I’ve been using IE7 quite a bit lately. It’s a darn-good browser and seems very fast, especially when I have a lot of tabs open, compared to Firefox. ¶
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Matt Mullenweg is one of PC World’s Top 50 People on the Web, Inc.com’s 30 under 30, and Business Week’s 25 Most Influential People on the Web. 
Michael | September 5th, 2007 @ 3:43 am |
How much did Microsoft pay you to say that? :/
Ben | September 5th, 2007 @ 3:47 am |
Have you tried Opera 9.5 Alpha 1?
Ben
David | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:03 am |
Yes, perhaps so Matt, but have you noticed how much “crap” gets left behind in the “system” even after the most briefest of use? If novices (the majority of Net users) don’t do a “clean” after each use, its fortunate there are such large hard-drives on the market, otherwise they’d be wondering where the disk space is going!
Baris Unver | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:04 am |
No it’s not. I don’t care. Firefox rules!
Matt Doran | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:10 am |
I find the opposite. I find that IE7 feels sluggish after using Firefox.
It’s hard to put my finger on … it’s a number of thing. It seems to take longer to open new tabs. I also find the behaviour when loading new pages a bit ugly. Often the page goes completely blank/white before the new page is rendering. I never see that on Firefox.
TDH | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:13 am |
It’s pretty good, but I really dislike the milliseconds more it takes for it to open a new tab. Faster with lots of tabs, yes, perhaps, but overall I find it a bit sluggish.
But maybe I should give it a shot… No wait! I’m on Mac!
Paolo/Pixline | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:13 am |
You can let Safari for Windows do a test spin, while you’re experimenting.. If it’s half the speed it has on mac, I think you’ll be satisfied, but I haven’t a windows system to try it so I can’t say it for sure
Toxic | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:17 am |
Welcome to the dark side.
GaMerZ | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:18 am |
Firefox 2.0 seems to be less stable than Firefox 1.x as it crash more often =(
Chris Harrison | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:30 am |
It’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’ve found it hard to tear myself away from Firefox to give it a shot, but it can’t be *that* bad.
stadi | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:33 am |
Try Maxthon! The classic 1.6 version or the new 2. It is even more customizable then Firefox without the need for plugins or addons and it uses the IE engine.
One of the reasons I don’t use IE7 is that even with IE7 I cant customize the tab behavior the way I can it in Firefox with Tab Mix Plus. Of course in Maxthon this is a built in feature.
n-blue | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:35 am |
IE7 is my defualt browser, I mainly using it since beta 1. But still some negative points. Some certain web sites will lead IE7 to the death, or non-respond, or close itself.
To specify with WP, if blog owner with WP 2.1&2.2 placed a number of javascript (especially within BODY)IE7 will frsutrating you. You know what I mean.
matt | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:37 am |
for shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame! (tsk tsk tsk)
I’m just kidding – to each their own. Firefox seems a little weird at times, but I’ve had a lot less worries from it than with IE.
LiewCF | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:40 am |
As a Mac user, I haven’t really try IE7 yet. The safari 3 beta and Opera 9.5 beta are fast browsers too. Firefox 3 (currently in Alpha stage) is faster than Firefox 2. The browsers war still continue.
James | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:46 am |
It’s a shame the interface is so bad. I ran it with Maxthon on top for a good number of my FireFox features (Super Drag and Go) with a lot of positive feedback.
Jack @ The Tech Teapot | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:56 am |
I had you down as a Linux or Apple kindofa guy, you know, cos of the open source thingy. Unless you’re being ironic of course. Darn, I never pick up on the ironic posts.
Viper007Bond | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:58 am |
Tsk tsk. *sigh*
While a huge improvement over IE6, it still can render horribly and has countless rendering bugs. Not to mention it’s still insecure as hell.
Plus, the biggest reason to use Firefox is extensions. I couldn’t live without all the Firefox addons I have installed.
