Firefox vs Mozilla; why is FF more popular?

[videobruce]

I did a search, but I didn't see any discussion on this. I know FF is a striped down Mozilla w/o the e-mail client (among other things).
I compared the size of each program (unpacked each to a separate folder) and to my surprise FF was 3 MB larger. 18MB vs 15MB for Mozilla.

What's the attraction to FF over the more complete Mozilla?

[Gizmo]

Better press?

[skool h8r]

it's newer and probably has newer standards in terms of processing. I'll have a better look when i get chance.

[Gizmo]

Originally Posted by videobruce

I compared the size of each program (unpacked each to a separate folder) and to my surprise FF was 3 MB larger. 18MB vs 15MB for Mozilla.

????

Only the Mac OS X version of Mozilla is 15 MiB; the Windows version is 11 MiB. The largest FireFox version is for Mac OS X and is 9.6 MiB, making the largest FF version still 1.5 MiB smaller than the smallest Mozilla version, according to the Mozilla.org download page. And the Windows version of FF is about 1/2 the size of Mozilla, coming in at about 5 MiB for FF vs. 11 MiB for Mozilla.

Now, if you want to compare FF and Thunderbird separately against the Mozilla Suite, FF and Thunderbird will, I expect, be somewhat larger for the same functionality. That is to be expected, I think, because Mozilla is an integrated package, where FF and Thunderbird are separate apps. Although they share the same code base, AIUI, there is going to code duplication in the FF/Thunderbird combination with regards to the User Interface and possibly some internal management stuff, which can be eliminated by having an integrated package like Mozilla.

[videobruce]

See for yourself. Go to install both full downloads but stop when the first dialog box appears. Then go to the folder buried within the documents & settings folder and copy/paste those unpacked files into another folder elsewhere and click on that folders properties.

[Pitch]

I prefer Opera in all honesty.

[skool h8r]

I'm still on MSIE myself, just because i only want to browse the web without all the bells and whistles.

[Got EpOx]

I've been using Firefox for well over 2 years now, it's a great alternative to IE.

[Daniel ~]

Because I hate Bill.

[fantomfreq]

Originally Posted by gizmo

Better press?

I do believe you're right, sir. How many people do you think are using Firefox today that had never heard of Mozilla a year ago?

Firefox seems to have a large stake in word of mouth advertisement. People use things that other people tell them are good, even if they wouldn't use them otherwise.

Personally, I use Safari.

[dsio]

Originally Posted by Pitch

I prefer Opera in all honesty.

Opera for life.

A download manager that gives you actual information, information regarding how big the page you are loading is (in KB or MB), and a real time progress bar on loading a page, that gives how far you are along, and the current rate you are loading the page at, to a decimal place.

All the tabs you had open when you last closed Opera, open to exactly where you were the next time you open it.

Fast, secure, practical.

The full screen mode <IS> actually full screen, not a cut down thing like FF/IE does.

Completely customisable, and more stable.

Then theres the fact that Opera is on far more platforms than FF will ever be.

I have no idea why it isn't getting a better share than FF.

[noob]

Originally Posted by dsio

Opera for life.

A download manager that gives you actual information, information regarding how big the page you are loading is (in KB or MB), and a real time progress bar on loading a page, that gives how far you are along, and the current rate you are loading the page at, to a decimal place.

All the tabs you had open when you last closed Opera, open to exactly where you were the next time you open it.

Fast, secure, practical.

The full screen mode <IS> actually full screen, not a cut down thing like FF/IE does.

Completely customisable, and more stable.

Then theres the fact that Opera is on far more platforms than FF will ever be.

I have no idea why it isn't getting a better share than FF.

Mainly due to advertising. Opera also used to cost money to get the version without the adds, IE and FF are free. Also there is the case of advertising, FF is advertised by people, and the web, not many advertise Opera. I didn't really even explore the possibilities, until I heard Opera were giving out Free keys for 1 day, and got one for myself. Now I am almost solely an Opera user, and would reccommend it to anyone above and over FF or IE.

[skool h8r]

Originally Posted by noob

Mainly due to advertising. Opera also used to cost money to get the version without the adds, IE and FF are free. Also there is the case of advertising, FF is advertised by people, and the web, not many advertise Opera. I didn't really even explore the possibilities, until I heard Opera were giving out Free keys for 1 day, and got one for myself. Now I am almost solely an Opera user, and would reccommend it to anyone above and over FF or IE.

It is due to better and more consistent advertising. But personally, i do prefer Re-volt X2, i don't know why that isn't getting a better market share

[Bart]

Firefox doesn't integrate with the operating system like IE and does not depend on active X so adds a worthwhile security benefit. It also allows access to configuration files (type about:config into the address window). Once in there, numerous network parameters like pipelining, max connections per server, etc., etc. can be tweaked to get faster network performance. By Tweaking Firefox and re-setting the TCP receive window, my internet speed doubled and page loading speed tripled compared to the "out of the box" IE.

The bad side of it is that a few web sites only recognize IE, so their pages get a bit jumbled.

Compared to Mozilla, Firefox gets the newer programming and is more streamlined.

[Áedán]

Having tried Opera, IE, Firefox and Konqueror on different machines, I find that I tend to prefer Firefox on a PC, and Opera on my mobile. I've had too many frustrations with Opera on the PC to bother with it any longer.

As far as pages designed specifically for IE, I've noticed that if I set up FF to send the header indicating it's IE, suddenly certain MS pages work properly.

[Favu]

Originally Posted by Áedán

if I set up FF to send the header indicating it's IE, suddenly certain MS pages work properly.

Please explain how to do this for me

[dsio]

Originally Posted by Áedán

Having tried Opera, IE, Firefox and Konqueror on different machines, I find that I tend to prefer Firefox on a PC, and Opera on my mobile. I've had too many frustrations with Opera on the PC to bother with it any longer.

As far as pages designed specifically for IE, I've noticed that if I set up FF to send the header indicating it's IE, suddenly certain MS pages work properly.

The same goes for Opera. It lets you choose between IE, FF and Opera mode. IE mode does seam to make some things work better, particularly things like Trend's housecall program which up until recently didn't get along with FF/Opera at all.

[videobruce]

Originally Posted by skool h8r

I'm still on MSIE myself, just because i only want to browse the web without all the bells and whistles.

There are no "bells and whistles" with Opera. Sounds as you never tried it.

There are few security worries also.

[Daniel ~]

Originally Posted by Favu

Please explain how to do this for me

Go to FireFox EXTENTIONS, download IE Tab and/or IE View. I prefer IE tab...