IE 7 or Firefox 2 ?

I am sure, you must be aware about the latest releases of both the browsers by now. Here is my take on both the browsers…

I use both IE and Firefox for surfing. Using IE is a mandate (kind of) in the office as every intranet site is designed and tested with IE in mind. There is no room for Firefox in the company yet and I don’t imagine it making a place on my company systems any sooner. For the sake of my interest, I still have Firefox installed on my laptop and use it for surfing Internet websites at least. Yes, two browsers on my system, one for Internet and another for intranet.

I noticed the following immediately after updating Firefox browser to 2.0:

» The look and feel was almost same as was in the older version but was a little better to look at.

» Every tab has a close button on its top right. This causes some accidental closure when I click left ‘n’ right to navigate and click the close button instead clicking the tab area. I don’t complain though.

» Somehow I end up believing that Firefox 2.0 is much more stable than the earlier releases of Firefox and this is because it hasn’t crashed even once since I installed it on the day it was released. I also see that the memory usage is not high (in task manager) when compared to earlier versions. [Updated 13th Nov'06] The Firefox crashed while I was filling up a form on a website and upon restarting, it came up with restore sessions option and it opened all those websites in tabs which I was browsing before it crashed. Earlier I had told that Firefox was not consuming much memory, but it’s not the case. On opening 3-4 tabs, the usage goes as high as 90Megs. The Internet Explorer 7 on the other hand stays under 60Megs even after opening 5-6 tabs. Also, IE opens much faster than Firefox.

» While filling a comment on a website I noticed that words that were misspelled were showing up with a red underline. It’s the spell checking which is now built in the browser itself.

» Post installation, Firefox 2.0 automatically checks for an update for all of your extensions and advises on availability of their updates. In case an update is not available, the extension is disabled and Firefox will automatically check for any update for your extensions.

» All the external links which used to open in new windows, now, by default, open in new tabs. I like this feature because it saves my task bar space.

» If Firefox 2.0 crashes, it will restore all your closed windows and tabs. Supposedly, it should also restore the text in the form (if you were filling one when it crashed). I have not had an opportunity to test this out yet for a simple reason; it has not crashed on me yet.

» Phishing Protection is now built in. Firefox 2.0 will warn you about sites that might steal your data. It uses third party services (such as Google) to identify the phishing sites though.

Overall a very positive experience with Firefox 2.0, and I am loving it!
Ok, I will move onto IE7 now. The IE7 is a major browser upgrade (and release) from Microsoft in last 5 years. I had to upgrade IE6 and here is what I think about IE7.

» The installation was smooth and I personally like the new installation system (I think vista)

» The interface (graphics and colors) has changed. The new IE features tabbed browsing. This was a feature on my wish list since last 2 years.

» Oh No! My website shows up a little weird. The menu system has broken and it has lost its beauty. Hang on lemme check couple of other sites as well. Ok, I get it now. IE 7 is shrinking the font size by itself and I think for better printing or display. Now it tells me that my CSS was not paid any attention?

» There is a new instant search box (similar to Firefox) on top right and the list has most popular search engine names. This is the first time I see names other than Microsoft on it’s own browser.

» Ok, the phishing detection is now built in the browser itself. There are also some major security improvements (as claimed by Microsoft website) in this release.

To download latest release of Firefox - Visit - http://www.getfirefox.com or

To download latest release of IE7 - Visit - http://www.microsoft.com/ie

Conclusion: Even if you like IE6 or Firefox 1.5 (or older releases), I recommend that you upgrade your browsers (both IE and Firefox) to the latest releases.