Ricardo | September 5th, 2007 @ 5:11 am |
Just try Opera. It’s even faster.
Bob | September 5th, 2007 @ 5:17 am |
Opera faster than IE7. really
farlane | September 5th, 2007 @ 5:21 am |
Say 23 Hail Mozillas my son.
I wish there was an alternative sometimes for the mac … and also that IE wasn’t such a darn cowboy when it when it comes to standards.
Jan Stedehouder | September 5th, 2007 @ 5:24 am |
I have recently begun using Seamonkey for exactly the same reason. FF is getting sluggish.
Asbjørn Ulsberg | September 5th, 2007 @ 5:26 am |
People are different I suppose, but my experience is that IE7 is way slower than IE6 which again is way slower than Firefox which again is way slower than Opera. Just opening a tab takes well over a second on all setups of IE7 I’ve seen, including an AMD AM2-64 5000+ with 2GB RAM and Windows Vista. What setup are you using where IE7 manages to outperform Firefox? It sounds quite impossible to me, at least based on my experience.
Fawaz | September 5th, 2007 @ 5:27 am |
there is a remarkable difference between firefox and IE7. Sure of late I’ve noticed that Firefox is getting quite a bit bloated especially with all those plugins “plugged in”.
Even then, I believe firefox is much faster in comparison to IE7. The way a page is rendered in Firefox it is much faster than IE7.
I still love Firefox. It rocks. But then we all have our choices. I think you should consider changing the purpose of the BrowseHappy.com to encourage people to shift back to IE7
futurix | September 5th, 2007 @ 5:35 am |
Does this mean that WordPress admin area will be fixed to look nicer in IE7?
Chris Thomson | September 5th, 2007 @ 5:40 am |
Most of the time when I’m on a PC, I use IE7 too, Firefox is not my favorite browser on any platform. I’m not on the PC too often, so I don’t have to use Windows’ browsers much
Shahab | September 5th, 2007 @ 5:44 am |
If you are trying IE7, then you should really try Maxthon. It will add hell lotta features to IE that you might be missing from Firefox.
Rajiv | September 5th, 2007 @ 5:46 am |
IE7 is leaps and bounds better than any previous Microsoft browsers. It’s pretty good, I use it too quite often but Firefox has taken over my life (and computer too).
Carson | September 5th, 2007 @ 5:48 am |
I’m glad to know that I’m not the only techie (half-assed in my case) that thinks IE7 might serve my needs better than Firefox. One problem I have with Firefox is the way it displays fonts. They are all too thin for my tired old eyes. (That might be fixable but, like I said, I’m just a half-assed techie.
Martin | September 5th, 2007 @ 5:53 am |
Hi Matt
Are you serious? I can’t say I have used IE7 extensively, but I still hate it because it’s IE and it still has problems handling CSS properly (what I have seen so far).
Maybe you should try deinstalling some unused firefox plug-ins which would speed up things a little in firefox?
rr-designpraxis | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:00 am |
I’ll stick to Firefox just ’cause I love Open Source. Let’s do our best to make it as speedy as IE7!
Sam | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:00 am |
Oh boy!
but let’s not start flame wars
oh no | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:01 am |
Oh NO! … try Opera
Sam | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:02 am |
And by the way: I reluctantly use IE7 every day – because Microsoft didn’t (couldn’t) make SharePoint 2007 100% compatible with other browsers (some functionality missing).
Kirk M | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:07 am |
Not to worry. I doubt you’ll be ostracized…much.
The fact is that IE is a good browser and since it’s part of the OS itself it tends to use up a heck of a lot less resources hence the overall speed is greater. It definitely does not work well on certain sites like when using the Admin side of a WordPress install though, especially the editor. IE is good for general browsing. Firefox is good for turning into any sort of specific “tool” box that you might need. Like the ultimate blogging tool for instance. The biggest problem with most folks is that it’s either one or the other when you can get a much better experience by using both.
