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Firefox & thunderbird
donut - 18/3/06 at 09:28 PM

I have seen that quite a few people have dumped IE in favour for Firefox, why is this? Is it any good compared to IE?

Also has anyone tried or is using thunderbird email? If so is it any good?

Thanx

[Edited on 18/3/06 by donut]


dmottaway - 18/3/06 at 09:41 PM

good point about it is that the bad guys haven't written much evil for it yet.


donut - 18/3/06 at 09:49 PM

Well i ask because i'll be getting a mac soon and from previous experience i don't care much for Safari unless thay have made it better. I'll be keeping my PC but using the Mac for web browsing, email, music and general arsing about!


donut - 18/3/06 at 10:06 PM

Right.... i have just downloaded Firefox 1.5 and i must say it's bloody fast!! I'm most impressed so far!!


ReMan - 18/3/06 at 10:22 PM

I've been using Thunderbird for a while now.
I like it because it looks and feels like Outlook express and works fine as far as I can see.
It was the easiest way for meto keep two mail systems seperate.
Col

And yes I will join soon!

[Edited on 18/3/06 by ReMan]


Humbug - 18/3/06 at 10:32 PM

I've been using Avant Browser (tabbed, etc.) for some time now. I tried Firefox but stopped using it because it wasn't quite as familiar to use... nothing wrong, just not so familiar.

http://www.avantbrowser.com/

Tried Thunderbird as well - seems OK, and it's nice to know there are products other than Microsoft that do the job as well as or better .

Bought a new cheap laptop at Christmas, and installed Open Office, which is nice and Locost (i.e. free!) and included Microsoft Office compatible equivalents of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.

http://www.openoffice.org/


craig1410 - 18/3/06 at 10:38 PM

I've been using Firefox and Thunderbird since they first came out and I wouldn't go back to using IE and Outlook now. There are loads of features which I like about Firefox such as tabbed browsing and there are hundreds of extensions that you can add with the click of a button to add functionality you want (not just what Microsoft think you want...)

Firefox is much safer than IE from a security standpoint and Mozilla release bug fixes and security updates much more promptly and openly than Microsoft. Thunderbird is also safer than Outlook for similar reasons.

Definitely worth a try out and then you can make up your own mind.

Cheers,
Craig.


donut - 18/3/06 at 11:12 PM

Humbug

Does open office let you open exel and word documents and save them with the same microsoft extensions? Can you create a new document / spreadsheet and save as .doc or .xls ?


Gav - 18/3/06 at 11:24 PM

yep OpenOffice can open/save as MS office docs and a whole lot more.


donut - 18/3/06 at 11:31 PM

I'm downloading it now!!!!


donut - 18/3/06 at 11:56 PM

Well i must say i'm well impressed with OpenOffice.org. It all looks anf feels like office but for free!!! Excellent!!!!

Cheers Humbug


Gav - 19/3/06 at 09:13 AM

Also probably worth mentioning is the Camino which iirc is basically firefox for the mac.


donut - 19/3/06 at 09:18 AM

Firefox is available for the Mac as is Thunderbird but i'll have a look at Camino, cheers


britishtrident - 19/3/06 at 09:38 AM

Under the hood the curent Mac OS is really Linux

With Thunderbird take time to explore the Junk mail filter it is very effective once you start using it.

Firefox is simply the best thing around.

Re Avant its actually the MS Internet Explorer engine that drives it -- hence why it is easy for MS users to get to know it -- but the downside that opens it to any new IE security loop holes.


Open Office can handle any just about any document format but it has a major problen in that it runs on Java so is very slow to load.
The way round this is to keep it running close the document but don't shut down Open Office.

MS discontinued Internet Explorer for the Mac in January this year but it should still be possible to find it on the net.


Gav - 19/3/06 at 09:38 AM

ah right, i was reading the camino bumf on the mozilla site and assumed that Firefox wasnt available for mac


donut - 19/3/06 at 10:23 AM

Gav

I think you have to go to the downloads page where it's listed as one of the options along with loads of differnt languages.


Deckman001 - 19/3/06 at 11:03 AM

So reading the posts on this subject, can I download Firefox to use on me pc, and use it to run a different e-mail set up to outlook express ?????

Jason


Taz Surfleet - 19/3/06 at 12:47 PM

"Firefox is much safer than IE from a security standpoint and Mozilla release bug fixes and security updates much more promptly and openly than Microsoft. Thunderbird is also safer than Outlook for similar reasons. "
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------
give it time as firefox and linux etc become more popular the sooner the hackers will turn there attention to it, its already starting


ReMan - 19/3/06 at 03:01 PM

Yes.
You don't actually need the full Firefox outfit you can get Thunderbird on its own.
And then use it instead of, or as well as, your current email client (outlook or whatever).
You can also run Firefox and IE together.....

quote:
Originally posted by Deckman001
So reading the posts on this subject, can I download Firefox to use on me pc, and use it to run a different e-mail set up to outlook express ?????

Jason


[Edited on 19/3/06 by ReMan]


craig1410 - 19/3/06 at 03:11 PM

quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident

Open Office can handle any just about any document format but it has a major problen in that it runs on Java so is very slow to load.



A common misconception, OpenOffice is written in C++ actually. It is a bit slow to load initially but subsequent loads are much faster and by default it will pre-load parts of itself at boot time to speed up loading times. Put this in perspective by asking if it really matters if you have to wait a few seconds for an application to load when, say, you are about to write a letter which might take 5-10 minutes to write?

On the subject of Java, OpenOffice can use Java (not essential) to provide some additional functionality. This functionality is detailed

here.

I use OpenOffice all the time and I have even managed to convert my wife from MS Office to OpenOffice with a minimum of fuss and she is regularly sharing documents with MS Office users with no problems. PC Pro magazine recommend OpenOffice in their A-List as a consumer office suite.

Cheers,
Craig.


britishtrident - 19/3/06 at 04:02 PM

Open Office just won't run without Java -

Only advantage of open office is it is almost a full office suite that will load almost anything --- However when installing Linux it is usually the first thing I strip out and load Abiword and K Offiice which are much better for evertday tasks.


craig1410 - 19/3/06 at 04:16 PM

quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
Open Office just won't run without Java -



Oh yes it will... :p

See here