefox
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funky town
,punk, on Nov 13, 2006 10:55 AM
this is so one sided...its all abt IE 7 than FF.
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bunk
,bunky town, on Nov 13, 2006 12:24 PM
Did you read all the way down to the conclusion?
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Prasath J
,KaulaLumpur, on Nov 12, 2006 11:47 PM
We are all sure that FireFox is better than IE7 in all possible ways... But still IE users are high in numbers, because of its association with windows... If M$ stopped attaching IE with its every windows (itz NOT GOING 2 HAPPEN), then FireFox can prove itself in "No. of users" contest also....
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A.Y.Siu
,USA, on Nov 12, 2006 11:45 PM
The MinimizeToTray Firefox extension doesn't use Control-H, but allows you to minimize to the system tray when Firefox "closes." Truth is that Firefox, with all its extensions, far surpasses any other browser in terms of functionality. The only thing Opera has on Firefox is speed. Of course, speed is important to a lot of people.
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Dan
,Toms River, on Nov 12, 2006 06:07 PM
I've had so many problems with IE 5 that I probably will never go back to it. Firefox is so easy to use and very versatile. Since I've gotten Firefox, I have had no browser hijacks, no viruses, and virtually no spy or malware. Thanks Firefox for creating an easy to use browser that's safe
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badvt
,Chennai, on Nov 12, 2006 01:26 PM
Firefox is certainly better. Press control and + key, your text size increases. Use - for decreasing. In advanced options, one can turn on the feature to start searching as we type (instead of pressing ctrl + F). My only gripe is earlier 'find next' and other options would also appear once searching is started. Now it does not happen. Maybe, that too can be enabled somehow. Will have to find it out.
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