Upgrading Internet Explorer

I have been a culprit for backing IE5.
I love it, but I would like to upgrade to a newer version of Internet Explorer.

So do I upgrade to IE8, or Google chrome?
Is one better than another, are they both Internet Explorer?

I am using Windows XP X-32

I do not want anything flashy, just something with a clean simple interface which uses no memory, and has good protection.

K-TRON

 

I suggest IE 8. It is better than any previous IE 'protection' wise, and has a clean simple interface which uses small amount of memory. It might have a small website incompatibilities right now, but chrome probably has the same problem too. I'm sure it will be ironed out soon. MS seems to be working hard on that with updates.

 

Why not Firefox? The interface is very clean and simple and I find it very easy to use.

 

Chris, I know you don't like Foxes, and that's why you don't wanna use FF, but you gotta get over it! FF is great.

If you have time, you should give every browser a quick try. Opera, Chrome, IE8, and Firefox are all great browsers.

 

The compatiblity issues in IE8 can be solved by using the compatibility mode in IE8.

 

I'd say go for Firefox. Tried Chrome, liked the idea, didn't like the ads (and its not like that's going to change, seeing how Google makes most of its revenue this way).

 

IE8 or Firefox 3.5. Firefox is all of the above except its memory hungry. IE8 might suit your style better though.

 

firefox takes longer to load then IE on my system.

I would stick with IE.

 

If you like huge customization - Firefox
If you like pure speed - Chrome
If you like something with a nice interface, and good protection - Internet Explorer 8

 

FF can have a nice interface and better protection with no script...

 

agreed..

 

Hey Chris, I think I have an analogy for you! Just think of Firefox as an engine that you can build yourself. Very customizable to fit anyones needs.

I have a question for everyone though. I only ever hear one drawback to Firefox. It pertains to FF using a little more memory in general than other browsers (with add-ons normally). But with most people having 3-4 GB of memory, does this really matter? Even when I had 2 gigs, I never noticed this mattering...at all.

 

That argument never worked for Vista, why would it for a browser?

 

the ram issue is mostly a non-issue.

one issue firefox has, is a slow first boot after starting the os. espencially with plugins.

but this got solved in the best way in my case: by buying an ssd. now everything boots instantly, including firefox

 

Yeah, this is my biggest gripe with FF. I know that having an SSD will most likely solve this, but with Mozilla's audience being mostly HDD users (for now), I think they definitely need to improve. I shouldn't have to replace a perfectly good HDD just to get FF to perform the way it should.

 

your first problem:

"a perfectly good HDD".. they are not perfectly good, they are slow crap

but i know what you mean and fully agree.

on my "perfectly good" 4200rpm 1.8" 100gb ide hdd, firefox took 1 min to boot directly after starting up vista.. not fun. after getting the mtron ssd, it took around 2 sec.. now with the intel ssd, <1sec..

while i hope the firefox developers fix this for everyone (they can steal a bit from chrome for that ), i'm glad i found the fix for me (that fixed everything that ever annoyed me about pc's).


so i highly suggest you to get an ssd, too

 

Meh, once you start it the first time, it's fast to load. No biggie. If that's its biggest flaw now...cool.

 

Because it's true?

 

I agree with that ^^.

I like my browser to open fast.
FF is noticibly slow to open. I have 4gb ram and an overclocked FSB.
ram @ 800mhz CPU @2.4ghz.

I don't want to buy a SSD yet

 

why not? you can get back to 2gb ram, turn off the overclocking, and get your system down to the slowest possible state, and it would still be much faster..



i find k-tron funny. builds the most powerful and complex own-made laptop systems ever, but still sticks with xp and ie5.. that is strange..

 

For me, the fatal flaw with Fire Fox is that I need larger fonts and images on my screen, and IE8 is the ONLY one that I know of that not only provides an adjustable Zoom, but allows that Zoom setting to remain on all pages of websites, unless and until you change it!!! All of the others browsers allow you to set the Zoom, but then you have to re-set it every single time you go to every single new page. That's insanely crazy and waaaaay too much effort. So IE8 is the only one for me!

