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""The bad" One of Cnets worst?" on by Revrant
Pros: Faster, Cleaner, Easier to work with, New(Functioning) features.
Cons: Always room for improvement, Resources, Non-US sites have "Issues"
Summary: "The bad: Firefox 1.5 requires you to update most of your favorite extensions."
There needs to be a raspberry award for worst "The bad" on Cnet.com, I nominate that one, all of my extensions supported 1.5 MONTHS ahead of RC1, and the updating was both instant and painless, though I guess that's unfair, as I'm on broadband. Cnet must be be on Dial-Up to complain about the new streamlined updates, what a lame excuse for a con.
Use something real why don't you? Such as the demanding resource usage or lack of functionality with many Non-US websites? Those would be better than complaining about updates.
The reordering of tabs, which I've wanted for quite a long while, is excellent, it helps me keeps all kinds of things organized while I'm trying to do something, such as compare websites for purchases.
The browser loads pages faster, faster than IE now thanks to this version, the back and forward cache helps you move back and forth instantly, also welcome.
Problems? Sites like Sony.com, and generally all Japanese/Asian sites either refuse you if you don't use IE, or crash due to extremely(And needlessly) IE-Specific HTML. Thankfully Firefox has an extension which can force these sites to be rendered with IE through Firefox, though it's still annoying.
Firefox is heavier on the resources, though through some kind of...I assume, "Magick", Mozilla has kept this covert, whereas some programs take few resources and yet plug up the computer, and indeed some that take many and rightfully plug it up, Firefox takes quite a few resources and yet *somehow* remains fast to open, fast to browse, and with no noticeable hit to PC performance.
Overall, not the leap Firefox 2.0 is planned to be, or even the almost futuristic plans for Firefox 3.0, but a significant improvement over the original and not just the monotony of security patching as with most large software upgrades. -
"Memory hog" on by todbran
Pros: Security is good
Cons: Memory usage
Summary: I was really hoping that the memory issues would be adressed with this update. It wasn't. At times, Firefox will use 2 to 3 times the memory than IE or Opera will when browsing the same pages. Do a search online about this problem and you will find thousands of complaints. Opera and IE (even though IE crap) do a wonderful job with the memory use. Bottom line, good browser (not great). If you are using an older computer, it more than likely won't be able to handle the 120,000k of memory that Firefox uses after prolonged use. Bottom line 2, DON'T USE IE. Even with the memory issues, Firefox is better. If you don't like the memory usage, try Opera. Rating: With the memory issue, 5, if the issue gets resolved, 9.
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"Drag and Drop" on by kashk5
Pros: Review covers everything
Cons: nothing besides the fact that it's beta
Summary: The article states that the 1.5 beta allows you to highlight text and drag it to the search bar, allowing for instant search. I tried this with version 1.06 and it seems to be able to do the same thing. So I'm guessing that it's really not a new feature, just something not a lot of people really knew about but is being touted in the next version.
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"Yea its great but IE is not dead as some of you claim" on by scatrbrain
Pros: Stable, secure, extentions, cool, fast
Cons: Doesnt work right with my online banking, doesnt work right with many other web sites
Summary: Lets get something straight shall we? If we all are being honest, IE is not dead as some of you claim. I run several high traffic web sites and Firefox makes up less than 10% of the traffic and that's the way its been for over a year so Firefox is not this sweeping force that's going to kill IE as much as some of you anti Microsoft people want it to be. Personally for me, firefox does not work right with my online banking bill pay page nor does it work with a growing list of other sites that i use on a regular basis, not to mention it doesn't display pages correctly on an entire different and growing list of sites. So that's that. Now, on the positive side, Firefox is very stable and fast, is very secure and is very customizable with its many available extensions and themes. I do like firefox and use it every day mainly because of a tab extension that allows you to have multiple rows of tabs. But, when I have to do certain things like bank online, I have to start Internet Explorer. Firefox is awesome this is true. But saying that Internet Explorer is dead because of firefox is like saying I'm going to stop the next train by parking my Pinto on the tracks. Firefox is a great alternative to IE but they have a long way to go as IE has a VERY long way to go in the security department. To sum this up, I use firefox a lot during my days but still have to occasionally use IE because of Firefox`s shortcomings.
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"IE is as dead as a fish caught in a hook" on by ikjadoon
Pros: Tons better than IE, tabbed browsing
Cons: Starts up a little slow, not great support
Summary: I mean, why even use IE? Firefox is a ton better, and this new release will make it so much better. Microsoft is digging a hole it can't get out of by restricting the users of IE to only people who have XP SP2. I know of many people who still are using either 2000 or 98SE. That is a rather large lose for them... It is RSS and the all-great tabbed browsing. Firefox is a great product which has revolutionized browsing and earned its place in history. My money is on FIREFOX. The only negative items are that it usually takes about 2.5 seconds on a P4 2.8Ghz and 1GB 400Mhz. IE can come up in a max of a second. By this I mean the browser has started, not when the page has loaded. Also the support is perfect, but is pretty useful. But it is alot better with stabability than IE.
-Ibrahim
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Firefox 1.5 user reviews
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