I’ve just bought a new Dell laptop with IE 7 installed. I kinda like it but I’m wondering if Firefox might be a better browser.
I’ve used Opera and wasn’t happy with it. Never used Firefox. Will FF work with Vista OK? Is it a better browser than IE7?
Firefox will work with Vista. I’m running that at home with no problems. I’d fully recommend Firefox over IE7. Opera’s a bit weird.
I agree with you about Opera. I couldn’t download anything!
I’m going to wait a bit for more opinions before I change, though.
Thanks for the reply. 
I’m currently running Firefox on my computer and have Vista OS. I had used Opera, but for some reason the .mil sites don’t often work well with Opera. I also recommend FF.
SSG Schwartz
I last used IE when it was IE5. At that time I was using Netscape, and using IE as a back up. I tried Firefox a year ago, liked it, and haven’t missed the others.
Firefox, hands down.
Understatement of the decade. IE7 is bloody awful. Firefox is really pretty good.
I used to like Netscape (it used to be the only browser that allowed you to save a specific frame), but have worked with IE for the last 7 years. I downloaded FF a couple of months ago and was underwhelmed. There wasn’t one thing that was “better”.
IE is perfect for me.
Firefox is worth having because of its system of extensions. Basically whatever you might want your browser to be able to do, there’s a good chance someone has written an extension to do it. It’s pretty slow, at least on my Mac, though. I use Firefox and Safari.
I would hesitate to call IE7 “bloody awful” (it’s certainly one hell of an improvement over IE6, though I know that’s not saying much), but Firefox is definitely much better. The interface is simpler, and it’s very customizable. Extensions are the bee’s knees.
If you like tabbed browsing (I don’t), I can see how it might appeal (but then if you like tabbed browsing, you already had a better browser than IE, because you had one that already did tabbed browsing). I guess it’s supposedly more secure, but the user interface is a shameful, ugly pudding of misaligned, misplaced, mismatched and assorted-sized buttons and controls. It looks like a ‘skinned’ interface, but it’s not configurable in any meaningful way.
That might sound like making a mountain out of a molehill, but think about it - the controls are what you actually have to use to try to make the thing work - they’re not a triviality at all. ‘Bloody awful’ is not an exaggeration at all, IMO. It hurts to use it.
I was reasonably happy with IE6, but IE7 made me switch completely to Firefox.
Well, I was speaking mainly in terms of security and standards compliance. IE7 is still far from perfect, but it’s much, much easier now to design a website that is smoothly compatible with all the major browsers than it was when IE6 was still alive. I agree that the interface sucks.
FF with Vista is the absolute, so far.
I have been unable to crash the OS with FF
…and I have tried. Never a BSOD or the like.
Exactly. I can’t remember if the spell checker is automatic, but my other favorite extension is the one that allows me to right click a word and get the definition of it. Lovely. When I am forced into using IE at work, I forget that I don’t have the same capabilities and miss them very much.
Visa limits and improved security stop fleeing Iraqis, U.N. says
Oh, that’s wrong. Thought it said VistA. Sorry.
Another one for FF is ya just put the curser over any part of the word and touch
ALT key. Immediate definition in pop up box without changing the page.
Too cool!
It’s what Netscape should have become. Beats the living snot out of Internet Exploder.