Wow. I'm actually quite surprised by the results. Of course, it could be somewhat stilted by the fact that someone who thinks "You mean there are other browsers? I just click on the big E..." probably doesn't take the time to vote in my little poll.
Either way.... Firefox is beating up on IE pretty bad so far in the results.
As long as I'm moving forward - any comments re: Firefox vs. IE7?
Let me preface this by saying that I have not actually bothered to
try IE7. However, I have read about it extensively, checked out all of Paul Thurrott's reviews and previews, and generally just paid attention. I guess my point is... There's a
reason I haven't bothered to actually try it out. Why bother? It really doesn't seem to bring anything new to the table. It seems to be, to me, very much of a "me too" release. Sure, there's an extra or feature thrown in here or there, but certainly nothing that changes your browsing experience like Tabs do (yes, I know they're doing tabs finally, but that's a me too).
Firefox is small, more secure, and already contains all of those much touted IE7 features. It's free. I don't have to worry about Microsoft installing any craptastic "I'm going to check your license constantly and report it back to HQ and break your computer if I think you might not be legit for a second" WGA spyware on my machine. It's quite extensible (I would find it hard to live now without Adblock Plus and the Filterset G updater). And, frankly, it's open source. They've, to me, proved that, while they are certainly not immune to serious security problems, they: 1) admit to them readily rather than lying and hiding it, and 2) they fix them more quickly than Microsoft does.
But, really, the main "feature" that drew me towards Firefox in the first place is it's cross platform compatibility. I can use the same Profile and Bookmarks file (I have my bookmarks file on a network share so it's actually the same exact file) for my many Windows boxes, as well as my Linux machine, and my Macs. And even more importantly, they all work basically exactly the same, so it's a familiar, easy environment. Heck, if you want,
there's even ways to install Firefox onto a USB flash drive and carry it around with you. At the coffee shop in Brazil and want to use your own bookmarks and browser with your extensions? Cool, just plug in the USB drive and go...