Firefox

[Job]

As a dedicated viewer of porn/warez/mp3's, I have spyware, browser hijack city on my PC.
After installing Firefox I did a spybot/adware/shredder/hijackthis onceover.

3 weeks of visiting the nastiest places..and not 1, not 1 piece of scumware on my PC.

Thankyou Mozilla, you may have my first born, I have my PC back and surfing is fun oncemore.
Fuck you Microshite and your friggin sieve-like bloatware.

Just one thing , is it possible to totally remove that IE bollocks from XP?

 

[Xeanor]

Just one thing , is it possible to totally remove that IE bollocks from XP?

Don't think so.

Also, if you have broadband, do this firefox tweak:

http://forevergeek.com/open_source/make_firefox_faster.php

And, of course, the AdBlock extension: https://addons.update.mozilla.org/e...lication=firefox&version=1.0&os=Windows&id=10

 

[Cyfr]

Use linux if you don't want IE installed

 

[Melachi]

Don't think so.

Also, if you have broadband, do this firefox tweak:

http://forevergeek.com/open_source/make_firefox_faster.php

And, of course, the AdBlock extension: https://addons.update.mozilla.org/e...lication=firefox&version=1.0&os=Windows&id=10

Id be carefull about changing "maxrequests" and "maxconnections" settings as some web servers might not like that, because in a sense you are draining the server. And as a result you may find yourself banned from some sites.

 

[Tasslehoff]

I agree, Firefox is great

And I don't see why you'd want IE removed.. Could anyone fill me in on this?

 

[Job]

Only because my IE area is so full of nasty code that if I boot up IE by mistake I get a shed load of scumware running on the PC.
Every possible type of fix has failed to remove it and a rebuild is the only way forward, I just can't face rebuilding from the ground up.

 

[Chesnox]

I agree, Firefox is great

And I don't see why you'd want IE removed.. Could anyone fill me in on this?

Revenge?

Seriously, attempting to remove IE manually from your Windows install is quite a bad idea, as lots of apps/games etc.. use IE in one form or another. For example, Valves annoyingly annoying game launcher/updater monstrosity uses parts of IE to show html pages in the Steam client. In fact, any windows applications you have ever seen that deliver HTML pages inside the application, Gamespy Arcade, WMP, even Winamp (but don't quote me on that) use IE (or at least IE security settings) to serve up that html.

Thats not to say those application that use parts of IE or IE security settings are as crappy as the IE browser. They generally are not, since the application controls which pages the user sees, and refuse pop-ups and malicious code by default (i.e. Steam will only point at Valves web content and not randomly pop-up enticements to enlarge your penis.)

Basically, remove all icons & shortcuts to IE and set as much stuff to use Firefox as your default browser as you can. Then pretend IE doesn't exist and was just a bad nightmare. But I really wouldn't recommend trying to remove it from your PC altogether unless you are an expert (even then I suspect its not possible to remove it 100% succesfully without degrading Windows in other ways). For now, Windows and IE are integrated.

And yes, Firefox is great

 

[Esselinithia]

You forget a few things:

1st. You clicked yes a few times, etc. and did nothing to prevent spyware getting to your system.

2nd: Some say IE is insecure, have you checked the mozilla list of known security issues?

3rd: Yes, with ActiveX some people can get almost as strong permission on your system as a real program / plugin. But when IE uses ActiveX mozilla uses plugins...

4th: I seen many web pages that don't work well under mozilla / firefox

5th: I did some little test with a CSS based layout wit absolute coordinates, etc. specified. so a layout that is verifiable easily if you make a screenshot and measure distances. And in gecko based browsers (including mozilla and firefox) there were formating problems

6th: The test that use random malformed HTML to crash browsers, showed more problems in gecko based browsers

7th: you can reinforce IE security easily, and can use something like maxthon that uses the IE engine (but can use gecko if you set it that way) to display everything IE can display (and with using gecko engine option everything firefox can display), yet it has all bells and whistles and a few extra security features from other browsers for a more confortable experience...

 

[Jaapi]

2nd: Some say IE is insecure, have you checked the mozilla list of known security issues?

Firefox is more secure for on simple reason. It's not nearly as common as IE.

4th: I seen many web pages that don't work well under mozilla / firefox.

Haven't seen any so far.

Changed to Firefox a month ago and have nothing bad to say about it, works like a charm and prevents spyware and pop-ups on it's own, so i see no reason to keep using IE as it is.

 

[Archeon]

I don't particularly care about the security issues involved (I seem to be one of those people who never worries about things like that and never has them happen ) - but I use Firefox > IE simply because of the tab's you can use with Firefox.

I've never encountered more than a handful of pages which don't support FF though, but there are a few which is why I havn't taken IE off... well that and when I switched to Winamp I took WMP off and Windows/Norton kicked up a huge fuss about it until I just gave up and put it back on to save myself the headache

 

[Thorwyn]

IE is vulnerable not because it´s code is worse than Firefox, but because it´s a monoculture. Wait until Firefox is as popular as IE and you´ll see the spyware, trojans, adware, hijackers and viruses coming.
But atm, Firefox is definitely the way to go.

