What do you like Firefox?

[darkvampire]

What is it that Firefox users like about Firefox?

Advantages/Disadvantages.

Opinions please :wink:

[jespdj]

It just works really well.

I am a software developer and one of the things I do is program web applications (in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.). One of the most annoying problems when developing web applications is that different browsers render web pages differently and implement features differently, despite the standards (http://www.w3.org).

Firefox fortunately adheres well to web standards, so that web applications look and work as they should.

Internet Explorer is the most used browser, but it is also the browser that deviates most from the web standards and contains the most bugs and quirks.

[Paul41]

I like the flexibility. The base Firefox is good, but with extensions I can make it exactly like I like it.

[darkvampire]

Thank you for your comments;
But what about disadvantages?

:wink:

[Paul41]

Thank you for your comments;
But what about disadvantages?

:wink:

The only disadvantage that I can think of is that it is slow to open.

[tom66]

Well, some (not including me) don't like how it's logos are trademarked. Also, the memory usage can be high (higher than some other lighter browsers), but it is lower than IE generally, which is good. Of course, since it is the #2 browser, not all pages look the same when you're developing and targeting IE as a browser.

[Saint Angeles]

i use swiftweasel... its supposed to be more optimized or something...

and using the "stylish" extension really helps make things awesome.

[RiceMonster]

I use Firefox because I'm very comfortable with it, and it's very extensible (plus, the new awesome bar is really handy). I can't live without extensions like Adblock Plus. Unfortunately though, it uses a lot of ram.

[pp.]

I use Firefox because it's the default browser in Ubuntu Linux.

[cardinals_fan]

Vimperator is a must for me.

[oldsoundguy]

One could always use Opera instead of Firefox or even use Evolution (an experiment gone wrong IMO) .. but FF now has nearly 50% of the browser market and WILL have that magic number most likely by the end of the year.

FF is a system unto itself! I just love the fact that you have a plethora of add-ons and plug-ins that WORK and do a lot of things that, in Windows IE, you had to go web searching to find similar programs and then "would they work properly?" was always an issue .. then there are the items for FF that, in Windows, were stand alone programs and had to be launched individually .. such as an FTP client or a sniping tool or many other items.

Add to the above, the absolute security available with the browser CROSS PLATFORM and the fact that it does run relatively fast (much faster than IE) (that does depend somewhat on your connection, btw!)

Why I have it and use it on 4 Linux computers and it is the default on 2 Windows computers.

(because there is no FF available for older PDA/GPS units, I opted for Opera there vs the IE cripple ware browser that came with them.)(but that cost some bucks as that particular version of Opera is not free!)

[inxygnuu]

I use FF for many reasons.

here are a couple pros:
1) light, fast, and pretty portable
2) no ads yay!:)
3) very high security, build in virus scanner, it does not do much, but it makes you feel safe:).
4)easy to use; I can just open it up, use the bookmarks toolbar, and drag all of my bookmarks on to the tab bar and get going.;)
5)fast; it is very fast and you can optimize it to make it even faster.
6) simple, yet still useful; It is simple to use, yet there are many advanced things you can do with it.
many more good things;)

cons:
1) "large memory footprint" that is what I hear from others. I don't pay attention.(3 GB of RAM):)

FF is the best!
Evan;)

[SomeGuyDude]

Pros:

- Extensions are KING. Every browser should be required by law to include extensions.
- GTK integration.
- It has a lot of things that make sense that lighter browsers lack, such as the fact that when I open a new tab, my cursor should automatically be in the URL bar (ahem, Kazehakase).

Cons:

- Memory leaks. I don't know what's up with that, but even if you only have one tab going, after an hour or so its memory use just skyrockets.
- Unstable. Crashes a fair amount for me.
- Kinda slow.

But, as much as I'm on a huge performance kick, I can't go to Opera or Kazehakase even though they perform better. Just doesn't work.

[darkvampire]

[...]and you can optimize it to make it even faster.

How? (:

[SunnyRabbiera]

customization and extendability I feel are two of Firefox's biggest selling points, without those it would be a very dull browser.

[richg]

It works.

Rich

[bluemm]

can somone please tell me how i can upload files to a ftp site using firefox?

[zmjjmz]

Vimperator is a must for me.

+1
That and NoScript. I can't do away with those.

[etnlIcarus]

Mostly, FF's default behaviour and functionality is as close to perfect as I've found.

Another positive is, with subsequent releases, FF has allowed me to get a more and more minimal UI with fewer and fewer add-ons, without losing any functionality:

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1269/minimalffrh4.png

[fwojciec]

How? (:

It can profile your system and compile the source with appropriate optimizations during the build process. You'd need to compile it from source yourself, naturally, in order to be able to take advantage of this.

