I keep hearing people singing the praises of Firefox and Thunderbird. Fine.
I’m not interested in footnote stuff. For the typical user in routine applications, what are the likely downsides?
Re: the downsides, overall, how would you rate the aggravation factor?
The aggravation factor is extremely low, almost nil. I have been extraordinarily happy with Firefox. However, there are a few pages that won’t work right without IE. I keep it around just in case, for that reason.
I’ll second that. All in all, I have found Firefox to be quite enjoyable for run-of-the-mill web browsing. I keep IE around for times I run across sites that don’t quite work right under other browsers – like my company’s 401(k) page, which doesn’t show the graphs right in anything but IE.
I must admit to being one of the few people who prefer IE to FireFox, for two main and a few subsidiary reasons.
There are admittedly a few sites that work in FireFox but not IE, but they’re vastly outnumbered by the sites that work in IE but not FireFox. The biggest problem I have seems to be with font sizes and alignment - FireFox tends to choose unreadable microscopic fonts, and insert unwanted borders and margins all over the place. Yes, I appreciate that’s a fault with the HTML rather than the browser, but IE handles these errors in a much more friendly fashion.
FireFox crashes hard far more often than IE. Since upgrading to XP, I’ve only ever had to press the reset button after a FireFox crash - all other application’s crashes have been survived by the operating system. And, yes, it’s probably my system that’s at fault, not FireFox - but why does only FireFox do this?
FireFox screws up favicons all the time.
IE has a progress meter for PDF’s.
When FireFox takes a URL from another application (such as mIRC) and it can’t get to the page first time, it clears the URL bar. So you have to go back to the app and paste the URL in manually for a second attempt. IE keeps the URL in the bar, even if it fails the first time.
On the other hand, FireFox’s tabbed browsing is a good feature.
Can’t think of any downsides to either program. I’ve been using both religiously for awhile now.
IE is the prostitute of web browsers. It will do anything just to open a web page. IE also makes your computer unsafe.
Yes, I still have IE installed for those site that just can’t do things according to standards. But I also use Thunderbird to fire off emails to some of those sites requesting they change their ways. I most often get a response from those site where I do business. Yes, even one person can get their bank to change their site!
I recently upgraded my computer’s RAM and OS (Windows ME to XP.) Since I was pretty much reloading everything, I decided to download and give Firefox a try. I really like it. I’m typing this right now in Firefox. The rest of my family uses IE, and I have it if I do need it, but so far it has worked like a charm. Mmmm, Kool-Aid.
I really like Firefox. I must not be very attracted to sites that it won’t handle well because it is very rare that happens and I surf for hours a day.
The aggravation factor is very low. The interface is roughly like IE but more streamlined and tightly put together. You should have a problem just opening it and start using it immediately with little trouble.
You don’t have to “convert”. You can just download Firefox and have it running in 5 minutes. If you like it, keep using it. If you really need to use a site designed for IE, then open IE. Firefox is free and not very large so there is no risk.
The only real snag I have found w/ firefox is issues with online transactions and bill paying. In my experence about 40% don’t work w/ firefox and you have to switch to IE. Sometimes that happens during checkout, which means items in your cart might be lost during the switch (but not always.)
I must be the lucky one, then. The only site that gave me trouble (but has now been fixed) was the Columbia House site (I buy a lot of DVDs from them). For some reason the section where you can choose or decline the Director’s Choice wasn’t working. Now it does.
I pay bills online and have yet to encounter any problems.
Been using both for well over a year now, and never had any trouble such as this. Each computer has its own peculiarities, however, so one never knows.
With its ad blocking, popup blockers, password manager and a wealth of other goodies, it’s the best browser/email system have used in many years.
I’ve been using both for a year now, since I made this computer a dual boot system. Firefox has no drawbacks relative to IE, except for the very occassional site I can’t use. Thunderbird is far superior to Outlook Express, and I like it better than Outlook. The only downside was my struggle to import my Outlook address book and email. (Thunderbird does not use a proprietary mail format, which is much nicer. I could also configure Thunderbird so that my kids do not see the same email accounts that I do.)
