Browsing with Firefox 4 RC2 - a mini review

Mozilla Firefox 4 RC 2

It seems decades, since my last blog. It is due to some things that I have been busy with that I forgot about this. It's great that Google still have my account even with the long absence, unlike the other I used to post to. 

Many educators are still using Internet Explorer 6 for their daily net life. We usually use what is readily available and learning something new that is not our forte is never pleasing to our ears. Most of us do not even know what is an Operating System and what we see when we load our computer is what all computers are. We are used with Windows XP and we think all computers behaves like it. Yes, there are many out there, but this is not my subject this time.

We are used with clicking the e icon in our desktop that states Internet Explorer and we will surely look for that always. Internet Explorer 6 with its time but no longer the case today. There are numerous better alternatives. Not just more secure since they are regularly updated, but also faster, more customizable, more stable, etc. Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Apple Safari are some of the few alternatives. I tried Mozilla Firefox before it was even called Firefox. [I usually try every other browser once it reaches the beta status. And I had been looking mainly at Chrome and Firefox these last few months.]

Yes, Google is fast, that's what everyone say it is. But does it work on most of our work related things? In my own experience, it won't. All the problems with the Internet Settings of Internet Explorer is there with Chrome. They use the same thing by the way. A few tailored sites also refuse to open and eats a considerably large amount of memory when you have five or more tabs. The more tabs you open, the more the memory sky rockets. This is also true with Internet Explorer 9 (yes even the latest) and Safari. Opera also goes up but not much. Firefox on the other hand will not, it may go up but its very good in maxing out things for it to remain responsive.

If you have been using Firefox 3.6, the fourth version is really a version jump incorporating so many things that makes your browsing snappier and better. It includes a revamped theme that may confuse some users, but after a few minutes, you will get used to it and you will realize the benefits. But most of all, all the things you loved about Firefox are still there. If you are confused and miss the menu bar, just press Alt on your keyboard and you will see the classic menu bar with each of the options are placed to what you used to.

Firefox 4 also includes boosted start-up and hardware acceleration. It may be slower, when compared to the competition, according to some benchmarks in this aspect but you are sure it's the truth not some other companies that are cheating their results.

Finally and yes I managed to successfully installed and run it on Windows 2000. Internet Explorer 9 only works with Vista and Seven. Latest Chrome also only supports XP and above.

You may read more of the the comparison of the browsers here, although it's in Italian.

Mozilla Firefox RC2 can be downloaded here.