| Author | Message | ||
     kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1362 Registered: 05-2005 |
I bloody hate Crowded House and all they stand... oops wrong thread. Heres something we dont talk about much on here, web browsers. I changed from IE to Mozilla a few months ago and thought it was ok but no particular bells and whistles to speak of. However, somebody at work gave me this link (https://addons.mozilla.org/search.php?ap p=firefox&appfilter=firefox&type=E&sort= downloads) and I have spent a good few hours customising the Mozilla browser. Things such as multi coloured tabs, tabs that revolve when you switch(this is my favourite one), being able to split your computer screen to show multiple tabs, preview tabs(which come in handy for message boards like this) which means it opens up a preview pane without having to click the topic, and lastly FoxyPlayer which enables you to have your music player display at the bottom of the screen. A lot more fun than boring old IE | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1184 Registered: 04-2005 |
Right on, Kevin. Just say no to IE. Mozilla Firefox is indeed a nice browser, and I've been recommending it to people for awhile. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1197 Registered: 05-2005 |
Us MAc people have Safari, its ok, nothing to write home about. I find it easy to use. I have tried Firefox, and found all that tabbing hard to use, maybe its coz I am not used to it. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 298 Registered: 08-2006 |
I'm a Safari user, too. For someone whose Web excursions are pretty pedestrian, it's just fine, and typical of Apple products. It does its one thing simply and cleanly, way more economically and intelligently than creaky old IE (why'd that pop-up blocker take so long, Bill?). I have a ton of friends who are crazy about Firefox, though, and I'm sure it's killer. I just can't figure out how it would make much difference in my Web browsing. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 558 Registered: 08-2004 |
I've been using Firefox for over a year now. It's a lot better than IE. The new IE has a similar tab system to Firefox. Microsoft are always quick to point out plagiarism & piracy, & quicker again to rip-off the work of others. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 300 Registered: 08-2006 |
And somehow, they always manage to botch the rip-off. The result is usually unwieldy and buggy. If Gates had been around during Henry Ford's time, Microsoft's take on the Model T would have been the size of two Hummers, required a crew of six to operate and would've managed a top speed of three mph, assuming a favorable tailwind. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 476 Registered: 10-2004 |
I use Firefox for both my Mac at work and PC at home. Miles better than IE, obviously. However, I don't like the tabbed browsing because I haven't figured out if there's a way to toggle between tabs. It's way more efficient for me to just open a few separate windows, and on the Mac, just hit apple-tilde key when I need to toggle between windows, or alt-tab on a PC. I like to be able to toggle back and forth between windows without touching the mouse. Is there a way to toggle between tabs? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1142 Registered: 05-2005 |
GEEKS! I tried firefox a few years ago; couldn't get the hang of it and gave up. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1146 Registered: 05-2005 |
I would have put a smiley face thing after GEEKS! ... but I couldn't remember how to do it. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1385 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kinda related, but has anybody got Vista, the new Microsoft OS? If so, any good? | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 6 Registered: 01-2007 |
I've used Firefox for years but since updating my antivirus the firefox doesn't seem to work.It is/was great. Now back to safari on my aging Mac | ||
| Paul N Member Username: Pauln Post Number: 12 Registered: 10-2006 |
Guy I work with has trialed Vista and is not too impressed. He also added that you need to check your graphics card is good enough to run all the new features as he has seen that some people are unable to do this with their current graphics card. New card would cost approx. £350 - £450. | ||
| Paul N Member Username: Pauln Post Number: 13 Registered: 10-2006 |
Should have added that I'm a Firefox user too. I love it, but may try out some customising now. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1230 Registered: 05-2005 |
Whoahh!! and to top it all, look what Mr Gates has allowd...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/63 20865.stm THANK GOD FOR MAC!!!! YOU GET NONE OF THIS CRAP WITH A MAC! | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 8 Registered: 01-2007 |
Well said spence the country wouls save millions if the NHS went over to MACs.I have a PC at work and it is always crashing. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 325 Registered: 08-2006 |
I'm a total Mac partisan, but I have admit I wonder whether there are fewer security concerns with the machines because the software is inherently more secure or because Apple users represent only 3% of the market, so the virus writers don't bother. To the ambitious hacker, we're not a very enticing target right now. But if Mac sales went nuts, what would happen? I dunno. Apple can be pretty smug about their security. Whenever I hear Jobs brag about it, I see a big target being painted on my computer. It IS true, as Frank implies, that Macs hardly ever crash since the coming of OS X. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1231 Registered: 05-2005 |
Rob, yes it is true. There's the odd problem now and again, but since buying the latest range of MACS and iMACS, I have here, i can have 10 programmes all working fine, switching between them is no problem, and if a programme crashes, re-open it rather than re-boot. I'm really not so sure about the 3% market share though, that has been a myth since 1996! Especially now since the advent of iMAC in 98/99, I reckon they have more like 5 or 6 per cent, and it keeps rising too. Think they are 4th place for overall market share. OK, capitalism stinks, but the MAC looks cool, is cool and is much more fun than a PC. The hacker thing is probably down to the market share, but the MAC is such a hybrid of its own OS X, UNIX and Windows system, which makes it robust enough not to keep crashing, and probably takes your typical hacker more time to think about how to hack, thus they tend to give up. PC is an easier target I guess. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 326 Registered: 08-2006 |
