If you get the Tabbrowser Extension you can manage your tabs in many different ways. But nothing beats managing them with mouse gestures.
What makes one explanation more real than another? Why is the “layman” not allowed to have a valid opinion?
I’m not a layman – I’m an Internet professional – and I’m well aware of the technical advantages underpinning Mozilla (of which Firefox is simply one incarnation). But the direct consumer/layperson benefits are real advantages as well.
Also, your repeated claim that Firefox is just as vulnerable as IE lacks backup. I offer that, since Firefox is not integrated into the operating system, it offers fewer points of vulnerability for hackers to attack. The security advantage lies in that lack of integration, not in the smaller audience.
Further, I managed to pick up browser parasites using IE at work. In a managed corporate environment (Fortune 100), behind a firewall, with acccess to the latest MS patches. And no, I was not surfing porn at work. It’s not all about where you surf, it is at least in part about the browser you use.
A layman can have whatever opinion he wants. As long as its educated.
If he goes around touting the virtues of something which isn’t true, then we should be fighting to stop this ignorance, no?
I’m a power user, not a techie, though I can install memory chips and video boards and configure my home network as needed, but I’m not that much into the programming. I’m posting via Mozilla. Why? It’s simple: IE =popups and scumware. Mozilla =No popups, no scumware. I keep IE around but disabled for the odd site that’s IE only, but I haven’t found many. This is why people are getting into Firefox despite the fact that it doesn’t come with the OS.
But your statement was:
I’m all for fighting ignorance, but my point was that the layperson’s opinion – that the consumer benefits s/he actually experiences are the key advantages – is valid. You seem to feel that it’s not.
I do understand the frustration, though. I can understand that you object to someone claiming that Firefox is faster, but you’re painting all subjective claims re: Firefox with the same broad brush, which is rarely a good idea.
It’s not just valid, the end user’s (the “layman’s”) opinions and experience of the software are the only things that matter. Everything else are just details and a means to that end. And the average end user couldn’t give the tiniest hoot if the software is open source, closed source, tomato sauce, or just sorcery.
I haven’t noticed any discernable difference between the speed of Firefox and IE. And even if it was slightly slower, Firefox would still be a better application.
Amen.
To the extent that I have noticed a speed difference, I find that IE renders a bit faster. It’s not much of a difference, though, and aside from the occasional Firefox-incompatible site (like the web-based tools I support), I use Firefox wherever I can.
Firefox allows me to wheel-click SDMB thread open in the background, and doesn’t go back to the last tab when I close a tab. I hate that about Opera.
Plus if you browse the plugins, you can find all kinds of cool stuff. I MUST have the mouse gestures. I even now get irritated when Windows Explorer won’t obey mouse gestures.
That’s exactly the reason I use it. And you know what? I’m okay with that.
YAY! for tabbed browsing! 
I’ve actually moved back to IE since installing SP2. Call me crazy, but I like it better than Firefox. I set IE to “block everything” and I get 0 popups. Ctrl-Click allows a popup when you want it. Keep in mind that things like Flash can create popups, which is where IE’s add-on manager really shines. I can leave Flash disabled, then quickly enable it when I visit a site where I want it. It’s also easy to see any other activex things that I don’t want.
I haven’t been able to find a way to turn on/off flash in Firefox. I do miss the tabbed browsing, but the taskbar is almost as good.
I think Microsoft took a step in the right direction with this.
Try FlashBlock. You can find a firefox extension to do just about anything nowadays. Lots of good stuff here.