The Clockwork Mansion

The Grand Hallway => The Outer Fortress => Topic started by: Aridas on December 03, 2006, 11:49:05 PM

Title: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Aridas on December 03, 2006, 11:49:05 PM
stumbled upon an interesting conversation about web browsers...

http://www.underground-gamer.com/forums.php?action=viewtopic&topicid=6645&page=1

If you're unable to go there, then just check out this link that was in the post instead. it's not as informative, but at least it's saying something about something.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/FirefoxMyths.html
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Elader Arkon on December 04, 2006, 12:24:04 AM
I would note the navigation bar as it seems somewhat biased towards Microsoft:

Home| Windows Vista| Windows XP| Windows 2000| Windows Experts| Software Guides| About 

Hardly Objective.

I think PC Magazine did a good job on evaluating and comparing Firefox 2, IE7, and Opera 9. (even though it was the FF2 Beta1, and IE7 beta3)

The Article can be found... Here (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1992719,00.asp)
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Aridas on December 04, 2006, 12:25:51 AM
I did make some tests myself, you know... These aren't talking about the browsers so much as the people promoting them, since there's a bit of misinformation by the looks of it. I can vouch for most of what is said there, though some of it I really didn't check into yet.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Elader Arkon on December 04, 2006, 12:36:26 AM
I personally think that with the final releases of IE7, and Firefox2, nearly all the browsers stand fairly equal, and its only a matter of opinion as to which is really better. The only thing that really sets Firefox apart from IE now is the fact that Firefox has more flexibility for those that want it. I don't think one is safer than the other, and I don't really care about the speed, since my computer is fast enough to make any of the browser's load times or memory consumption a moot point anyway.

   After reading the PC Mag article though, the thing I was wondering is why I've never bothered to try Opera before. Obviously I'm not using IE7 on my linux distro, but I do have it and have used it on my Windows Partition (still prefer FF because I really, really like to tweak my stuff out). For those who don't have any real needs/want for a massively messed with browser, I would just tell them to give 'em all a try. After all, they're free and on fairly equal footing.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Aridas on December 04, 2006, 12:38:54 AM
Yeah, most every browser has something going for it... I think Opera might even be better in terms of compatibility... I did my own tests and I noticed that Opera seemed to come out closest. Opera's one disadvantage is that the configuration and such might be too complex for the average person... other than that, I'd still rather recommend Opera rather than Firefox as an alternative.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Vidar on December 04, 2006, 01:52:01 AM
What do you mean "Microsoft biased"?


Quote

Myth - "Firefox has lower System Requirements than Internet Explorer" - Example

Reality - Internet Explorer 6 has much lower minimum System Requirements than Firefox 2

And Ubuntu has higher system requirements than MS-dos 5.0.
Firefox 2 is a rival for IE7, not IE6. This comparison is not apples to apples.

Quote
Minimum:
486/66 MHz CPU
16 MB of RAM
11.5 MB of free disk space
Windows 98

Notes - Anyone who claims Internet Explorer 6 will not run on these requirements has never tested it.

It'll run, if you have nothing else installed, do not have the flash / shockwave / java stuff loaded, and if you like truly glacial performance. Windows 95 needed a pentium 100 to get it chugging along back in the day.

Quote
More Secure than Internet Explorer 6

Myth - "Firefox 1.x is more Secure than Internet Explorer 6" - Example

Reality - Internet Explorer 6 has been more secure than Firefox 1.x in 2006. - Source

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


Also, I love the DMCA warning dumnped somewhere in the middle of the page.

Quote
Legal Notice - Reproduction of this page in whole or in part is strictly forbidden. This guide and ALL versions thereof are protected by copyright under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Feel free to link to this Guide.