 

firefox stores the zoom per page, so you only have to adjust it once per domain (maybe once per subdomain, i'm unsure).

and it should be globally settable but i never needed it, so i don't know. but zoomed pages stay zoomed (and zoom much better than ie8 so far).

 

wow thanks for your suggestions.
I actually have and use Firefox 3.0.13 - I thought that was the most recent until someone pointed out to me that 3.5.2 is out.

I actually made this thread because I like using both. I wanted to upgrade the IE side, so that I have two updated browsers.

I have not experimented much with firefox in regards to changing templates and whatnot, cause I do not know how.
Thanks Amy, for your analogy, it would be like customizing an engine

Yes Dave, I am a bit out there, using fast stuff with old software.
A friend of mine told me to open my mind, so here I am trying to upgrade the internet explorer side of me. It seems like IE8 is the consensus.

Thankfully there are no updates to Netscape Navigator. Version 4 is the best - so I stick with that when I want to go old school searching. Too bad their is no flash support

K-TRON

 

Oh I will be upgrading to Win7 and an Intel G2 SSD not soon enough. I'm waiting for my University to support Win7, and for Dell to get all their drivers up.

 

To K-TRON:

Just enable automatic updates in all your apps and experience the rush of downloads

you should explore the addons on firefox (tools -> addons).. it's like what you do with your hw: mess around, mess up, have fun, explore, tweak, etc.. till it fits your special needs.

and if you have a free licence for vista (likely) or win7 (unlikely), just try one of those os'.

catching up is quite fun. a lot of people around me got stuck one time or another.. then playing catch up with them made them experience a whole new way of using pcs, much more easy, much less hazzle.. it's fun.



to Matt:
oh i wish you fun. you will have it, for sure

 

IE8 can have the same protection with addons similar to no script, flash block, and adblock.

 

implemented in active x (btw, i know myself that this is not an oximoron, as active x by itself is not that much of a problem.. especially not anymore)

still, it's much EASIER to extend firefox due to the addon integration, sort of the "app store" for firefox addons.

and you have much MORE choices than in IE. i don't want my buttons on the top right because that makes no sense? can i move them to the topleft where the rest of the menu would be?

you know the answer..

ie is fine, but lacks tons of flexibility compared to firefox. you don't like firefox, fine. but still acknowledge that it's more flexible and simpler to extend out of the box.

 

I never said it couldn't...??? I was obviously refuting the point that IE8 was the most secure.

Chris, Im glad you liked my analogy, because I was really unsure about that. I figured engines are so complicated, they must be customizable!

Have fun!

 

I would be pretty worried to use such an old version of IE. Keeping up with new software is more than getting new features, it also means that many holes are fixed. Which in turn leads to better security for you.

 

I have to agree on this.
You should have upgraded your browser a long time ago. Upgrading your browser is really important according to my opinion. If you upgrade your browser after every new release you will be a little bit safer. I would suggest you to choose FireFox over IE8. Just give FireFox some time and you will love it after a few days. I didn't like it at first either. Today I have never used a different browser for three years.

 

The "drawback" for Firefox for me is that Opera has a lot of features built-in that, if I were to use Firefox, I would have to find add-ons for (if indeed equivalent add-ons exist), and they may be lower quality.

Memory isn't usually an issue these days. I noticed it at times with 512 MB of RAM in 2007, but nowadays the only time I notice it is when I have multiple virtual machines running, which isn't ideal anyway.

Starting with IE7, the font displays a bit differently. I'm not sure if it's ClearType turned on or what, but I find I prefer IE6's font rendering (and indeed, almost any other browser) to that of IE7/8. Partially for that reason I've used IE6 a decent amount in 2009, although I currently have IE8 (and almost never use it).

There is a Netscape Navigator 9, based on Firefox 2. I actually like its interface a bit better than the default Firefox 2 one. But I have to disagree with you on Netscape Navigator 4. I used 4.78 a bit on a Solaris system this summer, and it was a pretty dismal browsing experience. Lack of support for all kinds of modern Web phenomenon, mostly. It was better than IE2, at least.

Firefox now has 3.0.14 out as well, if you prefer FF3 to FF3.5.

