The one drawback for me with Firefox (and the only reason I use IE7) is that Firefox is a memory hog. If they can fix that with FF3 then I don't see any good reason to continue using IE7 or any future release of IE.
Kristin K
· 1 year ago
I've been an IE user for what feels like forever... part of the reason I stick with it is because of its simplicity and lack of ad-ons. (Also because Firefox generally runs too slow on my computer.) Am interested to see the new IE...
M
· 1 year ago
History has shown that whenever a company relies on its legacy and market share for too long, complacence kicks in and the company slides. This is what Microsoft seems to be doing. Undoubtedly they have heralded the shifts in technology with Silverlight and all that, but on how many occasions can we actually link Microsoft with the word "innovation". Everything they have done so far is to copy what everyone else is doing, not really improving it, and just sell to the people who are already using their products. When the next generation of customers and mangers move in, MS will see that their market share is going to decrease. Gradually, but inevitably. It will be interesting to see what'll happen now that Bill Gates is not the CEO.
vftw
· 1 year ago
I did a quick test for memory usage loading up my blog in FF3 beta 3 and ie8 beta 1, and IE8 was taking about 60mb ~1.5 times the memory of FF3.
I guess you could put it down to it being the first beta, but I'm not sure it will get a lot better especially if they introduce hot switching between all three renderers.
I have used firefox since back when it was first released, and I love the amount of extensions that it has, but the memory usage is outrageous, ie8 seems more calmer, and i like that fact that all i need is one addon called ie7pro, which by far makes using ie a breeze, i wish firefox had a true fundamental organization with their extensions which didnt lead to memory leaks.
gesteves
· 1 year ago
"Web slices ... is nice enough, but it’s also old news: Apple users have had it for some time now"... and with much better implementation, since WebClips work on almost any part of any page and WebSlices have to be implemented by a website's developers, which makes them nowhere near as useful as WebClips.
Cookiemouse
· 1 year ago
42% of the visitors to my blog use Firefox. 48% use IE.
cyphorous
· 1 year ago
I agree with the fact that Firefox, 2.x, eats away a lot of memory, but still its power-enables usability is much better than IE. Being a web developer, the controls Firefox gives me is not comparable to IE. If Firefox 3 has controlled memory management, i wont be using IE8 or referring it to someone else. I was interested in web slices. Its still an idea (RSS) taken one step ahead. But getting to know APPLE has already done something similar to it. It aint innovative, its just changing the face of the functionality.
deralaand
· 1 year ago
I know people still using IE 6 simply because the layout of 7 (and now 8) is useless.
I think MS has this idea to "dumb it down" because they think their users are stupid.
We do have to thank IE though. Without IE, there would be no reasons to improve other offerings.
xxdesmus
· 1 year ago
Regardless of how great Firefox is it really won't matter to the mainstream users. "Normal" users will not seek out a 3rd party browser, and this is precisely why Mozilla needs to get working on OEM deals to get Firefox pre-installed.
Matt
· 1 year ago
I've seen a comparison of memory usage between the different ff 3 betas and it's getting smaller by the beta.
I do like IE7 and I can't wait to try out v8, but FF will still be my main browser I think.
Thijs
· 1 year ago
Tried the beta this morning, they have a lot of work to do...and so do we webdevelopers ;)
While it is true that Firefox is the better browser overall, I really wish they would fix some of the bugs that have been plaguing it for years now. A browser that uses up 500mb of RAM to display 3 webpages is NOT normal. Most operating systems don't have a footprint that big. Also, the copy and paste bug that was supposedly fixed was never really fixed, and I know I am not the only one who gets annoyed by it!
Jimmy D
· 1 year ago
Also, they really need to make the settings more accessible and user friendly for the average joe. Entering about:config and adding new integers to make a settings change is wayyyyyy over the heads of most people.
Saim Baig
· 1 year ago
Although with the introduction of all this.I will stay with Firefox.I don't think IE 8 will have an impact just like the IE 7.
silentium
· 1 year ago
IE8 Download site is crashing my FF....
Tom Drapeau
· 1 year ago
I don't see how Microsoft is resting on market share and past success here...
I would imagine that the majority of the 80% that use Internet Explorer aren't switching to Firefox overnight because FF implements some blistering new feature. They've been using IE for a while, and since this release kinda just works, they'll just shrug and upgrade.
If IE8 proves to really be standards compliant (and eventually ACID3 compliant, if that's possible), maybe that steals from the Firefox base.
I think the release (albeit its only a day old) is not innovative, but solid, and is moving in the right direction. That *should* scare Firefox, who also can't sit on their
Tom Drapeau
· 1 year ago
Ah, there is a comment size limit. :-)
... 20% either. The question I have is, how does Firefox grab from the 80%? By claiming standards compliance?
brandon
· 1 year ago
I mainly use firefox just because I am used to it now with the tabs and multiline bookmarks. But it is a memory hog and have to restart it every once in a while. If they fix that, then the browser can be a beast.
bigi
· 1 year ago
For all the people who said Firefox is a memory hog -- FF3 (even in beta) has already improved on that. Huge improvements. What used to take 500mb in mem usage, doing the same kinds of things would now take ~100mb.
I disagree with this statement: "this market share is completely irrelevant here and it will go down steadily in the years to come." Let's face it, as long as IE is the built-in browser in Windows, and as long as people use Windows, this market share won't change much. There are more computer-newbie users out there than you think. Most "common" people (not anyone who would be reading this blog) have never even heard of Firefox.