I'm so scared. :sweatdrop

And then there's the overall windows theme going on, and the design look definitly Microsoftian.
I classify this comparison under MS Propaganda.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: hiro1112 on December 04, 2006, 03:22:54 AM
Im a firefox man, probably always will be. IE was so slow evolving in comparison with Firefox.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Sid on December 04, 2006, 05:45:13 AM
A DMCA note to prevent copying? Never heard of Fair Use, I guess... very ironic that a Copyright Myth ends up on a Firefox Myth page.

And I find one myth highly ironic:

QuoteMyth - "Firefox has lower System Requirements than Internet Explorer" - Example

Reality - Internet Explorer 6 has much lower minimum System Requirements than Firefox 2

And the new reality: Internet Explorer 7 does not run on Mac OS X, Linux... or any Windows other than XP, 2003 or Vista, meaning that IE7 runs on less versions of Windows than Firefox (or Opera) - Source (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/about/sysreqs/default.mspx)

The page is fairly pointless since it doesn't tell you what browser is actually better. It just says that Firefox isn't the Holy Grail (Edit: And I will freely admit: It isn't. - But neither are the other browsers) and then merrily throws in a few things that border on misinformation. Just one fanboy page countering other fanboy pages.

My choice? Well, IE7 doesn't even run on my OS (so I couldn't test it even if I wanted to), and Firefox has the most extension support (to my knowledge), so Firefox it is.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Aridas on December 04, 2006, 09:36:46 AM
Meh. That'd be much of what I couldn't truly test. I still think Opera works better, though.

Oh, and about MS propaganda sites? I think I'd rather see one of those than a firefox propaganda site. You know, rather than those crazy whackos that do ANYTHING to make the competition look bad... As opposed to someone dragging FF down to a more equal ground. What matters to me is that IE7 can still block all pop ups if you configure it to, and Opera probably doesn't even though I haven't dove in to the config to find out what it does, it worked on sites I went to that firefox wouldn't at that time and may still not support, and that's good enough for me to stick with the combo. It's not that firefox is a terrible thing, but there are just too many whacked out supporters and I'm preferring to keep my distance from them for as long as my own browsers have no problem.

In order to stop this from turning into some kind of flame war though, let's clear up the bias from either side. No crazy sites, no anything. I've already witnessed a few anti-microsoft sites that claimed IE wouldn't work on it. That is, til I disguised it as another browser and waltzed right in with no trouble at all. Stuff like that. I know that IE is probably not too far up to speed with some standards, but that doesn't change the fact that it's compatible with a good many sites still.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Vidar on December 04, 2006, 11:35:30 AM
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on December 04, 2006, 09:36:46 AM
I know that IE is probably not too far up to speed with some standards, but that doesn't change the fact that it's compatible with a good many sites still.

One of the reasons that IE is compatible with most sites is because most sites are made to be compatible with IE.
The trouble is, MS plays it a little loose with the standards, and IE deviates from the W3C more then most web-designers care for. MS can get away with this, because most people still use IE (because most websites work with it).
This leaves web-designers to figure out where MS deviates, and how they can fix it in their websites, while at the same time getting it to work / having it continue to work in Firefox / Operah / Lynx / [insert esotheric browser here]. Glad I'm not a web-designer.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Elader Arkon on December 04, 2006, 11:55:48 AM
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on December 04, 2006, 09:36:46 AM
that's good enough for me to stick with the combo. It's not that firefox is a terrible thing, but there are just too many whacked out supporters and I'm preferring to keep my distance from them for as long as my own browsers have no problem.

Yeah, its some of those rabid fans that almost make me ashamed of being involved in the linux/opensource community.

  I personally have nothing against Microsoft or Bill Gates since they worked hard as well as smart to get to where they are today as the dominant leader in the market. And I even have many of their products (namely the Xbox360, and Win95, 98, 2000, ME -I do really hate that one-, and XP OS disks).
   I think IE7 works pretty darn good in the latest versions of Windows, because as its been pointed out, thats because its the only place its made for -so it better work well.

