Firefox 2 vs Internet Explorer 7

When your comparing two internet browsers against one another there are a few factors you need to take into consideration. I’m going to provide a detailed overview of how Internet Explorer 7 compares to FireFox 2, I will be looking at a few different aspects and will give my overall thoughts at the end of the article.

Installation:

The installation for the IE7 is a fairly slow process, which will require a reboot at the end of the installation. You will also need your Windows XP validation in order to be able to start your download. FireFox on the other hand is a much faster download taking only a couple of minutes to complete. It doesn’t require a reboot and you can start using it right away without any delays.

Appearance:

Both the browsers have updated their interfaces, and both have done a good job in doing so. IE7 offers a full screen view when your surfing the internet, the address bar even disappears until you move the mouse over it. FireFox on the other hand kept a more typical approach to the design of the interface. The customization of FireFox is a lot better then on IE7, there are hundreds of FireFox extensions and plug-ins for you to try out for your own enjoyment and better overall surfing experience. FireFox and IE7 both have the tabbed browsing feature which is a good bonus for both the browsers.

Features:

The best feature to come out of IE7 is the RSS feed viewer which is a lot neater then how FireFox does theirs. It doesn’t do a great job of finding new feeds to pick up though, and FireFox is better for this reason. Apart from the RSS features FireFox destroys IE7 in every other aspect. Starting from the innovative session manager, which is a very useful tool once you understand how to use it properly. It also has a spell checker so you don’t make unnecessary typing mistakes while writing. You can also view many different blog readers right from your FireFox browser, all you have to do is click a button in the tools area. One feature you can do with IE7 that isn’t available for FireFox 2 is the ability to zoom in on the page so that you can read it easier.

Performance:

Both the browsers run quickly without much worries of it freezing. I find that IE7 still freezes a lot more then FireFox 2 does. Both have great security features and are both comparable with each other. Updates seem to happen faster for FireFox, as it seems to always be updated right away. IE7 on the other hand is slower at updating its security features. IE7 has better privacy for hiding your passwords, although FireFox now has a file you can use to hide your passwords from anyone who accesses your computer. The only problem with this is that nobody really downloads the file so most people’s passwords are vulnerable to people accessing their computer.

My overall rating of the two browsers is that they are both great to have, either one can compete against the other and they both run smoothly. FireFox 2 I think is a better browser overall because of its many add-ons, and plug-ins. It makes the browser a whole lot more customizable and offers an easier experience. It doesn’t really matter which browser you use, but if you would like to utilize more features then FireFox is the ideal browser to go with.

Installation – FireFox
Appearance – FireFox
Features – FireFox
Performance – Internet Explorer