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Mozilla Firefox vs Internet Explorer

Firefox 2 rules the browser world for now, in spite of a much improved version of Microsoft Internet Explorer. The major new feature for IE 7 tabbed browsing has been in Firefox for a long time, and the security and privacy add-ons from Microsoft aren't enough for us to lessen fears over new possible exploits. Lastly, the extensibility of Firefox 2 is its powerful push, and Internet Explorer's add-ons cannot compare. The customizability and flexibility of Mozilla Firefox might be best option for more advanced Web users, but it has earned its place at the top of the web browsers.

Compare Mozilla Firefox 2 with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7

Ratings are based on a 1-to-5-point scale.

	Mozilla Firefox	Internet Explorer
Installation Here's where we analyze the overall process of upgrading and installing the two browsers.	5 Firefox is a small download size and installs in about 30 seconds, no OS reboots or gene sequencing required. Plus it imported every toolbar, settings and all of my bookmarklets from Firefox version 1 without a hitch.	1 The IE 7 installer asks users to back up important files, close all programs, temporarily disable their antispyware and antivirus protection, which doesn't inspire trust. Installing or upgrading IE 7 requires connection to Microsoft servers, Windows validation, and eventually restart, which badly slows down the installing process.
Look and community Here's where we examine navigation, as well look and feel. But the internet world is quickly becoming a online community.	5 Firefox doesn't have a ultra visual refresh, but it does have new user interface features, such as hovering over a tab in Firefox 2 now highlights it, each tab has its own close button, a "word wheel" in the search bar and more. Firefox dominate IE in the plug-in and add-on niche. There are thousands of extensions for Firefox to enable all possible personalization. Internet Explorer has extensions too, but not compare to Firefox.	4 As distinct from the classic look of IE version 6 by hiding the menu bar, Internet Explorer 7 gives more working space to the main browser window. The full-screen view is especially well designed: the address bar and tabs hide until you hover cursor over them, making a true full-screen mode. The tabs are clumsier than require.
Tabbed browsing Tabbed browsing has become a standard part of the Web browser world. Microsoft just added it to Internet Explorer 7, but Mozilla Firefox has had it in Firefox forever. Which one develops this feature the best?	5 Mozilla Firefox's small drop-down menu next to its tabs is a convenient way for finding recently visited web pages. And tabbed browsing layout offers more space for tabs - although once we had a many tabs open, we were forced to scroll tabs bar to view the hidden tabs. Luckily. If Firefox crashes, you can restore those tabs, which IE 7 can't do.	3 IE 7 includes a New Tab button to the right of your last open tab that takes up unneeded browser window space. There's no way to remove it. Internet Explorer 7 clusters two Bookmarks icons, the standard browser toolbar and all open tabs in the same row. A usefull tab preview icon show thumbnails of all your open tabs for any window.
Cool new features Mozilla's been updating its popular Firefox browser regularly in the last few years. Microsoft had five years to invent a new Internet browser. Which one offers the new coolest features?	4 Firefox does a much better job of dealing with RSS feeds. It will let you subscribe in Firefox's own reader, which inconveniently makes bookmarks of headlines, or in Bloglines, Google, Yahoo, or any reader program you have on your computer. Internet Explorer will subscribe itself only to RSS feeds, and it doesn't show RSS content as easy as Firefox.	3 Neither Firefox nor IE 7 do a great job of showing up their new features. Many of Internet Explorer 7's new features are old Firefox's functionality. At least IE 7's RSS icon gave us a hint about its capability to show feeds; that icon show up within the Firefox address bar only when you visit at a Web page with an RSS feed. But once we subscribed to RSS feed, we couldn't locate them within IE 7. Mozilla Firefox otherwise showed them by default within its Bookmarks folder and on a toolbar.
Security and performance You can't browse the Internet these days without fear about identity thieves and hackers. Which browser offers the best security and privacy options?	5 Firefox makes it a one-click operation and also offers more personalization than IE 7. Firefox 2 offers antiphishing measures - a choice to check sites from a preexisting blacklist or via Google, has stronger reputation for privacy and security, no Active X.	3 At least during installation process, Internet Explorer 7 appears to care about security and privacy by giving you the choice to install a phishing filter. Both browsers allow you to delete cookie that show the sites you've visited, but we found such features hard to find within IE 7's new interface.
Total points	24	14

Learn about Browser Security.

IE 5, IE 6, Firefox, Mozilla,
See any critical exploits and flaws for Internet Explorer? How about the others? Most IE exploits and scurity flaws occur because of Zones problem. You either know how Microsoft Windows works, or you disagree with me and tell me things like "FireFox is just as insecure!" You have a fundamental misunderstanding of how Local Internet and Local Zones work in the MS operating system. Educate yourself. Malware can't get into the house if there's no door. (IE would be the metaphorical door here). Yes, having IE on your system and not using it can still be a security risk, because IE uses Zones that allow code (in the form of buffer overflow exploits) to be passed between the HTML subsystem and your file system, also called the localzone. No other browser does this, nor can they ever do this, as the Zones are coded into Windows, and Windows is a closed-source operating system. Non-Microsoft software vendors couldn't make use of the Zones even if they wanted to. So now do you realize how stupid you sound when you claim that you're secure having Inernet Explorer on your PC as long as you don't use it?