I use Firefox over Opera because of the sheer amount of flexibility to do whatever you really want with it. Plus I couldn't live without my extensions (mainly ad-block, no-script, rss ticker, fasterfox, bookmark synchronizer, etc). That said, I've still yet to try Opera, mainly because I'm so happy with the way I've set everything up to look and run like I want it to. The greatest problem with Firefox (or any opensource project) is its community base -but that very thing is also its greatest strength and gives it the massive flexibility (read: need something? Got a problem? Ask the community, they'll either find it/make it/ or find a way to get it to work). 

   Though the fans of FF are taaame compared to those who use a fork of it like, say, Debian and its IceWeasel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceweasel) fork. Sheesh, those guys are almost as bad as some of the rabid Slackware users.  Yep. I think the Opensource community has the all-out most crazy, rabid, extreme fanatics to be found anywhere outside of the Middle East. Too bad (or maybe its a good thing) they can't all get along with each other and REALLY get a massive amount of stuff done.

Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 04, 2006, 12:05:47 PM
Opera is the most compatible with web-standard coding. However, it has a couple of glaring flaws in how it handles a couple of tags (positioning for one), and they way it handles THOSE tags is so out of left field, it makes the minor futzes that Firefox does look tame by comparison.

I use Firefox because I hate IE 6.0, and I'm am NOT using IE 7.0 until they release a service pack for it. I already have heard too many IE7 horror stories to trust it before IE7 SP1.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Aridas on December 04, 2006, 12:09:32 PM
Quote from: Darkmoon on December 04, 2006, 12:05:47 PM
Opera is the most compatible with web-standard coding. However, it has a couple of glaring flaws in how it handles a couple of tags (positioning for one), and they way it handles THOSE tags is so out of left field, it makes the minor futzes that Firefox does look tame by comparison.
I saw that one a few times on my time with it. I wonder if they'll ever getting around to working on the accuracy of what they have.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: ITOS on December 04, 2006, 12:44:17 PM
I have Firefox but it runs so slow on my computer. I'm too lazy to find out why so I just use IE.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Vidar on December 04, 2006, 01:40:19 PM
Quote from: ITOS on December 04, 2006, 12:44:17 PM
I have Firefox but it runs so slow on my computer. I'm too lazy to find out why so I just use IE.

What are your system specs?
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Amber Williams on December 04, 2006, 01:45:36 PM
I personally tend to use whichever system was on my computer and convenient.  It just so happens that my new computer the guy who set it up put Firefox on as the main browser...so I use it.

Not that I don't find various problems with it.  For some reason my Firefox likes to lock up and randomly close down without giving the restore session thing...where as if I just try to shut my pc down, next time it will be all "RESTORE SYSTEM??? :3 :3 :3"

I still get popups, and the only difference sometimes feels that I get a little "adblock" tab above some images.

Will I still keep using it? Probably.  But I don't hold a big "omg! Firefox is the greatest thing EVAH. IE is a big poopie head. :O" fixation that makes me comparable to linux fans.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: bill on December 04, 2006, 03:47:17 PM
Firefox takes way too long to startup, sometimes. That said, it's perfectly fine for my purposes.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Suwako on December 04, 2006, 04:05:00 PM
I use Firefox, because I'm allergic to seeing the same skin for more then 4 or so months. Same goes for desktop pictures. To bad windows has only 3 standard decent looking skins. (I'm downloading nothing)

I hate that page and wish to never see it again.  :<

The funny thing is I read a real test in a respected dutch computer magazine and some of his declarations don't match with my professional computer magazine.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 04, 2006, 04:54:40 PM
Yeah, Firefox can have issues loading. I've also notice it's allergic to Photoshop, and vice versa. It also doesn't ALWAYS block pop-ups, but any blockage is still better than the none I get from IE6.

I'm not a whore for Firefox. I would use something else if it had more of the features I needed in my webdesign (I have so many extensions installed on this puppy). My single biggest beef with IE6 is just that it doesn't render sites properly. You have to fuck with it so much (which I end up doing anyway, but on the back end)...