Darren Brierton | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:10 am |
Huh. And I thought you were a Mac user. But IE7 may be fast, but I wouldn’t call it a “darn-good” browser. I still have loads of issues getting my CSS to work properly in it. See this:
http://www.designdetector.com/2006/08/ie7-old-bugs-for-new.php
Phil Wiffen | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:13 am |
Matt, I was thinking this the other day. I’ve been using Firefox since 0.7 but its memory and CPU usage, with many tabs open, is starting to grind me down.
I know a few of my friends have switched back to IE recently. Maybe it’s time I gave IE another chance!
Pingback: Kapusta Brothers » Blog Archive » IE-7 Dark Side
Nick | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:16 am |
I, in fact, have the exact opposite experience as far as responsiveness goes. For me, it takes IE7 at least a couple of seconds to open a new tab. Firefox does it almost instantaneously. Then, when I want to close the browser, it takes at least 4 seconds to close multiple tabs in IE and shut down whereas Firefox usually exits after less than 1 second.
I also find with IE that I miss a lot of the functionality provided by the myriad plugins that I have installed in Firefox.
That being said, I definitely think IE7 is a huge upgrade from IE6 and I use it from time to time. I don’t avoid it like the plague like I did with IE6.
Gerry Tucker | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:19 am |
In terms of website design, obviously I have to test on as many different browsers as possible, so I tend to start with FF as a base browser, but as a user I want a browser that is easy to use and quick. Which is why IE7 is my browser of choice.
I’m not a great lover of the mouse, so being able to use consistent keyboard shortcuts across applications, i.e. browser, Office etc is a usability plus for me.
Opera just doesn’t operate in a “Windows” way, and as for Safari, well I don’t know why Apple didn’t just put a banner advertisement on it saying “designed to p*** Windows users off!!”.
Give me IE7 everyday.
Jim | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:22 am |
It’s ok – I was just commenting the other day on how Firefox seems to get bigger with each new version or update. It’s become a bit of a beast lately. I’ve started using Safari for Windows a bit more lately.
Rémi Prévost | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:27 am |
IE7 might be good, but its rendering engine doesn’t beat Gecko for sure — that’s why I love Firefox.
Emz | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:29 am |
Do you know how much beating you’ve let yourself in for?
*kidding*
I haven’t found IE7 to be fast at all on my computer (rather the opposite) so am still sticking to my Firefox guns!
True, Firefox tends to get a little shaky with more than, say, 6 tabs open, but I find just one takes forever to load in IE7.
Although, to be fair, that could just be my arrogant computer.
grasland | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:30 am |
Haha, a daring confession! But it is fast indeed. Especially starting up the app is much faster. I still like FF better for its extensions etc.
scott bakalar | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:33 am |
shhh…
me too…
Liquid Egg Product | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:37 am |
Heretic.
Although I primarily use Opera, so I never considered you part of “the faith” anyway.
katy lavallee | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:40 am |
I’m on a Mac and had to switch over to Safari. I really love Firefox and am sad to leave it, but it’s ridiculous how slow it is. I do have a lot of extensions, but as a developer I need most of them. Now, I only open it up for debugging. Sad, really sad.
nathan | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:42 am |
Have you tried Safari? It’s even faster.
Very interesting to hear your confession.
I have had a hard time switching to Safari from Firefox though. I guess I just like it the way I’m used to it.
Daniel | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:49 am |
That’s okay, Matt. I admit that I’m still using IE 6 as my primary browser!
Something about Firefox isn’t quite comfortable for me. I tried IE 7 when it was first released, and it had a ton of bugs — plus the interface threw me off. I’m still gunshy about updating to it.
But, it’s looking clear that IE 7 will be a necessity to test performance and validity on every site moving forward, so eventually I’ll have to install it.
Amy | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:53 am |
Don’t forget how much nicer the fonts look.
