Microsoft says FireFox is not a threat

[fyleow]

There won't be an upcoming browser war unless MS gets sued again for monopolizing the market. All they have to do is make IE the default browser and make it uninstallable like it is now and the majority of users will just use it. Why? Because it's already there and it works. Most people don't need an extension for small screen readers. Most people just want to check their email and play embeded video files without problems.

Don't get me wrong, I love using Opera for it's speed and tabbed browsing. In fact my Internet Explorer is screwed up right now (doesn't display pages correctly) and I can't fix it because I can't reinstall it. I even tried going through the MS help and it didn't work.

I'm really interested in the MS/Google search engine wars though. Since msn.com is the default webpage and IE the default browser for windows all they have to do is spend a little on their ad campaign and make their new search engine the default one for msn.com

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: whoiswes

Originally posted by: blurredvision
You guys realize that if FireFox was to become as popular as IE and gain a major installed base, that it will become just as slow and unstable as IE. If Firefox was actually to gain more than 20 regular users, more and more stuff will have to be added for it to keep up, then it will turn into IE basically. IE6 owns Firefox. Oh, and I don't see the big deal about tabbed browsing. It's the same as having multiple windows open. With tabs, you click on the tab, with windows, you click on the *gasp* tab on the start bar. Whoopdy f'in do, it's the same thing.

nope, sorry, i disagree - tabbed browsing lets me open as many browser windows/pages as i want, but STILL have room on my taskbar to open several OTHER programs as well.

if I have a dozen IE pages open, the taskbar gets so crowded that it's impossible to tell what window is what.

i am stuck with using IE at my new job and, after having used firefox for a year almost exclusively, it makes me realize and appreciate how much better of a browser firefox really is.

this is the part I don't get... why do people have 12 browser windows open at the same time ? Even when I'm doing hardcore comparison shopping, I have 3 open at most. When I'm doing web dev... I have one of each browser.

I don't get it...

 

[bunnyfubbles]

IE is as secure as firefox and IE has all the features customers want

Yes, including the features we don't want but have no say in how we want it.

 

[dukdukgoos]

This thread is funny. It reminds me of back in the day when all the Netscape fanbois couldn't see that IE had eaten their lunch. They'd swear up and down about how great Netscape 4 was compared to IE 4, only to switch to IE within 6 months. Lesson here is: don't be a fanboi, just go with flow and except that IE has had its lunch eaten by Firefox. Something will probably come along and eat Firefox's lunch in a couple of years too.

 

[imported_obsidian]

One of the other features I love is shortcut bookmarks. I never go to google.com anymore. I just hit ctrl+t to open a new tab then "g <search parameters>" into the address bar. This is done by making a bookmark with a location of "http://www.google.com/search?q=%s" and setting the keyword to the shortcut character. In my case, g.

In the morning I will generally check all my RSS feeds through the Sage sidebar and middle-click on all the articles that look interesting. They all open in new tabs and it is much quicker and cleaner. I'm sorry, but those who say that Firefox has useless features or that IE has all the features users could ever want are just crazy. They obviously haven't taken the time to learn what Firefox and its extensions can do. Oh, and did I mention I never see ads on my regularly visited sites anymore?

 

[bunnyfubbles]

There's a reason IE finally got a popup blocker built in with the XP SP2 update... obviously FF and other browsers had a ton of appeal in that sense

Certainly M$ doesn't need to be worried simply because everyone and their dog still uses Windows and Windows comes with IE so it'll be a while before IE is actually dethroned. Heck, IE is only a few features away from nerfing FF's obvious advantages such as tabbed browsing and a flexability in customization.

Instead of starting everyone off with a burger with everything they need to have just the meat and the bun and THEN offer the toppings.

Mozilla does need to stay on their toes though, because when M$ does cave and pull some more copy cats, there won't be many reasons to stick with FF (and I believe they will because there is simply no reason to use IE over another browser such as FF except for the few times when only IE works which is because of the "monopoly" IE enjoyed)

 

[imported_obsidian]

Maybe, but at least it is introducing some competition. What changes have been made to IE in the past 3-4 years? Not a damn thing. Hell, IE still doesn't fully follow web standards. Glaring bugs have existed in IE's CSS forever.

Firefox is something fresh and new, and more important - innovative. MS simply does not innovate anything. They see what others have done, copy it, and integrate it into windows so no one has a reason to switch. Then, when the competition has been thoroughly destroyed, the software remains stagnant because there is no one else to copy.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: dfi
Actually that was never a convincing reason for me to like tab browsing, even though I do use firefox now. For me it never had anything to with keeping the taskbar "clean", since all you've done is made the top of your browser window "unclean". You don't save any mouse clicks when switching from one application back to a webpage when using firefox compared to IE, and you actually increase your mouseclick count by 1 if the page you want in firefox is not the displayed page after you are switching back from another applciation. Not to mention the extra distance you have to move your mouse if your tabs are at the top.

Not if you install the "All-in-One Gestures" extension. You can simply move your mouse to the tab-bar, and use your scroll wheel to rapidly switch between tabs, or hold down your right-click mouse button (without moving the mouse to the tab bar), and use the scroll wheel, and a pop-up toolbar containing all the tab windows pops up and lets you switch. How's that for efficient! 🙂

Originally posted by: dfi
The main advantage of tab browsing, as far as I see, is and has always been the ability to open tabs BEHIND your current page. This allows you to continue to read your current page, then going to your other pages when you are done with the current page.

Very true as well. It allows one to use a "queued" model for browsing related links, serializing them for future viewing as you come across them, without having to distract your train-of-thought until you want to.

Another useful thing - being able to bookmark a related group of tabs, all in one shot, or to be able to open a bookmark folder, as a group of tabs. Another excellent and usable feature, that IE lacks. C'mon MS, where are these supposed "features that users don't want"? Why hold back on development?

Although, the truth is, MS isn't holding back - in fact, they liked the UI design work of Mozilla SO MUCH, that they decided to clone it for the UI of their "next generation" OS, Longhorn. They're calling it "XAML" instead of "XUL" though.

 

[NightCrawler]

Originally posted by: dukdukgoos
This thread is funny. It reminds me of back in the day when all the Netscape fanbois couldn't see that IE had eaten their lunch. They'd swear up and down about how great Netscape 4 was compared to IE 4, only to switch to IE within 6 months. Lesson here is: don't be a fanboi, just go with flow and except that IE has had its lunch eaten by Firefox. Something will probably come along and eat Firefox's lunch in a couple of years too.

FireFox is ok but I use Maxthon as my main browser. It has all the main features of firefox but doesn't need as much configuring.

FireFox doesn't eat Maxthon's Lunch !!!!!!!