I am honestly glad Microsoft is pushing through IE7 updates. Once enough people use it, I can figure out how it mangles the code I write (which isn't as bad as IE6 supposedly), and I can start switching my site fixes over.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Aridas on December 04, 2006, 05:11:02 PM
I'm not actually sure if IE7 is currently better or worse than IE6... In the early betas it was horrible, but now that it's out of beta it seemed to be not too bad as it was. I'd compare it with IE6 but that'd require two computers, and i'm too lazy. But maybe later. Especially if I find something decent that can tell me what's what.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 04, 2006, 06:28:56 PM
You don't need two computers. If you want, I'll find the link again, but you can run !E6 on a computer with IE7 just be removing a couple of non-essential files.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Aridas on December 04, 2006, 06:42:52 PM
But I don't actually WANT to. My laptop doesn't have IE7, which makes it a waste of effort to actually change anything on my regular computer... unless IE6 was better.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 04, 2006, 11:55:02 PM
I'm just saying. You said you couldn't run it on two machines. You actually can.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Shadrok on December 04, 2006, 11:58:01 PM
Quote from: Amber Panyko on December 04, 2006, 01:45:36 PM

Will I still keep using it? Probably.  But I don't hold a big "omg! Firefox is the greatest thing EVAH. IE is a big poopie head. :O" fixation that makes me comparable to linux fans.

:yeahthat Firefox works for me so Firefox is what I use. Though there are some things I have to use IE for, like Yahoo radio.


Quote from: Darkmoon on December 04, 2006, 04:54:40 PM
Yeah, Firefox can have issues loading. I've also notice it's allergic to Photoshop, and vice versa.

Interesting I've never had that problem between the two, it could be that I use Photoshop Elements.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 05, 2006, 12:00:14 AM
Full tilt photoshop will run HORRIBLY SLOW if Firefox is up and running for any length of time. Firefox crashes if Photoshop is up for too long.

Likely they are using similar chunks of RAM and causing conflicts.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Shadrok on December 05, 2006, 12:16:47 AM
I wonder if clearing the history every so offten would help?
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: llearch n'n'daCorna on December 05, 2006, 06:35:11 AM
Interestingly, I updated my desktop at work to iceweasel the other day, and discovered that they've changed the alt-char for one of the menus to alt-s.

This makes it tricky to post here. Or, at least, annoying. I'm still looking to see where to change it... :-/
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Sid on December 05, 2006, 02:45:47 PM
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on December 05, 2006, 06:35:11 AM
Interestingly, I updated my desktop at work to iceweasel the other day, and discovered that they've changed the alt-char for one of the menus to alt-s.

This makes it tricky to post here. Or, at least, annoying. I'm still looking to see where to change it... :-/

Aren't there key re-map extensions for Firefox that might work with Iceweasel?
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: llearch n'n'daCorna on December 05, 2006, 04:42:08 PM
Not obviously available. There is one for OS X, but... I'm loath to upgrade my desktop at home as well, and play with it there... :-)

I'll sort it out eventually.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: xHaZxMaTx on December 05, 2006, 04:46:51 PM
My cousin just recently upgraded from IE (6, 7?) to Firefox, and he says it runs a lot better.  Don't ask me specifics, he just said it was better. :lol
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 05, 2006, 04:47:40 PM
Quote from: HaZ×MaT on December 05, 2006, 04:46:51 PM
My cousin just recently upgraded from IE (6, 7?) to Firefox, and he says it runs a lot better.  Don't ask me specifics, he just said it was better. :lol

I ask for specifics, and make you fail!
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: xHaZxMaTx on December 05, 2006, 04:48:03 PM
No, you make my cousin fail.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 05, 2006, 04:50:31 PM
Your cousin failed because he was using IE for so long. You fail by extension.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: xHaZxMaTx on December 05, 2006, 04:54:08 PM
Cheater. :sweatdrop
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Sid on December 05, 2006, 05:31:06 PM
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on December 05, 2006, 04:42:08 PM
Not obviously available. There is one for OS X, but... I'm loath to upgrade my desktop at home as well, and play with it there... :-)

I'll sort it out eventually.