And no, you can´t remove IE under XP

 

[Job]

I believe Firefox will fair better because of community support.
It will be able to draw on a world wide support network that IE just hasnt got.
You are correct though, soon the attacks will come.

 

[harebear]

IE is vulnerable not because it´s code is worse than Firefox, but because it´s a monoculture. Wait until Firefox is as popular as IE and you´ll see the spyware, trojans, adware, hijackers and viruses coming.
But atm, Firefox is definitely the way to go.

And no, you can´t remove IE under XP

I havnt removed it but ive fucked its ass up so much when it loads my PC crashes.

 

[Mojo]

IE is vulnerable not because it´s code is worse than Firefox, but because it´s a monoculture. Wait until Firefox is as popular as IE and you´ll see the spyware, trojans, adware, hijackers and viruses coming.
But atm, Firefox is definitely the way to go.

And no, you can´t remove IE under XP

Spot on IMO


Firefox sucks, dont use it

 

[Funkybunny]

opera > firefox

 

[tookha]

gmail and camelot-europe > opera



Everything else is sweet as sugar though

 

[Xeanor]

Firefox is OPEN SOURCE. IE is not.

That's why Firefox security will ALWAYS be easier to improve.

And the Firefox extensions just pwn, really hard.

Try finding handy plugins for IE while not putting your PC full of shit... takes some work to find those, it's done with 1 button in the firefox browser and you have a overview of all available extensions.

And face it, standard IE security is crap, there's viruses that easily find a way into your computer through IE without ever getting a yes/no message box.

And yes, there's not much firefox users so less viruses for it, but it's open source and I doubt those viruses will last long.

 

[Xeanor]

Id be carefull about changing "maxrequests" and "maxconnections" settings as some web servers might not like that, because in a sense you are draining the server. And as a result you may find yourself banned from some sites.

Read:

Regarding "Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once." and the subsequent comments regarding server spam, this is not correct. Pipelining makes consecutive requests on a -single- connection, hence "maxrequests" as opposed to "maxconnections". Normally the browser would request one object (such as an image) and then terminate the connection, repeat, and repeat until all of the needed objects had been downloaded. Pipelining simple causes it to take the same behavior using only one connection. Anthony Gorecki

To further add info: pipelining DOES NOT add more connections - the original post is utterly wrong, but is a way of streaming data on single connection.

There is AFAIK an in-built limit of 10 to network.http.pipelining.maxrequests - so setting it as 30 is ignored by Firefox anyway! That is for a GOOD reason - higher values are not better - they can cause complete page-loading failure and thus a longer loading time! Leave it at 4-6.

The above comment #23 is neither fully correct - pipelining is different from persistent connections he describes. Connections are persistent (don't close between each request) on a HTTP/1.1 compliant server irrespective of pipelining. Pipelining allows that single persistent connection to work more efficiently:

http://www.w3.org/Talks/9704WWW6-WebPerf/slide7.htm

NOTE: Opera has had this "tweak" for years, partly responsible for its reputation of being the fastest browser around.

ALSO: setting nglayout.initialpaint.delay to 0 will increase page-loading time - especially on older machines or slow connections. It causes the page to be redrawn earlier (so perceptually seems quicker), but the extra CPU load will slow the rendering down (potentially increasing total load time). Set it to 750 or 1000 on older computers or slow connections. The default of 250 is just fine IMO as a fair average.

 

[Ctuchik]

Firefox is more secure for on simple reason. It's not nearly as common as IE.

Haven't seen any so far.

Changed to Firefox a month ago and have nothing bad to say about it, works like a charm and prevents spyware and pop-ups on it's own, so i see no reason to keep using IE as it is.

my AV/FW program does that aswell.. i dont need to use 3:rd party browsers for that made a fresh reinstall about a week ago. and havent got one single spyware / browser hijacker etc etc... and i surf alot. only thing that annoys me is that my FW keeps popping up a message every time it blocks something.... and its ALOT i still run addaware programs now and again just to be safe. but so far it havent found anything...

 

[Jaapi]

my AV/FW program does that aswell.. i dont need to use 3:rd party browsers for that

So you don't need 3rd party browser, just 3rd party programs along with the browser?

 

[Binky the Bomb]

Just one thing , is it possible to totally remove that IE bollocks from XP?

That answer is no, not anymore. You could at one stage uninstall IE and save yourself the problems, but now thats it's intergrated as both Internet and PC browser, you can't remove it without removing core elements of XP (I know someone who tried, v. messy in the end.).

However, you can turn off the "default browser" bit in control panel I thinkand have another work in it's place (and if that gets hacked, only the browser suffers, not the whole pc).

 

[Ballard]

It probably would pay not to remove IE anyway. It has many libraries that other applications use. In the past as a developer I have used the IE dll called msxml for some XML parsing in certain circumstances and I know other develpoers that have used other facets of it aswell. Any application that relies on these sort of libraries will not work if IE was removed (unless the referenced libraries were retained).