IE8 vs Firefox 3.5: The browser wars continue

Infoworld.com ^ | April 29, 2009 | J. Peter Bruzzese

[CedarDave]

Features in Internet Explorer and Firefox run neck and neck. Will a victor emerge? It may come down to convenience.

Every day I sit at my computer and open two browsers: Firefox and Internet Explorer (first 6, then 7 and, as of late, 8). ... Firefox opens my Yahoo and Gmail mail accounts. Internet Explorer is aimed at my banking and stock trading accounts. ...

... I made up my mind to drop Firefox altogether. [Then] Yesterday morning, I found out that Firefox released the 3.5 beta (4), and many features are the same as in IE8.

IE8 has a feature called InPrivate Browsing, which prevents IE from storing data about your browsing sessions, including cookies, temporary Internet files, history, and other data. ... Firefox 3 has Private Browsing, which provides the same functionality and does not retain visited pages, form and search bar entries, passwords, cookies, temporary or cached Internet files, and so forth.

They both offer at least one superscary privacy-invasion tool. In the case of IE8, it is called Suggested Sites, where your browsing history is sent to Microsoft to compare to related Web sites ... This feature is something that many (most) people are not pleased about. Microsoft said it will not store this information, but at the same time, Windows Help and Support information says that even items deleted from your browsing History "will be retained by Microsoft for a period of time to help improve our products and services." In Firefox, there is Location Aware Browsing (aka geolocation), where Firefox takes your IP address, information about nearby wireless access points, and a temporary cookie-like identifier and passes that off to Google ... so that searching in Google retrieves results that relate to your current location. ... That's something else I opt out of.

[CedarDave]

This feature is something that many (most) people are not pleased about.
No doubt.

Lengthy article comparing features. What he does not mention is whether IE-8 has the flexibility to customize the browser with individualized add-ons. If it doesn't then Firefox still has the advantage, IMO.

Microsoft sent me an update this a.m. that included IE-8. I unchecked the download for that browser and checked the box saying "don't remind me again."

[CedarDave]

For your PING list.

[agere_contra]

I will never go back to IE.

[brytlea]

I’m not a very sophisticated consumer, but I like Firefox and Thunderbird. They work for me, I can’t think of any new features I want. OK, maybe one where I could just think of what I wanted to search and the computer would do it, no typing required! ;)

[exist]

IE sucks.

[TomGuy]

I tried IE 7. Didn’t like it at all. Reverted back to IE6 because it is the basis for my tabbed browser I use for FR.

And, I have several add-on tools that are no longer available for IE 7.

I also use Firefox 3 for general browsing because it has some neat add-ons.

I doubt I will even try IE 8. I tried Google Chome a few days ago and didn’t like it at all.

[DonaldC]

Many organizations have not gone to IE7 yet and they are pushing IE8? Is IE7 the vista of browsers? hehe

[Psycho_Bunny]

Since IE7 was introduced, Firefox has been the superior browser, by far.

Some would argue that Firefox was superior to IE6 but there were features in IE6 that Ff couldn't compete with.

When IE7 was introduced, MS removed those features and now, IE8 is yet another step backward.

My current favorite feature of IE8 is its complete inability to parse XML files produced with Office 2007....I mean.....seriously? Who the hell was the moron at MS that didn't see that?

[exist]

ie6- is a whole other level of suckyness.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I unchecked the download for that browser and checked the box saying "don't remind me again."

S.O.P. for IE8 updates. May a pox be on it.

[JackOfVA]

I’ve used Firefox since version 2, along with Thunderbird E-mail and like them both much more than Microsoft’s offerings.

Something has been happening with Firefox that has me puzzled however. It devours memory. I launched it this morning at 0600 and it’s now reading 744 megabytes memory usage. I have to close it and relaunch several times a day as when it reaches 1 GB or more, everything else slows down.

I suspect it’s a plug in, not Firefox, but I have yet to discover which plug in it is.

Jack

[ShadowAce]

[pallis]

I’m using Sea Monkey, the updated version of Netscape. I don’t have a clue what it will manage or not manage, but I like it.

[aft_lizard]

Maybe against IE 8 FF is the superior browser by far but you have to be kidding me that FireFox, a browser I use extensivly, being by far superior. In fact it’s the most buggiest, crash ready, memory leaking, web page mis-rendering browser I use. IE7 just happens to be slower than FF in most tasks but as far as widespread support and memory usage IE7 owns FireFox 3.0.1 and lower.

[CedarDave]

Related article:

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 now available

[DonaldC]

I have had the crash issues you describe with IE7, although it has gotten better since its initial release.

[antiRepublicrat]

Microsoft keeps trying, but the question is still whether Firefox or Chrome is best, or Safari if you’re on a Mac.

[Mind Freed]

I downloaded Fire Fox about two years ago and have stuck with it ever since. IE doesn’t compare. IMO.

[Blogger]

for later

[CedarDave]

Something has been happening with Firefox that has me puzzled however. It devours memory.

It's always done that. Supposed to be better now, but there still are reports like yours.