Firefox 3.6.3 is here

[catilley1092]

What's going on with Firefox? Every two weeks, there's an upgrade. I wasn't crazy about going back to using it, but I just can't stand it when IE opens another (smaller) screen whenever I click onto a site. Why can't they open in tabs, like the others do? Does anyone knows why all of these FF "updates" take place? 3.6.2 didn't even last two weeks. They're pushing for 4.0 by years end, but I don't think they'll make it.

 

[clifford_cooley]

1. Open IE8
2. Goto Tools
3. Internet Options
4. General Tab
5. Click the Settings button under the Tabs area
6. Open links from other programs in a new tab in the current window

 

[davehc]

If you have IE in the taskbar, and you are not to fond of tabs, this is a useful function:
Whilst using IE, hold the shift key and click the taskbar icon. This will open another instance of IE. You can have as many open as you can handle.

 

[catilley1092]

Thanks, now I know what to do. I didn't have this problem with IE7 on XP, well, most of the time anyway. It's been a year since I've really used IE much. But I'll give that a try and see how it works. Looks simple. IE8 sure looks and performs better than it did on XP. I honestly don't believe it was even built for XP. The pre-beta of Windows 7 was here, along with Vista. A new browser was needed, so IE8 was born.

 

[HaveBlues2]

Thanks, now I know what to do. I didn't have this problem with IE7 on XP, well, most of the time anyway. It's been a year since I've really used IE much. But I'll give that a try and see how it works. Looks simple. IE8 sure looks and performs better than it did on XP. I honestly don't believe it was even built for XP. The pre-beta of Windows 7 was here, along with Vista. A new browser was needed, so IE8 was born.

Years ago back when IE6 was the out, IE was ok, but when IE 7 came out with their tabs I didn't care for it at all. I moved to Fire Fox and for the most part been happy with it till lately. Fire Fox is slowing down cuz they keep adding crap to it. I recently switched to Safari and it's like way faster than I ever remember Fire Fox ever being. So that's where I will stay till I get bored with that one. :ciao:

 

[Nibiru2012]

Firefox is just updating the browser as they see fit. It may take two weeks or two months.

It their prerogative to decide when and IF to update the browser, just like it's M$ when they release theirs.

They may reach v4.0 FF by the end of the year because they could just jump from v3.6.3 to v3.8.1 to 4.0.1. The version number system is not something that is etched in granite and dictated by the internet gods from Mt. Olympus.

 

[Veedaz]

HaveBlues2 wrote

Safari and it's like way faster than I ever remember Fire Fox ever being. So that's where I will stay till I get bored with that one.

Yep variety is the spice of life mate there is always something better to try

 

[catilley1092]

Safari isn't a bad choice, it's a good browser. But they want you to add three other programs along with it. Apple Software Update, Bonjour, and there was another one. It would be fine on a large, newer drive. On an older laptop, it takes too much space. But it will make a older computer look better, and the speed is there, too. I'm just not an Apple fan, however I don't condone people from choosing.

 

[Thrax]

Microsoft patches once a month, letting major security flaws slide for up to 4 weeks at a time. Mozilla patches whenever they need to.

One method is clearly better, imo.

 

[catilley1092]

That's right, even their addons are updated, and they let you know what's going on before it happens.

 

[metalmania31]

Yeah, I don't get why there are those that don't use Firefox. Either they don't know how to use it to it's fullest or their brain is just stuck on IE. Even I8 I can't stand. I've customized Firefox to my liking. I can't stand Google Chrome either. Not having a bookmark sidebar is just plain arrogant to me. That was a major deal breaker for me and Chrome.

 

[catilley1092]

Firefox is one of the best and fastest growing browsers on the market. Nibiru2012 posted a thread regarding it's worldwide growth. It's easy to use, and there are thousands of addons to make it the browser you want it to be. I like the Adblock Plus, No Script, Better Privacy and a couple of other addons. But I don't like their home search page or main search engine. However, you have a choice in that matter, too. I switched my home page to MSN and my default search engine to Bing. ixquick is a great search engine to add on, too. But as far as Google goes, I can't stand anything with their name on it, I removed it from the search engine list. I don't care for their browser, maps, or their upcoming OS. It will be a flop, at best, it may be installed on cheap netbooks, replacing Windows CE (which is dirt slow). But it won't be a mainstream OS on laptops or PC's. Firefox has been a fast climbing browser, I've used it for over a year now. There was a recent security issue with them, that 3.6.2 is supposed to fix. Now, we have 3.6.3, FF has said that they intend for 4.0 to be out by years end, that we'll see when it gets here. Firefox has gained too much ground to turn back now, and at some point, they have a legitimate chance to be #1. But don't count IE out, they will not lay down to FF. Back in the 90's, Netscape had the chance to pull it off, they were gaining popularity. But Bill wasn't going to let that happen, and just as fast as Netscape rose, they fell, and advised it's users to adopt Firefox. FF won't fall like Netscape did, but they will have to fight like hell to gain the #1 position. And they are, as the figures in Nibiru's post shows. The next one to two years will be very interesting to see, not just for FF, but for computing as a whole.

 

[metalmania31]

I agree FF has a good struggle to get to #1. But all the other browsers have a slight disadvantage in that they're not installed with the OS that has the biggest market share which obviously is MS Windows. Security will always become issue when it gains enough mainstream use and naturally criminals will gravitate towards new opportunities.

 

[catilley1092]

You're right on that. One thing in FF's favor, they are a very strong #2. There's no other browser close to catching FF's position. Some says Chrome can do it, I don't think so. I wouldn't use their browser again if I was paid to, nor their upcoming OS. They didn't even build their OS from the ground up, they built it around a Linux OS. Not that all Linux OS's are bad, but I won't knowingly use anything that Google produces. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if FF came out with an OS in the future. If they can make it as good as FF is, they could really give all other OS's a run for the money.

 

[Mychael]

For me the one big thing I like about FF is Xmarks. I can install FF onto any machine and have all my bookmarks and passwords installed ready to go in a short time.
Maybe other browsers also have this feature but I found it first with FF and stuck with it.

As a general comment about browsing the sort of hits you get must be affected to some degree by the ISP you use. I did this experiment with my mate, he on his PC running XP and FF, me the same. We typed in exactly the same phrase to do a search and got different hits. There was some overlap of course but he got some I did not have and vice verso, also in some cases the order of the hits varied between his machine and mine.

 

[catilley1092]

Another thing, you can uninstall it (as I recently did) and reinstall it, and your bookmarks and favorites will be there, as long as when you did the uninstall you chose to save your configuration.