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April 29, 2009

IE8 vs Firefox 3.5: The browser wars continue

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

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Every day I sit at my computer and open two browsers: Firefox and Internet Explorer (first 6, then 7 and, as of late, 8). "Why do I do that?" I've often asked myself. It's been going on for years. I maintain two separate "browser lives," in a sense. Firefox opens my Yahoo and Gmail mail accounts. Internet Explorer is aimed at my banking and stock trading accounts. I have news sites as part of the home pages for both browsers. One is CNN (for my serious news) and the other is MSN (more for entertainment tidbits). Yes, I'm living a dual browser life, and I know I'm not alone.

Yesterday, however, I made up my mind to drop Firefox altogether. I wrote a chapter for my upcoming "Windows 7 Spotlight" book on Internet Explorer 8, and I was so impressed by the features that I decided Firefox was history. Yesterday morning, I found out that Firefox released the 3.5 beta (4), and many features are the same as in IE8. And so the personal war rages on.

[ Which browser is more secure? InfoWorld's Roger A. Grimes puts them to the test. ]

Where IE8 and Firefox 3.5 are similar
Let's take a look at some of the features that they each have.

Obviously they both possess a multiple-tab capability. Personally, I like that IE has a tab waiting for you to click to open. Google Chrome has that as well. Firefox now has a little plus sign to allow the same functionality -- a small but important improvement I've been waiting for.

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.  I've used this mode at conferences while on kiosk machines, and it adds to my comfort level, even though I still cannot help but delete browsing history whenever I access a public machine. Likewise, 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.

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tomaddox 29-Apr-09 9:21am
1 reply
One element is missing from this article: the software ecosystem. Firefox has a rich and varied community of developers who have created a panoply of add-ons that dramatically improve the browsing experience. I simply won't browse the Internet without Ad-Block Plus installed, and my work PCs all have NoScript. Other people will have their own preferred add-ons, but ABP and NoScript are the killer apps of the browser world as far as I'm concerned. When I do need IE (Sharepoint being the prime case), I have the IE Tab add-on, which allows me to switch to the IE engine from within Firefox. If I ever have to explicitly launch IE, someone has done something wrong, and I know it's not me.
dschmoldt 29-Apr-09 9:30am
Exactly, Tom. It's the Firefox add-ons such as Ad-Block Plus and IE Tab that make Firefox the front runner. And the ability to set Firefox to use the IE rendering engine for certain poorly-designed sites that require IE means I rarely have to actually launch IE.
EdLanphier 29-Apr-09 9:28am
Peter, Nice review on IE8 v. Firefox. See: http://bit.ly/vJKbW For sysadmins who are deciding between deploying IE8 and Firefox (or who have users who use both), I wanted your readers to be aware that Firefox has a slick version of Accelerators too, it is called “KALLOUT - Accelerators for Firefox” It’s available as a free add-on through Firefox. See: http://bit.ly/vJKbW The accelerators developed for IE8 will actually work directly with KallOut-Accelerators for Firefox so users can stick with Firefox if they want and still get the benefits of the community-developed (or in-house developed) accelerators. EL
timmer 29-Apr-09 9:29am
The other issue in browser acceptance is whether the commercial sites (banking comes to mind) will allow its use. Wells Fargo Bank's CEO site, for example, does not support IE8 and certain portions of it don't accept Firefox and IE7 or earlier have to be used. Personally, I have been using Firefox for a number of years and really, really like it.
cmaurand 29-Apr-09 10:10am
IE8 still uses ActiveX. ActiveX is a huge security hole.
JimFreeman 29-Apr-09 1:20pm
After installing 8, the first website I visited, a business related location, did not work with or without the compatibility button. Fortunately, Microsoft makes returning to IE7 painless, at least under Vista. I understand there can be issues uninstalling under Windows XP, especially if you are an early adopter and have tried the Microsoft beta. I can live without the new features in 8.
shamunda 29-Apr-09 1:58pm
Hmm it's always interesting to see the responses after reading an article. I live on both sides of the world so i need to use both. On one side there's linux which I'm accustomed to using FF because evertyhing else on the linux really isn't up to par. On the other side, there's window's; for which I use IE. One could argue that if I use FF all the way around, that my experience would be the same as well as even, however this is rarely ever the case. I can appreciate the use for the multitude of addins, extension created for FF, and why or how people make use of them. However I equate that behavior to those that also use apple products (not a poke at apple at all), which is to say that you really don't need it, you simply want it. Minimilist indeed i am in Linux; as well as with windows. If I need to do a specific task I like them to be seperated, not bound or dependent on my browser. As far as concerns for active x, it's all smoke and mirrors. I've used some pretty strong av's in my time and i have yet to be exploited from within my browser. This is not an arguement to say IE isn't vulnerable, of course it is, as well as all the other browsers (http://digg.com/apple/Safari_Cracked_in_Seconds_at_Pwn2Own_Hacking_Compe...), IE just has a longer history. Despite what you read or hear, it is possible to create a pretty tight system where-by should you experience a minor intrusion (in terms of popups) etc..etc the removal of those would be met with triviality, not with headaches exploit. And here's another point for the "pro's" if you're having those types of issue with IE it's probably because you're going to sites that have those issues to begin with (warez, porn, etc). Because face it when was the last time you went to an actuall legitimate site and had an issue with IE being exploited? Anyway i digress... Just my way of thinking.
edac2 30-Apr-09 8:55am
IE8 still feels sluggish to me. It took forever to install God knows what. It doesn't support CSS3 features like rounded corners or embedded fonts. Firefox, on the other hand, installs quickly, runs peppy, has tons of available add-ons and themes, is cross-platform and supports the latest web standards without breaking a sweat.
rcprimak 4-May-09 11:22am
debt123 has its Report button disabled. This comment is spam.

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