Firefox versus Internet Explorer.

Firefox versus Internet Explorer

I use Firefox and Internet Explorer browser about 50-50 i.e. I use Firefox about 50% of the time and Explorer about 50% of the time. Why? Because they both only work how they are supposed to about 50% of the time. In order to get a 100% operational browser I need to use two browsers!

Right now neither browser seems to be able to handle flash video properly despite having run it with no trouble in the past. I'm constantly subjected to jerky video and/or video that stops downloading half way through and refuses to continue. You might say it's the flash plug in that is the problem but I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling flash with little luck.

Whilst flash is my biggest problem Explorer is currently playing up by gradually grinding my whole system to a halt. It seems to eat up RAM until finally the system reports that there isn't enough memory to '...run the application' despite the only application running being Explorer. Add to this that every time, without fail, closing down Explorer results in that stupid 'Explorer as encountered an error and must close' box popping up (stupid really when I'm already closing the browser) and asking if I'd like to send one of those 'talk to the hand' error reports to MicroSoft.

I have the latest release of Firefox running (2.0 at this time) and it doesn't work with the Yahoo toolbar. Yahoo's toolbar is something I use extensively. Whilst the fault is really with Yahoo for being slow to upgrade their plug in I don't see why those people creating Firefox couldn't make their browser more backwardly compatible? Backward compatibility is the spirit of the web. For web coders like me we're always told to design web pages so that they are still viewable by people still supporting older browsers.

So whilst we're talking about Firefox I also wanted to address the so called 'higher security' that Firefox supposedly offers over Explorer. It doesn't. Firefox is the kind of browser that allows anyone to write plug ins/extensions for it. In fact I believe the entire browser is an open source project. This means that anyone can write destructive code for it with assistance from being able to see how the source code works. Much easier than writing malicious code for Explorer which isn't open source at all.

The only reason why Firefox is more secure would be a matter of statistics...more people use explorer therefore it is more likely to come under attack by malicious coders. Perhaps fewer people write malicious code for Firefox simply because there is no challenge in it?

Okay, so I'm not going to continue this rant by listing all my don't likes with each browser (such as: I hate how Firefox handles file downloads). However in the time I've been writing this article I've been waiting for Firefox to start downloading a flash video. It hasn't even started yet. Looks like I'm going to have to head over to Explorer to see if I'll have any better luck there.

Firefox versus Explorer. No contest. They both suck. (And don't think I haven't looked at Opera with your lack of plug in support).

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