Internet Explorer 7 v FireFox 2.0

I've got both browsers (IE7 beta atm) and still prefer firefox (even 1.5.X). The reason is extensions: I have noscript and adblock in FF amonst others, which means I can't get used to ads on IE

 

There is a reason why the phishing protection doesn' work in FF yet

 

No one mentioned rendering web pages!
Now when I develop web sites I have an extra CSS file - ie7fixes.css - to feed in with conditional comments. However, the file is shorter than the fixes for ie6, so progress is being made! (last interface i made had 20 fixes for IE6 and 12 for IE7).

Also when I first tried IE7 it went bezerk with phishing warnings for all the websites I was testing on my local network. I do think the phishing feature is a good idea though, my dad gave up his paypal details a few months ago, luckily he told me straight away afterwards that something didn't seem right so we could change his password quickly.

Finally, both browsers with Vista-fied chrome look pretty distracting and nasty.

 

Safety is something every browser-developer should keep working on non-stop imho.
But a big thing when deciding to choose a good browser is: "How well will it render webpages?"

Because while IE7 has been changed from the bones up, it stíll doesn't do very good with webstandards, and thus webpages. So it's a tough choice imho... choosing for a browser that displays most websites well enough to be able to work with it, or a browser that does that job less good but does excel in safety-options?

 

Well... been a IE6 user for a (too) long time I switched to IE7 Beta the day it was released and thought 'yep, that's nice. a lot of improvements over IE6.' but I wasn't quite happy without the top bar. And it marked the mail server of my university as phishing site.
Switched to FF a few months ago and haven't had any issues with it. Then switched to FF 2 Beta and must say it's not that much of an improvement over 1.5.x as IE7 over IE6 but it still 'feels' better than IE.

By the way: sunnyg, dunno if it has been answered before but here you get IE7.

 

QFT.

 

The comparison between the two browsers was OK as far as it went, but what I'd really liked to have seen was a test to see how each browser rendered a variety of different websites. We all know that IE6 sucks with regards to web standards, what would have been good would be to compare how IE7 renders W3C certified pages compared to IE6 and Firefox.

 

I think most people would prefer IE's way of handling tabs, as it's more convenient.

 

Safari style close buttons?
I believe you mean Opera style close buttons.

In fact, nearly every feature there Opera has done first and has continued to do it better.
I know what browser I'm going to use when Vista comes out, and it sure as hell isn't Firefox or IE7.

 

IE is much better now i think i will give it a spin once i can get my hands on a non beta version .

 

I'm still a little baffled why you'd use FireFox or IE when Opera is now free?

 

Freedom. Of. Choice.

Everyone has different views and needs. Hence why there is not one car design for everyone. There are hundreds of options.

 

The analogy fails because browsers are on the whole pretty similar unlike cars. Opera does everything that FireFlea, Safari, Konqueror and IE does, but err equal or better... Still I have a few of those installed.

Ok ok I know there are a few features unique to each browser

 

Nice to see microsoft finally making some improvements to their browser.

I imagine I'll stick with FF just because of the extensions though. If it weren't for them I think IE7 would be quite comparable with regards to how I use FF. Most of the things I use and do in FF have been pretty much copied in IE7 which some would say is a bad thing but personally I like it because I feel they are the best way of doing things. E.g. use of the middle button for opening new tabs and closing existing ones.

As for the tab bar I keep it there all the time because although I appreciate that if you only have 1 tab open it looks better without the tab bar the way the bar appears and disappears annoys me somehow. Truth is it's a non issue given that I never have only 1 tab open

 

But you can get add-ons in IE...

 

ugh middle clicking opens the link in a new tab, I can't believe I didnt know that...

 

I agree with you, I like the extra screen space.

Until I looked that up I'd only seen the ruder explanation of QFT and thought you meant that.

More secure than a beta with some security only partly activated

Either way I dislike those close buttons (hit a few by mistake when selecting tabs).
Oddly enough though, I just might try Opera for fun.

I've loaded IE7 @ work and must say it's a HUGE improvement over IE6 but NOT over FF1.5. It's Macro$loth finally catching up. I think they've done a good job at it though and quite frankly have made up enough ground that many of the reasons to switch are now gone. I haven't loaded FF2 yet though because of the one thing I love / hate about it: extensions. I love the extensions when they work and they keep me coming back to FF. But I hate it when a new version breaks them.

for the beelt in spel cheque, two miny forms & forums I baddly kneed dat four.

 

Ok, the analogy was flawed.


BUT it doesn't change the fact that I personally don't like Operas interface and I don't want to spend time fiddling around theming it.

I don't like IEs interface with its constant tab section and I rarely need such a long address bar.

I like FireFox and I don't want to waste my time fiddling around looking for another browser when I have one that works to my needs.

 

"if it works dont try to fix it"

if it sucks, FIX IT!!!!!!

 

"It looks just like Firefox!", I exclaim at the screen, after viewing the first few images in the article.

Don't get me wrong; IE7 looks like a brilliant improvement over IE6 and will hopefully become an improvement in over-all web security. But really, you can't get carried away with the scale of improvement. IE6 is just really bad.

Microsoft's engineers have been working hard to get IE7 up to the standard already set by Firefox, Safari, Opera etc. It's good that they've done it, but come-on; IE7 should have been out in the early part of this year. Vista should be shipping with 7.5 or something.

That said, I do think Firefox isn't quite deserved of the coveted "2.0" just yet. 1.6 does seem more appropriate.

Though if you think about it, and going back to my original point, the browser devs seem to have hit a wall of engenuity. How many radical features can you keep coming up with? Sure there are improvements to be made, but they're not always going to be awe-inspiring.

I'm really quite happy the Internet Explorer team have caught-up, but unless they begin to excel the other browsers, I'll quite happily stick with whatever version of Firefox is released.

I do hope they give an option to toggle having a close button per tab, to having one single one. I just use my middle-mouse button -- it's much more intuitive than having a lot of red squares

Let's wait for the final versions of each eh?