according to a friend I should quit using the unstable Internet Explorer and move over to the world of Mozilla.
Is this browsing tool really that much better, stable, less vurnerable to adware / spyware / virusses as he claims it is? I mean I already run tons of software on my computer, like counterspy / errordoctor & lately zonealarm… if installing Mozilla makes my comp. inpenetrable I can delete most of that stuff, right?
any of you guys have experience with it?
grtz
Richard
firefox is OK, but i wouldnt say that its perfect… and you will have some compatibility issues also.
I think that this whole adware, spyware etc thing has more to do with who browses the internet not with what program he does it 
The problem is located usually between chair and the monitor 
For me is Opera the way to go.
The only Browser I know that allows you to navigate through links with the cursor keys instead of having to cycle through each and everyone with the TAB key. Really nice feature.
Tabbed browsing is a whole different thing with it too. You can drag 'n’drop Links to a new browser tab, read mails in such a tab, rearrange them, etc…
As far as security goes I cannot tell. See trackits post.
As a web-programmer, I prefer those browsers which go with the w3- standards. And these are the GECKO-powered like Konqueror or Firefox and I also love Opera. The advantage of the IE is that you do not need to install another software and with all windows-updates, I even would consider the IE some sort of “secure”
So, what I am trying to say is that choosing the “right” browser is just a matter of taste.
My personal favourite is firefox, because I have a lot of nice extensions installed (winampcontrol, weatherforecast, RenoiseRSS-Feed, Adblocker and some selfmade extensions)
I personally use Opera and i’m satisfied with it, i’ve also used Firefox for a long time and really liked the possability to install useful addons such as Adblock. Firefox is somewhat slow, when started for the first time, but afterwards runs fine.
Dopefish: I’ve read, with version 9 of Opera, that it runs the Acid (?) test successfully. by the way, i have a small problem with my site, which i’m currently programming, if you like, i could mail you or you me for a quick question. It’s only a div container, which resizes wrong, but i’m unable to find a clean workaround for it. I don’t want to publish a link, before it’s finished.
you got mail
I use Firefox all the time. Not for the spyware reasons as already said, but mostly for the plugins and a couple of nice functions. Web developer toolbar and mouse gestures are the plugins I use the most. Then I really love the search function. Just start to type and it automatically searches. Another useful feature is the image handling. When you view an image you just click it to resize to the current window size or to show in full size.
AFAIK, IE is less secure than Firefox or Opera. I got spyware on my comp twice in my life and in both cases for using IE.
As I was also discussing in another forum about this, I think that people generally use too many programs for viruses, spyware and such.
You should be happy with a router with firewall and with some knowledge on viruses and stuff. Then a scan here and there.
But I keep an antispyware installed, because I have to use IE sometimes. (Well, not really, I use Avant, but it’s basically the same for security holes.)
Other than that my favourite browser is Opera, but Firefox is not bad, I used it for a long time.
Opera is very nice. It feels complete. It’s not so “W3C” yet, but it’s close enough - as a package it’s really nice. If you’re big on having a comfortable customisable environment, Opera is worth a play.
Internet Explorer is a bit risky. Depends on your browsing habits I guess. I prefer to use Maxthon if I need the “IE” experience, for web developing.
Firefox, does the job. I like it mainly for development work because the Javascript Console gives me errors I can work with. Unlike IE. I’m starting to like Firefox more and more! And I’m starting to click that when I need to google something.
i also run a router. plus zonealarm is running in the background all the time.
i have (in ZA) the option enabled to always get informaed when any kind of attack is being attempted with no alerts at all (except of winamp shoutcast trying to connect to the internet e.g.) the router firewall holds it all back.
i just still let it run to be able to monitor the traffic of up/downloads in the taskbar.
Yes.
anybody who takes this answer seriously, please, read the disclaimer 
I love firefox for the clean and easy to use interface. As for the security benefits… well, I know I have some crap in my computer somewhere (avast and adaware always seems to find something) but I dont have the energy to reinstall my system and it’s not a problem as long as I stay away from IE…
The only problem with firefox is compability, which happens rarely. If a web service site tells me that I need to use IE I just choose another site or wright an email to the webmaster and ask him why he’s being Bills bitch. But as I said, this does not happen alot.
The pair of AdBlock and Filterset.G updater extensions alone is reason enough to switch to Firefox. Oh and I had almost forgotten those pop-up window thingies even exist. That sorta thing is kept well under control by Ff au naturel. And you can actually go read news articles off of sites or play the casual flash game and do just that rather than fighting with flashing, moving, spawning and respawning ads. You can also enforce tabbed browsing so your taskbar won’t flood with browser windows (don’t get me started on the handy grouping feature of WinXP). The extensions available for web developers are a chapter of their own. And did you know that because of WindizUpdate, updating Windows doesn’t necessarily require Internet Explorer? (I just hope there was a way to totally remove the bugger from WinXP like you can from Win9x.) Make the switch. You won’t regret it.
Firefox is what I mostly use–it blocks a LOT of spyware from ever being installed in the first place, and so far, for Windows anyway, it has the most compatible browsing outside IE. The extensions available for Firefox are nice too–my favorite one is called MediaPlayerConnectivity, which forces video clips to be played in the programs of your choice instead of having to just view many of them in tiny windows on a web page. Another good one is AdBlock, which gives you right-click options on any non-flash-based ad so you’ll never see ads from that server again, and if you view the page source and find out where a flash ad is coming from, you can block those too. Another one I like, particularly when I’m wanting to print, is one called NukeAnything–it allows you to remove any object on a page (it stays that way until you refresh the page)–an ad, a frame, a text block, anything. Firefox also has an option to “view this frame” which is often quite handy for poorly written pages that have frames that don’t let you see the text in its entirity.