Menu Manipulator (http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=3615) might help, if I understand your problem correctly. I guess you'll have to unzip the XPI file and change the version-specific stuff to make it install. NO idea if it'll actually work with Iceweasel or what you have to change in specific to make it run, but it looks like a start.

Or you could just do by hand what the extension does. *digs digs OMG-DIGS*
Let's see!
I got a "chrome" folder which has "browser.jar" and "en_US.jar" (or whatever else your default language setting is called). Both are actually ZIP files. The former contains the more global behavior (in browser/browser.xul) and the latter contains the actual bindings (in browser/browser.dtd). At least that's what I can see right now. It looks like you won't really need the XUL file, but the second file looks promising:

Here's a snippet from the DTD file:
Quote<!ENTITY fileMenu.label         "File">
<!ENTITY fileMenu.accesskey       "F">
<!ENTITY newMenu.label            "New">
<!ENTITY newMenu.accesskey          "N">
<!ENTITY newNavigatorCmd.label        "New Window">
<!ENTITY newNavigatorCmd.key        "N">
<!ENTITY newNavigatorCmd.accesskey      "N">

My theory is that you can just unzip the files, edit the command, rezip everything and WHAM! Menu rebindings!

Of course, I didn't actually test it, but maybe it works!
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: llearch n'n'daCorna on December 05, 2006, 06:13:29 PM
woop. Yup, that'd do it. I was wondering where the xul file was.

I'll do it tomorrow, when I can shut the browser down before breaking things :-)
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Alondro on December 05, 2006, 06:47:32 PM
I have both Opera and IE6.  I use IE6 for certain things that Opera can't run and for certain sites that only use IE6 and a few other browsers I don't have.  For just roaming about the net, Opera works fine, and faster than IE6.  And I don't know how I set it to do this, but my Opera blocks virtually all pop-ups.  Of course, that's annoying when I want something to pop up, but that's what IE6 is for.  :3
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: MojoTheMonkeyNG on December 05, 2006, 06:49:01 PM
Firefox myths was developed by a raging Opera fanboy to make ridiculous, unfactual claims about FireFox. Anyone who treats FireFoxMyths as fact is an idiot. Firefox is a decent web browser, aswell  as Opera. Don't make claims you can't support. If you do, learn not to do it again. FireFox isn't bad.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 05, 2006, 08:30:59 PM
For sites that need IE only (and for when I'm checking IE on my sites) I use IE Tab in Firefox.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Aridas on December 05, 2006, 10:56:01 PM
Quote from: MojoTheMonkeyNG on December 05, 2006, 06:49:01 PM
Firefox myths was developed by a raging Opera fanboy to make ridiculous, unfactual claims about FireFox. Anyone who treats FireFoxMyths as fact is an idiot. Firefox is a decent web browser, aswell as Opera. Don't make claims you can't support. If you do, learn not to do it again. FireFox isn't bad.
And opera "fanboys" would care about IE why?

yyyeah.