Radioactive Jam | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:55 am |
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of lines of code suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
Jeremy | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:58 am |
Page rendering and scrolling is quite slow, but tabbing is very snappy.
I also like the behaviour of opening new tabs. If you’re, say, on the left-most tab when you have several tabs open, and you middle-click on a link, the new tab will appear to the right of the tab you’re currently in. Then, if immediately after, you middle-click another link, the new tab will appear to the right of the tab that was just opened in the background.
Recently, I discovered I don’t have to use IE7 to get that, as Epiphany has that exact tab behaviour as well. (Plus, Epiphany is damn fast compared to Firefox or IE7, even with a load of extensions installed.)
Pupung Budi Purnama | September 5th, 2007 @ 7:03 am |
I’m Prefer The World Browser to “Pure” IE7
Andrew @ TFTS | September 5th, 2007 @ 7:08 am |
The shame of it! lol.
Actually, I’m finding the latest release of Firfox gets bogged down so very easily with multi tabbed browsing that IE has begun to creep into my mind.
I’m going to stand in the corner now…(can I join you).
jeremy | September 5th, 2007 @ 7:10 am |
But it won’t block ads. I’ll stick with firefox.
P.G.Taboada | September 5th, 2007 @ 7:13 am |
Redmond knows how to make good looking software. It is the security I am concerned with. IE is just to deep in the system. I think it is called inappropriate Intimacy (software bad smell, refactoring book)
Andrew | September 5th, 2007 @ 7:18 am |
How can one of the Kings of Open-Source fall into the hands of using Closed-Source applications???
Jonathan Dingman | September 5th, 2007 @ 7:23 am |
Looks like I need to gather the crew because you’re going to be hanged for it.
Matt, how DARE YOU! TRAITOR!!!!
sam | September 5th, 2007 @ 7:43 am |
woah! what a shocker. i’m using a mac and i’ve been finding firefox slow – slower thank safari.
m@ | September 5th, 2007 @ 8:03 am |
What will the open source community think of you?! Yeah, it’s a fast browser, but it’s ugly as hell.
Kanwal | September 5th, 2007 @ 8:05 am |
I definitely agree with you. The only thing that keeps me from making it my default browser is all the extensions… if there was some way to have those extensions on IE7, firefox would be history on my pc
adam | September 5th, 2007 @ 8:13 am |
everything is fast with multiple tabs, compared to firefox. if safari weren’t otherwise buggy, it’s lightning quick on windoze.
Matteo Campofiorito | September 5th, 2007 @ 8:23 am |
Comparing IE7 with Firefox is like comparing a single application with an operating system.
IE7 could be also faster than Firefox but there is no match regarding the flexibility and the add-ons in the open source browser.
Heliologue | September 5th, 2007 @ 8:24 am |
If you aren’t wedded to Firefox’s extensions, why not simply use Opera? If speed’s your thing, it’s hella faster even than IE7, and it hasn’t got the b0rked rendering.
huphtur | September 5th, 2007 @ 8:28 am |
Traitor!
Zacharias | September 5th, 2007 @ 8:28 am |
if you aren’t the use-a-thousand-extentions person (like me), IE7 is just as good, performance-wise (it seems like FF takes 90-100megs o’ ram whenever I look)
arentcha worried about security, though?
Benedikt | September 5th, 2007 @ 8:38 am |
Really? I never got used to it — opening a new tab just takes too long in IE7.
Johan | September 5th, 2007 @ 8:53 am |
It is definitely fast, but I just can’t live without my firefox add ins!
c. Wess Daniels | September 5th, 2007 @ 9:06 am |
It takes a big man to say something like that Matt, thank you.
Anders | September 5th, 2007 @ 9:07 am |
I’m using mostly FireFox, but maybe I should go back and try IE for a while?
On a local download speed test (http://kuivuri.pp.htv.fi/speed/) I’ve noticed that IE consistently achieves more than double the download rates of Firefox… what’s up with that?
