Migration to Firefox

[laura_seabrook]

I've given up on Internet Explorer / Maxthon and migrated to Firefox.

Why did I finally give up on Maxthon? Partly because since I discovered YouTube, I found that I.E./Maxthon wouldn't show the flash films (and other media) properly, and Firefox would. Also, I'm still planning on migrating properly to Linux at some future date.

What had been holding me back was the same thing that held me back from moving from The Bat e-mail client to Thunderbird - functionality. However, I made the same mistake I made before. Firefox by itself is simple and unembellished. What you have to do is add extensions to get what you want. These are the ones I've found for my requirements

Enabled Extensions: [20]

• All-in-One Sidebar 0.7.1
• DiggiDig 0.43
• DOM Inspector 1.8.1.3
• Find Toolbar Tweaks 1.1.1
• Firebug 1.05
• fireform 0.4
• MetaTags 2.3.5.2
• MinimizeToTray 0.0.1.2006102615+
• MR Tech Local Install 5.3.2.3
• Password Exporter 1.0.6
• PasswordMaker 1.6.1
• PDF Download 0.8
• Preferences Mover 1.0
• Smart Link 1.2
• Smiley Xtra 4.1.1
• Tab Mix Plus 0.3.5.2
• Talkback 2.0.0.3
• Tiny Menu 1.4.3
• UI Tweaker (Formerly Toolbar Cleanup) 1.7.0
• Update Bookmark 0.0.4.1

Disabled Extensions: [3]

• Hide Menubar 1.0.20070405
• infoRSS 1.1.2
• Java Console 6.0.01

Total Extensions: 23

Cool extensions are TAB MIX PLUS (which sorts out opening new tabs and things), SMILEY EXTRA (which allows you to insert icons and graphic smilies from an online database) and UPDATE BOOKMARK (which allows you to update directly the URL of a selected bookmark by the current page).

The later was important because that was how I read web comics - I'll load the last page I've bookmarked, read one or more pages, and then update that bookmark with the current page. It means the next time I use that bookmark, I'll return to where I left off. Simple things, but they make the difference.

Also, Firefox has a built-in password manager. No more Roboform!

Comments

[faffinoodle.livejournal.com]

I didn't know people still used IE... I thought it was firefox all the way! I've been using it for ages now, I could never go back :/
IE was/is full of bugs.

IE Usage

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

According to the graph below, FF has a long way to go...

[zelieq.livejournal.com]

ie7 will be a big nail in the coffin of ie. i use it sometimes for a few things firefox screws up (there aren't many of them), and it is a fucking dog worthy of attention from no man.

i am also giving up on the idea of local mail clients. gmail has gotten to the point of usefulness, stability and versatility that makes any imap or pop based email system look a little clumsy, and since i migrate between three separate computers, using a client to read mail seems in itself clumsy. gmail also never dissapears like hotmail or yahoo mail. i have had some email sitting in my gmail since 2004 - and only "archived" it today, and because i wanted to, not because i was told to. yay.

IE7

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

IE7 is something I don't plan to play with. If I need to test a web page I'll use IE 6.

Ihave a GMail account but never use it. Then again, I use my home PC mostly, and rarely any other.