Quote from: Alondro on December 05, 2006, 06:47:32 PM
I have both Opera and IE6. I use IE6 for certain things that Opera can't run and for certain sites that only use IE6 and a few other browsers I don't have. For just roaming about the net, Opera works fine, and faster than IE6. And I don't know how I set it to do this, but my Opera blocks virtually all pop-ups. Of course, that's annoying when I want something to pop up, but that's what IE6 is for. :3
I can't really tell you what to say about that, since my virus scanner/firewall is also obliterating pretty much every ad and popup that exists, and whatever ones apparently don't make it through are stopped by IE's blocker on its highest setting... Not really sure what'll happen on the medium setting.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Vidar on December 05, 2006, 11:35:27 PM
Quote from: Aridas Soulfire on December 05, 2006, 10:56:01 PM
Quote from: MojoTheMonkeyNG on December 05, 2006, 06:49:01 PM
Firefox myths was developed by a raging Opera fanboy to make ridiculous, unfactual claims about FireFox. Anyone who treats FireFoxMyths as fact is an idiot. Firefox is a decent web browser, aswell as Opera. Don't make claims you can't support. If you do, learn not to do it again. FireFox isn't bad.
And opera "fanboys" would care about IE why?

They're fanboys. They hate IE, and they want everybody else to hate IE along with them.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Jack McSlay on December 07, 2006, 08:03:32 PM
If I could, I would exorcise IE off my PC. it's just plain horrible. I've been with the mozilla family since Netscape 7.

IE7 seems kinda cool, but haven't used it enough to make a decision. KMeleon is quite nifty too
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Vidar on December 08, 2006, 04:44:55 AM
Quote from: Jack McSlay on December 07, 2006, 08:03:32 PM
If I could, I would exorcise IE off my PC. it's just plain horrible. I've been with the mozilla family since Netscape 7.

IE7 seems kinda cool, but haven't used it enough to make a decision. KMeleon is quite nifty too

Getting IE off you pc is very difficult: it's too tied up with the rest of the OS, and a lot of other applications use bits of it as well. Just leave it there, and use firefox / opera / lynx / [insert other browser] for surfing the internet.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: ShadesFox on December 09, 2006, 04:52:03 AM
Quote from: Darkmoon on December 05, 2006, 12:00:14 AM
Full tilt photoshop will run HORRIBLY SLOW if Firefox is up and running for any length of time. Firefox crashes if Photoshop is up for too long.

Likely they are using similar chunks of RAM and causing conflicts.

I know both applications will grab up as much memory as they can, so it is probably thrashing.  A faster hard disk will help.

Quote from: Jack McSlay on December 07, 2006, 08:03:32 PM
If I could, I would exorcise IE off my PC. it's just plain horrible. I've been with the mozilla family since Netscape 7.

IE7 seems kinda cool, but haven't used it enough to make a decision. KMeleon is quite nifty too

I think that getting IE off a PC involves ripping out Windows all together at this point.
Still, it seems like a lot of web sites these days play with FireFox a lot better then what you saw with Netscape vs IE back in the day. 

I've managed to get FireFox to block even more popups with flash block.  I think flash really is the last bastion of annoying popups.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 09, 2006, 09:23:42 AM
Quote from: ShadesFox on December 09, 2006, 04:52:03 AM
Quote from: Darkmoon on December 05, 2006, 12:00:14 AM
Full tilt photoshop will run HORRIBLY SLOW if Firefox is up and running for any length of time. Firefox crashes if Photoshop is up for too long.

Likely they are using similar chunks of RAM and causing conflicts.

I know both applications will grab up as much memory as they can, so it is probably thrashing.  A faster hard disk will help.

My computer is practically brand new, and, while not absolutely top of the line, was pretty close.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: bill on December 09, 2006, 06:53:57 PM
I'm going to agree with DM here. Firefox has awful memory usage, getting up to 150-200 MB at it's worst. What's more, loading times at startup are dreadful, and it seems to slow down the system as a whole.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Reese Tora on December 09, 2006, 08:59:15 PM
Quote from: ShadesFox on December 09, 2006, 04:52:03 AM
Quote from: Jack McSlay on December 07, 2006, 08:03:32 PM
If I could, I would exorcise IE off my PC. it's just plain horrible. I've been with the mozilla family since Netscape 7.

IE7 seems kinda cool, but haven't used it enough to make a decision. KMeleon is quite nifty too

I think that getting IE off a PC involves ripping out Windows all together at this point.
Still, it seems like a lot of web sites these days play with FireFox a lot better then what you saw with Netscape vs IE back in the day. 