I've always wondered about the 3% number, too. I'm sure you're right, Spence. All my friends have Macs, so it always seemed a little low to me, but then again few business run Mac, and that's where the big computer numbers are concentrated. Whatever the percentage, we aren't a particularly big group. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1386 Registered: 05-2005 |
Ok, I cracked and bought Vista Home Premium edition. I guess its more a cosmetic upgrade in that it "looks good", rather than an improvement performance wise but I'm shallow that way  . Got it from what looks like a very reputable Power seller on ebay for £77 inc p+p. The retailers, Comet etc, all seem to be selling it for £140 - thats some bloody mark up!! | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1215 Registered: 04-2005 |
Make sure you have a backup computer with a stable OS, Kev! During my brief tenure as a Microsoft employee, Windows XP came out, and it was quite amusing to see how many people inside the company were plagued by viruses and other problems. But after the second service pack, Windows Vista might be a half-decent Mac OS X imitation! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 972 Registered: 03-2005 |
I have skipped this thread because I am a total tech ignoramus. But now I know who Mr. Bascombe is. I still consider myself a newcomer to the Mac world and haven't learned how to do any of the things that it's known for except move music files of course, which is why I got mine. But my Made-in-China MacBookPro has thrown me some quality issues that I never experienced with my old Gateway laptop. And I have received spam e-mail from my own address so I don't know about the security. I think Macs mostly profit from their minority status. I love being a minority. Mac does seem to be a nice easy system. I very much appreciate the easy photo retouching function as I desperately needed to blank out a rather unfortunate swastika on a nearby book in an otherwise good photo of me; that would have messed up my image! But why doesn't Apple think iPhoto needs an easy function to reduce the size of photos? | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 14 Registered: 01-2007 |
Yeah apologies Randy, I had fears my patients would start googling me and discovering my private life etc,no disrespect to anyone here.I mssed my time away whilst discovering my new ID | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 566 Registered: 08-2004 |
My wife had a trial copy of Vista & it's no great shakes. It uses a lot of memory, so older pc's & lappy's might need a bit of a boost. The differences between XP & Vista are minimal. "In August 2006, Microsoft made an offer to Mozilla to help integrate Firefox with the forthcoming Windows Vista, which Mozilla accepted. On the release of Firefox 2, the Internet Explorer 7 development team shipped a cake to Mozilla as a sign of appreciation". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox I wonder if the cake had shards of glass as filling. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1232 Registered: 05-2005 |
Jerry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You coulda picked a better surname than the tosser from the Teardrop Explodes!! Randy, i must confess, my experience with Apple laptops has been crap, very hot battery and so on, not that robust, however I have a new one on order, black too! (kev i'm sad like that too!) rather than white, so I'll see how that goes... | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1216 Registered: 04-2005 |
Sorry to hear your MacBook Pro has given you problems, Randy. I've had a regular MacBook for six months and it's been great, no problems at all. It does get a little warm, yes, but it's been so cold here this winter that I appreciate its dual function as a heating device. Good luck with your new MacBook, Spence! Which model are you getting? | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1237 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kurt, I dunno, the black one! It looks more robust than the white one!! As long as its rammed up, that'll do me. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 976 Registered: 03-2005 |
Also a sucker for slick appearance I got the aluminum one. I basically use it as a small desktop. I've been told that it's a good thing I don't take it places because the aluminum is easy to dent. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1393 Registered: 05-2005 |
What the hell is a MacBook? Is it a laptop? | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1220 Registered: 04-2005 |
Yes, the MacBook is the latest Macintosh laptop. It comes in a few flavors: 13-in screen (available in white or black case) or 15-in screen in the MacBook Pro, which has the silver aluminum case, as Randy mentions. Maybe there's a 17-in MacBook Pro too; I'm not sure. MacWorld magazine rates the MacBooks as the best-ever Macintosh laptops. They're the first to use the Intel chip. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 330 Registered: 08-2006 |
I've heard really good things about the MacBook/MacBook Pros. I have a "sunflower" iMac and a three-year-old 12" PowerBook and both have proved perfectly realiable, dammit. No excuse to upgrade to the faster Intel versions, at least for a while... | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 978 Registered: 03-2005 |
I have the 17 inch. No, Rob, wait until they've had a little more time to sort the glitches. While others on here talk about the reliability of the system, I'd have to say my Intel OS-X system crashes about once a week. Is that a lot? I dunno; you decide. At least it's easy to reboot. I should disclose that I never got around to "ramming up" this machine so maybe the crashes are partly due to that bottleneck. I went online one time and found that a lot of people are having big problems with the screen. My only problem is very infrequent so I'm not going to worry about it; every once in a while if I bump it the wrong way the back-lighting for the screen shuts down and only a reboot will get it back. The unreliable CD/DVD player/burner has also been an issue for me. My machine is about nine months old. I figure Apple will find better suppliers for the screens and burners as these issues make themselves known and you'll have a better machine. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1222 Registered: 04-2005 |
Guess I've just been lucky with my plain old basic MacBook (much like I own a trouble-free Ford Focus...I'm just blessed with good fortune, apparently). MacWorld rates the basic MacBook higher than the MacBook Pro, for reasons unknown. Sometimes the cheaper product isn't necessarily inferior, I guess. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 106 Registered: 07-2006 |
jeff, i don't use firefox, but i do use something else with a similar setup (opera). give shift+tab a go to switch between tabs. for some stuff though (mostly java-related) i have to open up IE but i try to avoid whenever i can. |