Silveira Neto | September 5th, 2007 @ 9:08 am |
I have a confession too.
Sometimes I use IE too. I emulate it in Linux to check some of my websites
Walker | September 5th, 2007 @ 9:22 am |
Glad to know that you’re not stubborn and a person who telling truth.
In fact, Firefox vs IE7 vs Opera vs Safari vs ETC…there will no absolute answer which is the best!
To me, Linux or Vista is up to what tasks I’m doing with.
It’s really antipathetic to hear someone insist saying only Windows or Linux is the best. So as Wordpress and Blogger.
Television Blog | September 5th, 2007 @ 9:24 am |
i like IE7 much better than firefox too..
Joshua | September 5th, 2007 @ 9:26 am |
I’ve actually been in a lot of situations recently where I’ve been without my thumb drive, see forgotten, and IE7 has actually come in handy. Not the most secure, but I find it good for the few minutes I need to use it every day.
Eric | September 5th, 2007 @ 9:40 am |
What?! NO!…no no no….j/k.
I also been using IE7, but only to verify designs and articles aren’t showing up all funky. Have you noticed any issues with CSS display?
Kartik Mistry | September 5th, 2007 @ 9:54 am |
You should open too many tabs with Firefox and try..
Patrick Havens | September 5th, 2007 @ 9:54 am |
I’ll admit to only using it on my Vista laptop…. and that’s because of the firefox issues under Vista*. It does have better memory management and is snappy. I kept running into weirdness rendering bugs and mainly the “oh… that’s flash” issue.
They have done a pretty decent job, but I still find that popups are an issue (without google toolbar) and I’ve come across more then one exploit. Mainly the exploits I’ve found where aimed at auto-installing a “browser helper.”
* Which may of been fixed by now, but I’ve been afraid to try. Took a bit to fix last time I did try.
BoltClock | September 5th, 2007 @ 10:14 am |
Firefox is just slightly bloated.
You should try Opera and compare the two browsers’ speeds. I’ve been using it for a couple months now and I’ve had a great time using it since Fx has been eating my memory lately. I still use Fx for development and testing.
I can’t get IE7, the stupid WGA is barring me from accessing it.
But it’s alright, 7 is my lucky number after all
David | September 5th, 2007 @ 10:38 am |
A pox upon you Mr High-Profile Traitor
Seriously, I have lots of reasons to prefer Firefox over IE, but I don’t see why my preference (or anyone elses) must be The One Right View (TM)
Mark Jaquith | September 5th, 2007 @ 10:48 am |
First of all: perhaps you’ve heard of this web site.
Second, I’ve been looking for Firefox alternatives too. It’s just too damn slow. I use Safari for all my primary browsing, and only switch into Firefox for web development.
Sourabh | September 5th, 2007 @ 10:51 am |
I agree with Matt. Off late, firefox has been giving me a lot of problems too.
Check my rants here: Something seriously wrong with Firefox
Pedro Sostre | September 5th, 2007 @ 10:52 am |
Matt,
It makes me so happy to hear you say this. Look over your comments. Many of them are from people upset that IE renders poorly/doesnt handle their CSS properly. Most end users dont even know what that means.
As a developer, I love FF. The extensions alone make it worthwhile. As an entrepreneur serving end users, you have to go to where they are- and they’re on IE.
With that said, the latest WP admin area still doesn’t work properly in IE. I always have to make my writers download and install FF to update our blogs- very frustrating. I hope you’ll consider adding a little cross-browser love
Robert Synnott | September 5th, 2007 @ 10:56 am |
But the big question is, what does this mean for BrowseHappy?
Matt | September 5th, 2007 @ 10:57 am |
Wow! That’s a lot of comments.
I don’t really it to use it for the same things I use Firefox for, it’s more for things that don’t require a login or browsing.
For example I was checking out apartments on Craigslist yesterday and used IE7, but when I had narrowed down the 3-4 I want to follow up on I bookmarked them in Firefox.