I've managed to get FireFox to block even more popups with flash block.  I think flash really is the last bastion of annoying popups.

It can be done, was demonstated to a court as part of MS's monopoly hearings by a consultant well vwersed in programming and operating system design, and took said consultant, before the court's eyes, some number of hours to accomplish.

I will look around and see if I can find an article to back up my poor memory.
(this is some years old, but I believe was with windows XP)

--edit--

good ol' wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer#Removal
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Azlan on December 09, 2006, 09:45:54 PM
Firefox chews up a lot more memory then IE tends to, but I find it to be much better for what I do, plus as DM stated the nice IE tab works just fine if I have the need to stare at something in IE.

My contract has been having serious issues with IE7, OWA and Exchange 2003, so I am really sick of it at this point.  All the back end coding we've had to do just to keep encryption, smartcard and digital signing functioning in OWA just gets soundly trashed when filtered through IE7.  How IE7 utilizes the certificate store is entirely different them IE6 and valid DoD root certificates are arbitrarily denied for authentication to the SSL. 

Would someone help me organize a strategic strike against all Microsoft offices worldwide?  Pweeese?
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Cvstos on December 10, 2006, 05:35:32 AM
The couple hundred MB Forefox uses isn't a huge deal for me. I'll sacrifice a little RAM space for the Firefox awesomeness.  Heck, I've got 2GB of RAM.  May as well put it to use.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 10, 2006, 01:33:09 PM
My 1 gig of ram has no issues with Firefox... unless I have Photoshop open.

And it's not that I'm maxing my RAM out. I can have Illustrator, In Design, and Firefox open and everything runs great. It's JUST Photoshop and Firefox. They hate each other.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Damaris on December 10, 2006, 01:36:50 PM
That's because Photoshop is a posessive, jealous ram whore.  It doesn't want you using ANYTHING else.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 10, 2006, 02:57:43 PM
I swear I'm not cheating on it. I was just LOOKING at Corel Painter... honest...
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: llearch n'n'daCorna on December 10, 2006, 03:52:59 PM
I wonder... I haven't looked at photoshop on PC for a while, now.

... is there something you can set that tells it how much memory to use? Somewhere buried in the preferences? I wonder if that might have an effect on it...

.. not just for you, but also since, if it objects to FF, it'll piss about with other things too, and we don't want Amber having trouble making images, now, do we? :-)
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Aridas on December 10, 2006, 04:04:07 PM
You can tell photoshop what % of your available memory to use. it seems to default to 50%.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 11, 2006, 07:16:21 AM
You can, but if it hit's the maximum mem usage, it asks for more, and if you don't give it to it, it gets real cranky.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Vidar on December 11, 2006, 08:41:54 AM
Quote from: Darkmoon on December 11, 2006, 07:16:21 AM
You can, but if it hit's the maximum mem usage, it asks for more, and if you don't give it to it, it gets real cranky.

Kind of like a toddler, and like said toddler, it will go pester the family dog (or fox, in this case).
Maybe you should leave photoshop somewhere in the woods, lost, and all alone, where it can bal it's eyes out about how much it wants candy/RAM, and get a more sophisticated, mature, and better behaved graphics program.  :3
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: llearch n'n'daCorna on December 11, 2006, 10:08:21 AM
There aren't any more sophisticated or mature programs out there.

Better behaved, I'll grant you. I wonder if you can limit firefox's memory usage...
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Aridas on December 11, 2006, 01:09:47 PM
Considering photoshop costs something like $700 now, I'm wondering if it's worth it.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: llearch n'n'daCorna on December 11, 2006, 02:25:31 PM
Depends on how much you use it. I find Gimp works well for me, but I'm by no means a power user, so YMMV, and probably does.

