Time to move off IE7?

[MarcLodge]

thread608-1519347 refers to a potential exploitation of IE7 and I'm considering moving away from IE for the foreseeable future.

Can anybody recommend a browser that functions similar to IE7. I've read various writeups of Opera, Safari and Firefox, but would like the thoughts of people who regularly use these (and other) browsers.

For the record, I am a fairly average browser. I use it to buy stuff, check bank accounts, watch youtube, but never play online games. I've got Java and flash installed and occasionally visit sites that make use of these two products.

Thoughts?

Marc

 

[cmeagan656]

There will be an out-of-band update issued on December 17 to fix the particular exploit mentioned in the thread that you linked to.

That said, the only thing that I use IE7 for is Microsoft updates and downloads. For all other browsing I use the latest version of Firefox. No problems with Java or Flash when using the latest version 3.0.4 or, for that matter, any of the 3.0 versions. In fact, when you install Firefox it will pick up the relevant Java and Flash that needs to be installed.

Cheers.

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

I'd second Firefox. It'll import all your IE bookmarks, or better still, you can use the 'Plain Old Favourites' add-on to auto-share your IE bookmarks between the two browsers.

Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch:

http://www.codecouch.com/dan/

Code Couch Tech Snippets & Info:

http://www.codecouch.com/

 

[MarcLodge]

Thanks for you input. With the MS update out today, I might stay put with IE as I've used it for many years and am happy with it.

One further question that I'd like to ask:
1) Does Firefox have everything in it the IE7 does, or if I swap over to Firefox, are there going to be problems with any pages that I wouldn't have got with IE (I read something somewhere about problems with Firefox and Active-X)

Thanks again.

Marc
2) Does

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

Firefox renders everything pretty much the same, although there are always going to be badly-written websites that only suport IE.

Re. ActiveX, it has non native support, but there is a plugin, I believe, to give you some support. But the question is really do you need ActiveX support? If it's just for Flash or PDF viewing, then that's available anyway with Fx-based plugins.

Dan





Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch:

http://www.codecouch.com/dan/

Code Couch Tech Snippets & Info:

http://www.codecouch.com/

 

[tresanus]

FIREFOX

If you like IE then you would've liked older versions of Firefox since IE just copies Firefox.

Go with Firefox - on the rare occasion you need IE it will still be there looking as ugly as ever.

Just my opinion

 

[eyec]

IE is not alone in vulnerabilities

http://www.pcworld.com/article/155608/firefox_issues_eight_patches_for_web_browser.html

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

No-one is saying it isn't... but it's certainly more vunerable as a target for malware because of its popularity.

Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch:

http://www.codecouch.com/dan/

Code Couch Tech Snippets & Info:

http://www.codecouch.com/

 

[MarcLodge]

It's an undeniable fact that the most popular browsers, operating systems etc. are going to come in for more hacker attention. Whether this is down to buggy code is a mute point as none of us want malware or instability in their machines.

I'll admit I've not moved over to Firefox, possibly because I'm a dinosaur, possibly because I'm impressed with the speed that MS sorted the problem out, and possibly because I'm concerned about compatability with Firefox. I do occasionally run across sites install an Active-x widget to perform a check (check memory out for instance), and if Firefox can't do that and I have to revert back to IE7, then I'm reticent to move across.

It's like an old girlfriend, loved when with her, but once you've moved on, you don't want to look back!

Many thanks for the comments here, feel free to keep them coming, or not.

Marc

 

[cmeagan656]

When I run across a site that will only work in IE (and I can probably count them on one hand) I copy the address bar, launch IE from the quick launch bar, paste the address in the IE address bar, and go (->). It takes me less than 10 seconds to open a page in IE that won't open in Firefox. It would take me far more time to clean my machine of malware if I became infected using IE.

Cheers.

 

[Diancecht]

No votes on Chrome?

Cheers,
Dian

 

[eyec]

still a Beta in my consideration
tried it and was not impressed

 

[strongm]

Given that Chrome 0.3 has less 0.7%* of the browser market share (or did for month of November) it doesn't come as a great surprise to find no votes for Chrome ...

(these figures come from Net Applications, the same people that Google used when trumpeting their first week market figure share)


* Less than for IE8, which is definitely a beta product. Even if you take Chrome 0.2 and 0.4 into consideration, Chrome still only comes out 0.1% above IE8 ...

 

[Grenage]

I do use Chrome at home, but I couldn't recommend it as a primary browser; it needs work.

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area" - Major Mike Shearer

 

[wahnula]

Things I use Firefox 2.0.0.20 for DAILY and cannot replace. In fact, there might be some extensions not supported by 3.0 and therefore I have not upgraded:

Mouse gestures...cannot LIVE w/o this one, and IE's is clunky

AdblockPlus...I LOVE the power of turning off annoying graphics etc.

Image Zoom...makes an image any size you like or click both mouse buttons for full-screen

Of course the "highlight one word and search Google in a new tab" or others is indispensable

Built-in spell check

I also love the way I can customize the top browser border to be as tiny as a single frame across, with text, buttons, address bar, and search bar all in one ...no six-toolbar look for me! Lean, mean, and clean. I like seeing content, not the browser. Learnign some of the shortcuts like CTRL++ to enlarge text helps too.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[ChrisHunt]

I use Firefox as my day-to-day browser of choice. I can't remember the last time I needed to fire up IE because a bad site required it. It used to happen from time to time, but not recently.

Chrome is OK, but doesn't seem significantly better than FF in any way that I've found, so I've no reason to move. FF knocks the spots off any version of IE.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[Foamcow]

Firefox for me too thanks.

Tek-Tips Forums is Member Supported. Click Here to donate

<honk>*:O)</honk>

Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.