Internet browser (Read 9651 times)

Jim · January 28, 2009, 07:47:23 pm

After using IE for so long I think its high time I changed.
The obvious one to go for would be fireox but I'm keen to try something else.
I had a quick go with chrome but found it too basic and didn't really like it as it was too cartoony?
What else should I be trying or should I just get firefox and get use to it?

Bubba · January 28, 2009, 07:53:37 pm

On Windows I reckon Firefox is the best option but it's probably worth giving Opera a good look.

Firefox wins just for sheer customisability - you can run a really lightweight basic version, or extend it to your heart's desire - the amount of quality extensions is staggering.

The soon to be released FF 3.1 is promising to be way less RAM hungry - then it will be king imo.

Jim · January 28, 2009, 07:56:33 pm

I've been using opera on my mobile, its pretty cool. I might give that a shot

Bubba · January 28, 2009, 08:03:52 pm

damn, I think my post made Opera sound customizable - have edited it to mean FF...

Opera is meant to be great too though...

slackline · January 28, 2009, 08:15:21 pm

Quote from: Bubba on January 28, 2009, 08:03:52 pm

damn, I think my post made Opera sound customizable - have edited it to mean FF...

Opera is meant to be great too though...

I was considering just the other day trying Opera but was concerned about the functinoality I'd loose with not having plugins and Greasemonkey.

Fortunately there are plenty of alternatives but I was particularly concerned about not being able to use greasemonkey, but I shouldn't have been

Haven't actually got round to trying it all out yet though (I've been installing and configuring a bluetooth module in my laptop, which I've now managed to do without frying any more components

)

Mike Tyson · January 28, 2009, 09:03:44 pm

I was surprised to find my mum and dad using Opera on their PC, I must say I was very impressed by it.

tomtom · January 30, 2009, 12:17:11 pm

Trying IE8 at the moment..., first thoughts OK (not earth shattering) and faster (notably) than IE7 on loading...
T

Johnny Brown · January 30, 2009, 05:57:50 pm

Jim is that really you? Still using IE? I don't believe it. Get Firefox, end of story.

Bubba · January 30, 2009, 05:59:54 pm

Jim · January 30, 2009, 08:08:12 pm

I just find it easier to use is all.
I've had a quick go of opera now and its a bit of a pain.
Don't know how I get bittorrent links to open with vuze instead of opera's own bittorrent program.
Also too much interfacing required to do the very basics.

I just want an address bar, forward/back buttons, refresh, home page, favorites button and then a setting button with easy to use/navigate menu's, also don't want it dropping its own bittorrent downloader on me etc....
Simple, basic yet does 99% of what most people use from an internet browser. Can a man ak for too much?
I'll be trying FF next although when I last used it I thought the download manager thing was annoying

Bubba · January 30, 2009, 08:20:55 pm

If you don't like the download manager you can just replace it with an extension - there are many...

FF is basic out of the box but you can extend it to do almost anything you want. That's the beauty of it imho, the way it can be customised to be just how you want it.

FF doesn't use it's own BT client as standard, although there are BT extensions if you want them. I use FF with Vuze ok.

Johnny Brown · January 30, 2009, 08:27:47 pm

I used Opera briefly and didn't like it. I didn't see much advantage to Firefox at first but it soon grows on you with the extensions.

GCW · January 30, 2009, 08:34:30 pm

I've tried a few things and ended up back at FireFox.

Jim · January 30, 2009, 09:40:06 pm

Ok then, whats with the text. On IE its fine and smooth but everything else its blocky. Question?

Bubba · January 30, 2009, 09:51:36 pm

Dunno, looks fine here...

Jim · January 30, 2009, 09:56:42 pm

definately, just compared the 2 side by side, the text is thinner and slightly blockier on FF than IE. Is this the cleartype thing that IE has?

I think I'm going to be a FF convert anyway, just to get away from the under the MS wing more than anything.
Next topic: alternative easy to use direct show media player, all in one

Bubba · January 30, 2009, 10:08:30 pm

Have a read of this - not sure it's up to date...

slackline · January 31, 2009, 12:23:13 am

Surely the browser choice is irrelevant as long as the browser itself allows you to choose the font you wish to use which Firefox does.

Houdini · February 01, 2009, 08:45:04 pm

Explorer's fuckin' witchcraft, man. FF or FO. Don't like Safari either.