As mentioned previously, those who -do- use Photoshop a lot tend to have lots of plugins for it, or are using the interface a lot. There -is- a plugin for Gimp that makes it look -very- much like PS, which may cover a lot of the differences. From what I've seen, it boils down to what you're used to, though I'll admit that makes more difference than you'd think.

just as an example, the shortcut keys for various things may be used back-to-back by a power user, to do half a dozen different flashing changes in seconds. Changing the interface on that will make it much more difficult to cope with.


Just my 2p, of course.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: ninjannihilator on December 11, 2006, 02:27:11 PM
I use Firefox at the moment. Don't really like IE6 haven't tried IE7. I've gotten used to the FF configuration, and the reason why a lot of people like it is the easy interface. I'll give IE7 a run, but I'm probably going to switch to a Linux OS pretty soon so I won't be using IE.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: ShadesFox on December 11, 2006, 04:17:50 PM
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on December 11, 2006, 02:25:31 PM
Depends on how much you use it. I find Gimp works well for me, but I'm by no means a power user, so YMMV, and probably does.

As mentioned previously, those who -do- use Photoshop a lot tend to have lots of plugins for it, or are using the interface a lot. There -is- a plugin for Gimp that makes it look -very- much like PS, which may cover a lot of the differences. From what I've seen, it boils down to what you're used to, though I'll admit that makes more difference than you'd think.

just as an example, the shortcut keys for various things may be used back-to-back by a power user, to do half a dozen different flashing changes in seconds. Changing the interface on that will make it much more difficult to cope with.


Just my 2p, of course.

Actually, I think there is now a gimp plugin where the gimp can use PS plugins.  Though really the biggest thing will be the keyboard shortcuts.

Though I've always wondered about the price of software in general.  Especially when you consider the almost 0 marginal cost. 
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 11, 2006, 04:47:57 PM
It's not 0 cost when it comes to salaries.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: ShadesFox on December 11, 2006, 05:05:09 PM
Quote from: Darkmoon on December 11, 2006, 04:47:57 PM
It's not 0 cost when it comes to salaries.

That is a fixed cost, not a marginal cost.

[edit]
there was more, but I rather don't want to derail the topic.  Though I'm still baffled about why photoshop would interfere with firefox.  I thought WinXP had a halfway sane VMM.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Netami on December 11, 2006, 05:20:25 PM
I use Photoshop with Firefox open all the time, I never experience any problems. Though I should note that I have switched the Scratch Disk to another hard-drive, and this may alleviate the issue.

Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: Darkmoon on December 11, 2006, 06:11:10 PM
It prolly would. I only have the one drive.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: xHaZxMaTx on December 11, 2006, 06:13:42 PM
I always have Firefox and Photoshop open without any problems.
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: llearch n'n'daCorna on December 11, 2006, 06:38:20 PM
Hmm. It's possible the two apps are screaming over who gets to write to the FS first.

Perhaps lay your hands on a small second drive to shove scratch info on?

... is it possible the machine (either yours or Amber's) is running out of swap space and scratch space when both memory-hungry apps are running? I mean, I'd expect the new machine to not have too many troubles, but...

..... should we keep kicking ideas around, or just drop it and find something else to talk about? :-)
Title: Re: hmm... firefox bad?
Post by: ShadesFox on December 11, 2006, 07:14:33 PM
Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on December 11, 2006, 06:38:20 PM
Hmm. It's possible the two apps are screaming over who gets to write to the FS first.

Perhaps lay your hands on a small second drive to shove scratch info on?

... is it possible the machine (either yours or Amber's) is running out of swap space and scratch space when both memory-hungry apps are running? I mean, I'd expect the new machine to not have too many troubles, but...

..... should we keep kicking ideas around, or just drop it and find something else to talk about? :-)

I say we keep kicking around ideas.

I'm not entirely sure that it is a memory problem.  I'm really starting to think that photoshop is missing with some global setting that it really shouldn't.