You know, it took me forever to look into browsing with Firefox. i don't know why. I guess it's the sheer laziness of the human condition, even for a computer geek like me. yes, most of us, if we don't downright hate IE have our gripes from security to speed to not being open source and easy to customize. I really missed tabbed browsing (I tried a few other tabbed browsers over the years, but a lot of them were on an IE shell, so I was never happy), so I decided to motivate and jump on the Firefox bandwagon - finally.
now that i have done so, i feel like a schmoe. Firefox is gaining in browser share (now up to over 20%) on IE, and several of my Generation 80s listeners mentioned the site was not completely tweaked for Firefox. well since i was too engrossed in all my over committed life, i never even bothered to download Firefox and make sure my site was cross browser compliant since, i, "Queenie", wasn't using it. how do you like them rotten apples? well now i know how much my slacker attitude affected others, as now that i am browsing exclusively in Firefox it irks me to no end if a sight isn't cross platform compliant. d'oh! (aAnd, yes, I've since laboriously tweaked my sight for Firefox and IE, among others!)
Anyway, I must say, I can't believe I waited so long to get Firefox. I think the first couple days I didn't quite "get it" and was slow on the uptake, so I didn't realize the many virtues of this browser, save it seemed quicker and it was known for better security against all sorts of malicious attacks on one's computer from the world wide web. Well after I found all the lovely extensions and Greasemonkey to put the finishing tweaks on, all I can say is this thing ROCKS! I love the ability to customize things, and making my browser (which is open 70% of my waking hours) in to a lean, mean, (safe) surfing machine is like having Christmas come early. So if you haven't downloaded Firefox, I think I've made it very simple for you to do so ;). Once you do, you'll be kicking yourself (like me) for not having done it sooner.
Some really helpful Firefox extensions I use are:
- all in one gestures
- foxy tunes
- scrapbook
- forecast fox
- customize Google
- IE View (for the rare time you need to use IE on a site not tweaked for Firefox...)
- Yahoo! mail notifier
- image zoom
- greasemonkey
- bug me not
- resize search box
- tabbed browser preferrences
- download sort (for the Queen of Freeware)
- tab x
- session saver
- img tag
- pdf download
- sage (integrated rss reader)
- colorful tags (more useful than it sounds)
may sound like "overkill", but it's not and I use all these functions routinely. that's not even including the 5 or 6 Greasemonkey scripts i use as well. if you really have no other option at work and must use IE, there is Turnabout for IE, which is similar (but barebones as compared)to Greasemonkey available to make some small mods. i hope, along with others, i've convinced you to stop the procrastination, drop the chalupa and go download the best browser since sliced bread. one you get it, love it, SPREAD THE WORD!
java jane
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