 

Out of all the major browsers out there, Chrome is best suited for your needs. It has the cleanest interface and by far the best security of them all.

 

Hey Bog, how does Chrome have the best security? I'm just curious, Chrome is my second favorite browser.

 

It uses sandboxing, a security technology that IE8 also uses; basically it limits any access that a malicious exploit or script could do to the rest of the system if the browser is circumvented. Given that all browsers have exploits, it's pretty significant that Chrome and IE8 at least have measures in place to limit any damage done to the system.

Another thing that Chrome has going for it is the way it manages tabs by splitting them into separate processes; with such a set up, a crash caused by one tab doesn't take down the entire browser (as is the case with FF). This design decision uses slightly more memory, but Chrome doesn't exactly consume too much RAM to begin with.

 

That sounds really cool. Im currently assessing whether or not I need my addons. Im already using the Chrome theme for FF...your making me wanna switch Bog!

 

Ha, I'll be a Google spokesperson by the end of the week!

 

You can install sandboxie to use with firefox and other programs. Safe surfing

 

I'm pretty sure that sandboxing is on the Firefox 4.0 development plan.

 

You guys are all fighting over this
I think I will try IE8 for a while, and see how I like it. If not, I will keep IE5, and just migrate more to Firefox.
I just upgraded to 3.5.2, so I am up to date on the firefox side. I will try changing modifying my firefox experience and stuff for you Amy

K-TRON

 

Just install both. Its convenient to have 2 browsers.

 

Per Bog's recommendation of Chrome, I just installed it. It's speed is very impressive.

 

install ie8 anyways, yes. it's the most up to date internet explorer on your system, so you have one less terrible attack target, a.k.a. ie5.

you won't lose anything by updating your software, au contraire.. espencially with your highperforming systems (except for the lack of ssd you still have ).

update it, even if you don't use it.

 

I forcefully installed IE8,
Apparently google just had to kill google video and maps support for IE5,
I updated to IE6, and google says they are phasing IE6 out, so here I am IE8
Well not really since I do NBR solely on firefox. But I am updated

K-TRON

 

I am not sure that I like IE8 much, it seems very weird

Microsoft must have changed the text type, because it looks larger and a different font than used in IE5 and IE6
Also, those who think IE8 is fast, you have got to be kidding me. IE5 is like 2 x as fast. I really do not understand why these stupid software people have to phase out IE5, it is way more efficient than IE8

Ugh, it almost makes me dislike IE
Maybe I should try chrome, when I get the chance

K-TRON

 

Chrome is very good also Chris. Definitely my second favorite behind Firefox.

 

Angelic, you know about this stuff,
I shut the tabs off, cause I dislike tabs in IE,
IE8 looks weird. The soft pastel colors bother me, any way to make them look more classic, like darker colors?

K-TRON

 

I'm not sure offhand Chris. I have only used IE8 a couple times, mostly for Windows Updates. Jack would know.

 

I just upgraded my IE to IE8.

It is the worst IE ever.

IE7 was good. IE8 is slow, and looks bad. also NBR isn't compatible is it?
Because I have to put IE8 in compatability mode otherwise when I try typing, the text is very slow to respond to what I typed.


@K-TRON, try IE7

 

http://skins.funutilities.com/
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/applications/ieskin.aspx
http://www.ehow.com/how_2033244_download-install-internet.html
You can also make your own theme.

Also, all the buttons, colours, icons can be changed to anything you like just like firefox. It just takes a little bit more work because IE is more closed source compared to Firefox.

 

IE8 looks almost exactly the same as IE7, isn't it. Also, there's the "compatibility" button for site which aren't compatible with IE8. You can tell IE8 to remember which sites requires the compability mode. IE8 now comforms to the HTML standards while IE7 is a little bit different.

For me, browser compatibility and speed is the most important to me. Flash support in IE8 is light years ahead compared to flash support in FF. E.g. I can play 720P flash hd video in IE8 on vimeo.com while i can only get 5FPS in FF. There's a huge difference in general browsing speed as well. Overall, due to my browsing habbits, IE8 seems to be the fastest browser, even a little bit faster than chrome for me. That's why I use it as my main browser.