Opera views WAY too many pages the wrong way, and it can’t handle a system with lots of fonts installed–it will view all the fonts completely wrong–and I’m talking where it will choose some extra-fancy font that’s in chinese instead of what it’s supposed to. Opera technical staff’s answer to the problem: Uninstall the extra fonts. Not my idea of a company that cares about fixing problems. One advantage this browser has (which isn’t THAT much of an advantage when you read the next paragraph) is its ability to view the entire page bigger instead of just the fonts, so if you’re looking at cnn.com, you can make the article itself fill the screen if you wish, which is particularly handy if you use a higher desktop resolution.
IE7beta2 has proven to be quite a decent browser. They’ve added tabbed browsing, which a lot of people like but I never use, cleartype font smoothing on for just the use of the browser, and the nicest option, being able to blow up the page–making the entire page bigger, and it does it much better than Opera does–it does the blur effect on graphics that get blown up instead of seeing the pixels. The interface takes a little to get used to, and if you want the original “normal” menus you have to futz with the options a little, but it still has many of the problems with easily receiving spyware, unless you mess with the activex controls, which there are a lot more of now. F11, fullscreen mode, now allows the title bar at the top to disappear like how you can make the windows taskbar to disappear.
An option that is good to use no matter what browser you’re using is to edit the hosts file. Your hosts file is located at C:WINDOWSsystem32driversetc
In it, you’ll find:
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 is always your local computer. If you were to add things into the file that tell the computer that an.ad.site.com is actually on the local computer, and you try to access that site, it will say “this page cannot be displayed”. So, what this means is you can completely avoid having many of these ads ever loading at all, at any time, and you can put in all the sites that install spyware put there as well and you’ll never have to worry about getting spyware from those places EVER.
For instance, here’s what’s after “localhost” in my hosts file. There are websites where you can cut and paste people’s host files. If someone wants me to post mine in its entirity here, I can, but it’s kind-of long.
127.0.0.1 http://bravenetmedianetwork.com
127.0.0.1 bravenetmedianetwork.com
127.0.0.1 000freexxx.com
127.0.0.1 039068a.dialer-select.com
127.0.0.1 1-2-free.com
127.0.0.1 1.httpads.com
127.0.0.1 1000stars.ru
127.0.0.1 100free.com
127.0.0.1 100free.de
127.0.0.1 100free.nl
127.0.0.1 123adult.com
127.0.0.1 123banners.com
127.0.0.1 123go.com
127.0.0.1 192.168.112.2o7.net
127.0.0.1 1ca.cqcounter.com
127.0.0.1 1second.com
127.0.0.1 1st-fuss.com
127.0.0.1 247media.com
127.0.0.1 247support.adtech.de
127.0.0.1 24pm-affiliation.com
127.0.0.1 24pmad.com
127.0.0.1 2jm.com
127.0.0.1 7search.com
127.0.0.1 8848.net
127.0.0.1 90plan.ovh.net
127.0.0.1 a.r.tv.com
127.0.0.1 a1.superstats.com
127.0.0.1 a10.suntimes.com
127.0.0.1 a11.suntimes.com
127.0.0.1 a12.suntimes.com
You add entries like this into the file, save it, close and restart your browser/s, and those sites will never come up. It even works in messenger programs for ads that come up there.
Warning: Do not let the hosts file become too big or it WILL start to bog down your machine.
if you don’t. It’s your loss…
I can tell you why I have this disclaimer, it is because I once in a thread said that I thougt a sample-collection was good, and a person read my post and went down and bought that sample collection just because of my post (it was what he said atleast )… and he didn’t have the same taste as me, SO GUESS WHAT, he went totaly nuts and was totaly serious when he said that I was responsible for that he had spent lot of money on a sample collection he thought was crap…
If you think I am unserious just because of that is probably not my problem… I just think that it is good that people have different tastes, but in this case there is no question about it, because its a fact, not just taste, when I say that Firefox is better than IE in so many ways…
etc etc… I can make this list much much longer… but I have to go to sleep now…
i was just joking 
I understod that But I acctually just wanted to make it 100% clear that I realy was extremly damn serious when I said “yes” erlier in this thread… I thought that was enought to say because it is so clear that IE is in arrears with all other big browsers today and even if they release a new version in a couple of month that version will still be in behindhand, and if you chose to use IE you can be damn sure that you wont se any new big features implemented more than every 5th year or so, and that mean that YOU personaly contribute to be a hog in the evolution of the web. Another thing is that IE do not implement stadards very good and when they do they often do it in their own way (not after the standard that they say that they are implementing). and they are having a defacto monopoly so if they do things wrong peaople that make webpages has to follow their stupid way and make things that is wrong to make it work… this mean that if YOU use IE you also personaly is responsible for f**king up the life for both all webdevelopers in the world but also for all the people that realy want to use alternative than IE that acctually following the standards in a standard way.
Amen
Use anything but IE, that’s the key.
Now, as to what other browser to use, that’s simple. Download both Opera and Firefox, and use both for a few days each, and there you go. But don’t forget that both of them are coming up with new things all the time, so if you’re still not sure, check back every now and then. You can also download the pre-releases or beta versions of both (9.0x for Opera, 1.6x for Firefox), to get the latest and greatest.
I’m using Opera 9.0 myself (highly recommended), and the thing I miss is convenient blocking of flash ads, but I expect that to get fixed when it’s released. The thing I miss when using Firefox is good mouse gestures (there are extensions for it, but they don’t really interface well, kind of slapped-on). I also miss my memory when using Firefox, it tends to disappear rather quickly… 
Most important difference: Firefox is a browser, only, but with a lot of extensions you can download. Opera is a package including Mail, newsgroups, IRC, RSS, a bittorrent client, and whatnot, all integrated (I hate that word) into one.