Jake Lockley
· 1 year ago
This is all so 1996. Firefox seems to be touted by counter-culture anti-MS people. I thought the anti-MS battle ended ten years ago when their browser features put Netscape in the dust and they invented DHTML. Google is the big evil company watching your every move these days, when are you going to rebel against them? Oh yeah you can't, they are keeping Firefox alive.
You don't hear carpenters bitching and moaning that a Craftsman screwdriver is better than Snap-On screwdriver because it weighs less or is shinier. They are tools. If one doesn't do the trick you use another. Why are there both flathead as well as Phillips head screws? Because some idiots wouldn't let go, now we have to have at least two screwdrivers in every in every toolbox. Sound familiar?
And for the record, the W3C standards suck, who would want to follow them? They were meant for flat presentation not functionality.
Win
· 1 year ago
let's see how good IE 8. I prefer to use Firefox so far..
ieiscrap
· 1 year ago
>> I've been an IE user for what feels like forever...
Some people walk around asleep. Firefox is better - without question.
I wonder if the die-hard IE users are the same that think "Bush is doing a good job." No. He's just been around for what feels like forever.
ieiscrap
· 1 year ago
>> If IE8 proves to really be standards compliant...
"Really"? No "really"? Sheesh. IE is a piece of sh!t.
ieiscrap
· 1 year ago
>> This is all so 1996. Firefox seems to be touted by counter-culture anti-MS people.
IE is cr!p and IE is evil. Look it up.
>> they are keeping Firefox alive.
People that want a good browser are the ones "keeping Firefox alive" and leaving IE in droves.
If IE didn't come with the OS nobody would use it. Microcr*p knows this.
>> You don't hear carpenters bitching and moaning that a Craftsman screwdriver
One word champ: greasemonkey. I bet you don't even know what it means. How about this anology - Firefox lets you "build" things without even using a hammer.
>> the W3C standards suck
IE sucks. Standards by definition tend to suck. But why doesn IE suck?
FF is the best. And Google will support its development.
But Microsoft is Microsoft - it has a lot of power.
adam
· 1 year ago
sounds like a bit of a fanboy review to me...
111
· 1 year ago
FF is better because its faster thats it.
all those thousands of addons ppl brag about is bullshit as we all use max of 10 same ones.
IE got IE7PRO ... 1 addon dose it all
BiroTom
· 1 year ago
I don't think firefox should be afraid of IE8. I have made somes tests, comparing a complex AJAX app that works fine in IE7, Firefox3 and Safari. It worked better in Minefield (Firefox 3.1) and it was awful in IE8. Check my blog for details.
All Comments
I guess you could put it down to it being the first beta, but I'm not sure it will get a lot better especially if they introduce hot switching between all three renderers.
It also has a few CSS2.1 issues:
http://blog.vftw.com/view/web/internet-explorer...
I think MS has this idea to "dumb it down" because they think their users are stupid.
We do have to thank IE though. Without IE, there would be no reasons to improve other offerings.
I do like IE7 and I can't wait to try out v8, but FF will still be my main browser I think.
Checked out some much-used websites to see what they look like in IE8, check:
http://www.youtellme.com/blog/archives/14
I would imagine that the majority of the 80% that use Internet Explorer aren't switching to Firefox overnight because FF implements some blistering new feature. They've been using IE for a while, and since this release kinda just works, they'll just shrug and upgrade.
If IE8 proves to really be standards compliant (and eventually ACID3 compliant, if that's possible), maybe that steals from the Firefox base.
I think the release (albeit its only a day old) is not innovative, but solid, and is moving in the right direction. That *should* scare Firefox, who also can't sit on their
... 20% either. The question I have is, how does Firefox grab from the 80%? By claiming standards compliance?
I disagree with this statement: "this market share is completely irrelevant here and it will go down steadily in the years to come." Let's face it, as long as IE is the built-in browser in Windows, and as long as people use Windows, this market share won't change much. There are more computer-newbie users out there than you think. Most "common" people (not anyone who would be reading this blog) have never even heard of Firefox.
You don't hear carpenters bitching and moaning that a Craftsman screwdriver is better than Snap-On screwdriver because it weighs less or is shinier. They are tools. If one doesn't do the trick you use another. Why are there both flathead as well as Phillips head screws? Because some idiots wouldn't let go, now we have to have at least two screwdrivers in every in every toolbox. Sound familiar?
And for the record, the W3C standards suck, who would want to follow them? They were meant for flat presentation not functionality.
Some people walk around asleep. Firefox is better - without question.
I wonder if the die-hard IE users are the same that think "Bush is doing a good job." No. He's just been around for what feels like forever.
"Really"? No "really"? Sheesh. IE is a piece of sh!t.
IE is cr!p and IE is evil. Look it up.
>> they are keeping Firefox alive.
People that want a good browser are the ones "keeping Firefox alive" and leaving IE in droves.
If IE didn't come with the OS nobody would use it. Microcr*p knows this.
>> You don't hear carpenters bitching and moaning that a Craftsman screwdriver
One word champ: greasemonkey. I bet you don't even know what it means. How about this anology - Firefox lets you "build" things without even using a hammer.
>> the W3C standards suck
IE sucks. Standards by definition tend to suck. But why doesn IE suck?
But Microsoft is Microsoft - it has a lot of power.
all those thousands of addons ppl brag about is bullshit as we all use max of 10 same ones.
IE got IE7PRO ... 1 addon dose it all