Chad | September 5th, 2007 @ 10:59 am |
The only feature that keeps me from using IE 7 is the bookmarks toolbar. It’s just about useless since I can’t create folders on the fly and nothing seems to stay sorted in the order I want it to … otherwise, it’s a great browser.
btard | September 5th, 2007 @ 11:02 am |
fact is, that firefox leaks memory like a drunken baby’s diaper.
Chris | September 5th, 2007 @ 11:36 am |
I find it comedy to read how many people who have probably never used IE7 shouting about how much “better” firefox is! The number of pirated Windows XP installs out there suggest that not everyone on this page has a IE7 installed…
I respect the fact you’re willing to admit you don’t mind using it. A number of the “open source crowd” rubbished it before it was even released and wouldnt even give it the time of day – then have the balls to bad mouth it. Bias? lol.
Personally, I’ll use either. I tend towards IE when I’m watching embedded videos, and FF when I’m working on webdesign. Both have good points, both have bad, but I’d struggle to come up with a convincing argument to either being “better” than the other.
Gretchen Cawthon | September 5th, 2007 @ 12:14 pm |
Matt – Firefox can be slow because of memory leaks in some of the extensions. There is a list of some extensions to be aware of – one of which is firebug – which many of us use for web development. I disable it when I am not using it and it made a huge improvement in speed.
David Andersson | September 5th, 2007 @ 12:36 pm |
I am using Firefox in OSX and is actually terribly disappointed. More than five tabs, and if there happens to be more than one flash instance, it crashes.
Anthony | September 5th, 2007 @ 12:40 pm |
*Shock* “Kill the wise one!!” lol
Richard Catto | September 5th, 2007 @ 1:05 pm |
Matt, I use IE7 everyday alongside Firefox 2.0.0.6.
The only reason I use it, though, is to read gmail in my second account.
If Google would allow multiple simultaneous logins in one browser, I could say, “Hasta la Vista!” to IE7!
IE7 does load faster than Firefox though. I think the reason is the plugins I have loaded into FF.
CaminoFan | September 5th, 2007 @ 1:12 pm |
Dear MacUsers don’t forget to use the excellent ‘Camino’ browser, speciallyu design for our needs (and so speedy).
Patrick D'appollonio | September 5th, 2007 @ 1:26 pm |
I think the same than Michael, How much did Microsoft pay you to say that?
Ryan Paul | September 5th, 2007 @ 1:49 pm |
What’s wrong with hating IE7 just because it’s made by Microsoft? There’s no unspoken ethics that say hating Microsoft products is bad or immoral.
Let’s just hate IE7, and IE8, and IE9… because it’s made by microsoft. And of course because of the stupid aliasing on text, and the ugly new interface, and all the other stupid things about it.
Ben K. | September 5th, 2007 @ 2:05 pm |
David: That’s why we have Camino.
Victoria E | September 5th, 2007 @ 2:06 pm |
Blasphemy!
Pingback: Ismael El-Qudsi » Blog Archive » Internet Explorer 7 es un buen navegador
Sarah | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:38 pm |
Bite your tongue!
Eats Wombats | September 5th, 2007 @ 4:40 pm |
My son, I am surprised that you have not yet received penance and forgiveness. The Lord is merciful and you need not chastise yourself if your repentance is genuine and you are resolved to sin no more. Say three Hail Marys, one Our Father and a Glory Be and go in peace. Amen.
n-blue | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:22 pm |
Again, I am big fan of Opera too but still not able to say it faster and fastest.
Try Safari if you want a simple think and thinking of Firefox 0.9. Hey! after using Safari for awhile don’t uninstall it. It will leave a key on Windows Startup items that make your comp extreamely slow down when boot. Otherwise you need to visit msconfig.
Kian Ann | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:33 pm |
WHAAAAT! Well, I gotta admit sometimes I use IE too, because I had to – some sites are just meant for IE.