[stimpack]

can somone please tell me how i can upload files to a ftp site using firefox?

http://fireftp.mozdev.org/

[billgoldberg]

What is it that Firefox users like about Firefox?

Advantages/Disadvantages.

Opinions please :wink:

Add-ons.

Think Adblock Plus, Download Status Bar, FireFTP, ...

[billgoldberg]

One could always use Opera instead of Firefox or even use Evolution (an experiment gone wrong IMO) .. but FF now has nearly 50% of the browser market and WILL have that magic number most likely by the end of the year.

FF is a system unto itself! I just love the fact that you have a plethora of add-ons and plug-ins that WORK and do a lot of things that, in Windows IE, you had to go web searching to find similar programs and then "would they work properly?" was always an issue .. then there are the items for FF that, in Windows, were stand alone programs and had to be launched individually .. such as an FTP client or a sniping tool or many other items.

Add to the above, the absolute security available with the browser CROSS PLATFORM and the fact that it does run relatively fast (much faster than IE) (that does depend somewhat on your connection, btw!)

Why I have it and use it on 4 Linux computers and it is the default on 2 Windows computers.

(because there is no FF available for older PDA/GPS units, I opted for Opera there vs the IE cripple ware browser that came with them.)(but that cost some bucks as that particular version of Opera is not free!)

I don't know where you get your numbers but FF has no way near 50% of the market.

I'm not exactly sure but I think I remember reading recently it has around 20-30%

[Erunno]

During the Firefox 2 period I switched to Opera since Firefox didn't offer enough functionality to warrant the heavy memory footprint and the slow rendering. Since the release of Firefox 3 I've actually come back to Firefox mostly due to the two features I've been most skeptical about before release:

1) Smart Location Bar a.k.a Awesome Bar. I'm using the Internet all day long and I'm in the habit to constantly stumble upon (no, without the extension) new websites. Most of these pages don't get bookmarked as otherwise the bookmark count would explode but once in a while I want to check something from a previously visited site. It's easier to retrieve a website based on some keywords in its title than some seemingly arbitrary URL alone. Now, for the future I hope that Mozilla will add full text search in the cache like Opera and Safari (via Spotlight) already do, as this would nicely complement the existing features and further improve searching.

2) Bookmark tags: Same as above, tags make it incredibly easy to find specific bookmarks in my 350+ bookmarks set. Tagging the old bookmarks has been a little bit of a chore but adding new bookmarks with a couple of keywords which fits the content (or what I associate with it) is pretty easy.

Additionally, the performance and memory footprint improved considerably compared to the Firefox 2 days. The latter is a bit shaky though. Most of the time Firefox stays at around 150-200 MB of real RAM, doesn't leak it (no increase without user interaction) and even releases unused memory from most sites. But once in a while the memory spikes to 250+ MB and stays there. So far I haven't been able to exactly pinpoint the reason for this behavior but it seems related to sites which use a lot of JavaScript and DOM manipulation (e.g. the Dromaeo benchmark from Mozilla). It looks like that in some cases the SpiderMonkey garbage collection fails to do its work but I really can't be sure.

I don't use many extensions nowadays. Like many users I experienced a period of extension frenzy but realized soon after that I don't really use most of them regularly enough (or at all) to warrant the increased startup time, memory and CPU usage. Today it's down to AdBlock Plus, Foxmarks, Organize Status bar, notifier extensions for GMail and GReader, Gears, Secure Login and 2 dictionaries. NoScript recently had to go since too many sites require Flash and JavaScript nowadays, the constant interruptions during surfing are annoying and most of the tracking scripts are being taken care of by the EasyPrivacy subscription for Adblock Plus.

Now, as soon as Chrome gets an officially supported extension interface I might consider switching again. The incredibly low memory footprint and stability due to the process-per-tab model, clear interface, which borrowed the best ideas from other browsers while adding some own touches as well, and speed makes it very tempting.

[chucky chuckaluck]

i've been using elinks most of the time, for the past couple of weeks and use opera when i need images. number one advantage to using elinks over opera and firefox - no rick-rolling.

[oldsoundguy]

I don't know where you get your numbers but FF has no way near 50% of the market.

I'm not exactly sure but I think I remember reading recently it has around 20-30%

read again!
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/stat.htm
(the last columdn on the right is from the Dell site itself. (in case you did not know Gecko is the base for FF)

[hessiess]

vimperator

[Mason Whitaker]

Really Fast, Really Secure, alot of CSS capabilities, ect.

I'm also a big fan of Mozilla Based Applications, like sunbird, thunderbird, or songbird.

[jacobw.uk]

Just thinking about it I probably use it because I always have, I've just gotten used to it like people get used to the typical Windows/Office suite I guess, I've been using it about 4 years now.