Firefox: The occasional page looks funny, crashes more often than it should.
Thunderbird: very satisfied.
I’m on a Mac.
a) Firefox is a nice browser. I happened to have settled on Shiira, a relatively obscure browser that uses the same engine as the Mac-mainstream Safari but which beats Safari silly IMHO. I actually find Firefox to be compatible with the occasional site that Shiira can’t do properly. It’s my backup browser.
b) Switching from Eudora to anything else is just totally not on my possibility-map. Everything else seems like a toy in comparison. My girlfriend, on the other hand, took a dislike to the PC version of Eudora (which does seem a lot klunkier and crashprone, sure enough) and I set her up with Thunderbird and she has taken to it pretty well. I assume you (the OP) are a PC user and your default browser you’re thinking of ditching is Internet Explorer, but I have no idea what you were using as an email program. The Bird looks nice, if underpowered and underfeatured in comparison with Eudora. It can at least manage multiple accounts sending and receiving. The interface is a little to Outlook-ish for my tastes, though.
Dumb question: Can you use Thunderbird without Firefox? In short, Thunderbird and Explorer?
Yes. You can utilize any email program that works on your platform, and, independently of that, you can utilize any web browser that works on your platform. They need not hail from the same breeder 
Weird. Exactly the opposite is true for me; IE switches the URL in the bar to my hard drive’s stored version of the error page, but Firefox keeps the URL I was trying to load, so I just hit ctrl-r or click “reload.” This happens when trying to take a URL from another app or when trying to follow a link in the browser.
Like most of the dopers who’ve replied to the Op, I’ve been using Firefox and thunderbird since they were first released. To me, the results are self-evident - my IE and Outlook (possibly the scummiest mail client ever made) would crash on an average of, say, once every 5-6 weeks. The crash would either be the kind where you swear to yourself, reboot the machine, and at the most you’ve lost the latest mail you were drafting, or it would be the kind where you want to go to a bathtub, fill it with pleasantly lukewarm water, get in, and slit your wrists.
This has NEVER happened with Firefox or Tbird.
Yes, 'Fox does sometimes not open a particular page, especially those that have some mundo javascript on them, but these pages are few and far between, which is why, like most of the dopers in this thread, I keep IE around. 'Fox is lighter, faster, more secure, and i would rather give up assorted appendages than give up tabbed browsing. 
T-bird has the most sublimely convenient search feature. Its fast, IMAP works like a charm (which doesnt happen in Outlook), and you can skin it to look like pretty much anything you want. (ditto on the 'Fox).
Carnac, dont worry. Mailing and surfing just got a shitload easier for you.
AHunter3 and Sniperfang are completely correct. I forgot all about the incredibly lame search in Outlook.
One detail that no one has mentioned is that you can’t remove IE from any recent version of Windows. You have to leave it there. That is one reason Windows is less secure than Linux - the security holes in IE are exploitable even if you are not using it directly. It is one reason I rarely let my kids boot into Windows, and I always make them shut it down when they are done with what they are doing. (Usually, playing a game that runs only on Windows.)
One of the other advantages of Firefox is the number of add-ins you can get for free. When I last looked for some, there were more for Windows than Linux, because the mouse-over stuff is operating system dependent.
Tevildo, what operating system are you using? I know no one with your experience. Neither Firefox nor Thunderbird have ever crashed on me, let alone forced me to reboot. Here at work, where everyone else is a MS fan, people still use Firefox for debugging javascript, because IE sucks badly.
XP Pro, SP2. I regularly check Windows Update, all the latest patches are installed. FireFox 1.0.7.
I’d just like to say that I’m not asking for troubleshooting advice, although I can’t stop anyone who wants to give it. IE works fine for me, and I’m happy to stick with it - I doubt I’d switch over to regular use of FireFox even if it did work perfectly on my machine. If it had a PDF progress indicator, then maybe.