Jim · February 01, 2009, 09:15:51 pm

Still not loving firefox although I'm going to force myself to use it for a while, see if i get use to it.
Might go back to opera and try that again.
It must be like blue cheese or guinness

GCW · February 01, 2009, 09:17:58 pm

I like blue cheeses.
I like Guinness.

Your theory appears to work

Jim · February 01, 2009, 09:22:34 pm

do you remember the first time you tried them?

GCW · February 01, 2009, 09:23:42 pm

No, I was whacked out on Guinness and blue cheese bongs.

tomtom · February 01, 2009, 09:26:58 pm

Quote from: GCW on February 01, 2009, 09:23:42 pm

No, I was whacked out on Guinness and blue cheese bongs.

Was that with Michael Phelps?

Jim · February 01, 2009, 09:27:51 pm

Some FF Q's:

why do I have to right click and then select to get a new tab up, this is twice the work it is on IE
How do I get it to open my homepage when I open a new tab?

GCW · February 01, 2009, 09:31:52 pm

You can do ctrl-T for a new tab.
Look at This add on too.

r-man · February 02, 2009, 12:04:35 am

I find middle-clicking on a link fulfills all my tab opening needs. Also, if you have millions of tabs open, scrolling the mouse wheel when hovering over them is plenty helpful. And middle-clicking a tab shuts it much easier than aiming at the cross.

Bubba · February 02, 2009, 01:00:33 am

I'm a ctrl-t man. If you've only got a few tabs open you can also just double click the tab bar to open a new tab.

This extension adds a "new tab" icon at the left of the tab-bar.

Also, for posting to forums such as this one, I highly recommend the BBCode extension

Quote from: r-man on February 02, 2009, 12:04:35 am

And middle-clicking a tab shuts it much easier than aiming at the cross.

Damn, i never knew that - very handy.

slackline · February 02, 2009, 07:36:30 am

Quote from: r-man on February 02, 2009, 12:04:35 am

Also, if you have millions of tabs open, scrolling the mouse wheel when hovering over them is plenty helpful.

I use Alt + [n] to switch to the n^th tab. Relatively easy with up to 9 tabs, gets a bit tricky after that

Johnny Brown · February 02, 2009, 08:25:47 am

Get the mouse gestures add-on, then just flick the mouse as you click on the link.

slackline · February 02, 2009, 08:57:53 am

Quote from: slack---line on February 02, 2009, 07:36:30 am

I use Alt + [n] to switch to the n^th tab. Relatively easy with up to 9 tabs, gets a bit tricky after that

...and doesn't appear to function on the M$-windoze version here at work ???

Jim · February 02, 2009, 09:16:48 am

Ok, thanks for your input, shall investigate further.
Whats that add on thingy to rip flash video's etc....?

slackline · February 02, 2009, 09:40:19 am

Quote from: Jim on February 02, 2009, 09:16:48 am

Ok, thanks for your input, shall investigate further.
Whats that add on thingy to rip flash video's etc....?

Bookmark Mozilla Add-ons (Ctrl+Shift+L) and userscripts.org (for Greasemonkey scripts).

You're probably thinking of this particular plug-in but note that it only works with v1.5 and 3.1b1pre (which is currently having a few problems with bugs that need to be ironed out, search for news on "firefox 3.1 beta" for more info).

Bubba · February 02, 2009, 09:42:35 am

The best extension I've seen for grabbing youtube videos is the Better Youtube extension. It adds a download link below each video.

For general ripping of any type of images and videos from a web page I recommend DownThemAll. It has easy but powerful filtering and renaming functions and a built in download accelerator for large files.

tomtom · February 03, 2009, 07:25:56 pm

OK, trying firefox for the first time in ages, much better than the last - esp the flash blocker extension. Good stuff. Might be converted at this rate... T

Jim · February 04, 2009, 09:34:12 pm

How do I get firefox to play quicktime stuff without installing quicktime. I run quicktime alternative which works fine in IE but FF wants me to install quicktime itself?

slackline · February 04, 2009, 10:15:19 pm

Quote from: Jim on February 04, 2009, 09:34:12 pm

How do I get firefox to play quicktime stuff without installing quicktime. I run quicktime alternative which works fine in IE but FF wants me to install quicktime itself?

What alternative are you using?

A search on google for something like 'firefox configure [insert name of your plugin] plugin' will reveal something.

May involve changing the settings at the address 'about:config'

Jim · February 05, 2009, 09:45:26 am

this one: http://www.codecguide.com/about_qt.htm

forget what I said, installed the latest version of QTA and it works now