But still, FF rules.
Dan | September 5th, 2007 @ 6:52 pm |
Actually, the IE7 interface is a bit nifty but you can get 90% of its features in the Firefox IE7 theme.
Because those superficial features are the only thing that’s appealing about IE7, it’s actually terrible on the inside and not at all a high performance competitor to Firefox.
Robert Accettura | September 5th, 2007 @ 8:17 pm |
You’re born to be a politician!
/kidding
GoodThings2Life | September 5th, 2007 @ 9:08 pm |
Matt,
If you want to add some of the benefits of Firefox to IE7, you might consider downloading the IE7Pro plug-in. It adds some tabbed browsing enhancements, spell check, and ad-blocking (among other things)… ie7pro.com
I do agree that IE7 is faster than FF, generally speaking. That said, I still use Firefox as my primary browser.
Corinne | September 5th, 2007 @ 9:29 pm |
It’s funny because it always takes forever for tabs to open or change in IE7. Maybe not hours, but certainly many more secs than FF.
Matt | September 5th, 2007 @ 10:07 pm |
I like, and use, IE7. I find that it renders pages much faster than Firefox, and it’s faster.
So… can we ditch the BrowseHappy logo in the WP Admin, now?
dennis | September 5th, 2007 @ 10:31 pm |
hehe.. i’ve started using IE7 more and more lately… FF seems to hog my memory..
Chuck @ The Detroit Times | September 5th, 2007 @ 10:44 pm |
Well, I could’ve told you that…
GO | September 6th, 2007 @ 12:11 am |
Apple claims Safari to be the fastest browser in the market, whereas CHIP magazine lab tests rate it as the slowest (although they think it’s more favorable than IE 7).
In my experience on the Mac, yes Safari’s the fastest (but hey, there is no IE7 nor IE6 on the Mac).
On Windows Safari seems miserable while it is still at beta.
No, I haven’t tried Opera since I was an early adopter i.e. Opera 1.0 and 2.x user and back then never figured out why they tried to charge me for a web browser which was slower and buggier than its counterparts which came along with the OS for free. Abondoned it since version 2 and never looked back.
tabrez | September 6th, 2007 @ 1:49 am |
I don’t like the alien look of Firefox in Vista(even with Vista theme!), IE on the other hand looks very slick.
But I keep going back to Firefox in no time as I can’t live without its support for the extensions. Firefox looks bad, is slow but it is so customizable, it wins the day in the end for me.
Sean | September 6th, 2007 @ 2:08 am |
Oh no – they haven’t converted you have they? I think writing your post at 3:33am tells me that you must have been tired and didn’t know what you where doing using IE7 pile of … You have changed back to Firefox right?
Nick Georgakis | September 6th, 2007 @ 2:08 am |
Try K-Meleon!
(http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/)
K-Meleon is an extremely fast, customizable, lightweight web browser for the Win32 (Windows) platform based on the Gecko layout engine (the rendering engine of Mozilla). K-Meleon is free, open source software released under the GNU General Public License.
Tom | September 6th, 2007 @ 4:00 am |
The fact that you’re using IE7 shouldn’t be the biggest confession … and this goes for all of you. Since you’re using IE7, the confession should be … you’re still using a PC. OI!
Pingback: blog-O-rama » Blog Archive » Opera 9.5 mit My Opera Synchronizer
Brent O'Connor | September 6th, 2007 @ 7:15 am |
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Pingback: about:blank » Blog Archive » Mundo estranho esse heim?
Alex | September 6th, 2007 @ 11:14 am |
Yes, Firefox is an extremely slow browser, but as someone said, Opera is even faster and much more usable than both of them.
Matt G | September 6th, 2007 @ 12:41 pm |
I’ve been converted to firefox for half a year now and I love it. It took me so long just to figure out how to put page rank for google on it with my settings taking up only one line of space. I was also playing with Safari for Vista and I liked that. It was probably the look of it. However, I couldn’t figure out how to put Google’s Page Rank on Safari for Vista. If anyone figured out how to do that I might just play on Safari for a little and give FireFox a break. Your “Confession” title is a great, Matt. I was thinking what confession does he have. I just have to find out.
)
Nicole | September 6th, 2007 @ 6:01 pm |
*tisk tisk* Shameful
I really don’t like IE7. When it was in dev we were making all sorts of suggestions to the MS team on the interface design being all out of whack, and they never changed it (big surprise). I still can’t get past the fact that they moved the reload and stop buttons to the right side – irritates the life out of me.
I use Firefox alot, but to be honest, I adore Opera. If Opera plugins were available like FF ones, I’d be a constant Opera user. On the other hand, I think I’m one of the few people out there who don’t like Safari.
Alan | September 6th, 2007 @ 7:29 pm |
IE7 was one of the reasons I switched to the Mac. I like to zoom the text on many sites and IE7 seemed to do a crappy job as opposed to Opera and Firefox. It seemed MS threw a new browser together and added the zoom feature as an after thought. The new clunky toolbar layout didn’t help either. If that was the direction MS was taking; I wanted to go somewhere else.
Yalli Oliveira | September 6th, 2007 @ 7:32 pm |
You are crazy!
Barry Voeten | September 6th, 2007 @ 8:01 pm |
Firefox slow? Hmm I did not notice. Why would that be?
I don’t get it. It’s slow on your box?? My machine, couple of years old, just runs a AMD 64 3000+ with 1 Gb. The proc usually clocks just 1Ghz, controlled by some kernel.. wait a minute, it’s Ubuntu. Do you think the OS has anything to do with this?
Avrila | September 6th, 2007 @ 11:03 pm |
Did I just pull a Rip Van Winkle? I didn’t realize it was April 1 *checks calendar*
mo | September 6th, 2007 @ 11:19 pm |
oh no.. you can’t say that.. you, you betrayer!
plugins? greasemonkey? style it?
can’t live without them.
Sean | September 7th, 2007 @ 1:03 am |
K-Meleon – Another clone of Firefox – just like Flock was…
GO | September 7th, 2007 @ 1:47 am |
I ended up having to stick on FireFox for posting/editing my WordPress blogs as well as my joomla sites. Because my html, otherwise, is messed up after posting on IE 7 and Safari 3 beta to which I switched.
My surfing experience is very satisfactory with the latest versions of these browsers, whereas CMS / js-based WYSIWYG editor experiences “thumbs down”.
Is anyone experiencing any similar problems or is it just me and/or my WYSIWYG plugins?
Asbjørn Ulsberg | September 7th, 2007 @ 3:41 am |
“And Opera 9.x, let it be known, smacks silly the likes of Firefox and Internet Explorer, which tend to have results in the 900-1500ms range on this test machine”.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070905-first-look-opera-9-5-alpha.html
Adam Kayce : Monk At Work | September 7th, 2007 @ 7:12 am |
How could you, Matt? First Milli Vanilli, and now this…
Ryan Waddell | September 7th, 2007 @ 9:59 am |
I like it as well – I particularly like how it doesn’t end up using like 150 megabytes of memory if I leave it open for a couple days (as I often do with Firefox).
OPEN GIGA | September 7th, 2007 @ 11:25 am |
I have no good experience about IE. I always use Mozilla.
thanks
Greg | September 7th, 2007 @ 11:07 pm |
Goodness, April fools has come around early?
Daniel | September 8th, 2007 @ 7:11 am |
After going through the comments here, I’ll mention why I actually continue to use IE over Firefox (Chris’s comment is actually the complete opposite of my pattern of use).
Where Chris uses IE for video streaming, and FF for development — I take the opposite approach.
I use Firefox when I want better rendering performance, and IE for development. I use IE for development, because IE is still plagued with most of the culprit issues regarding mark-up compliance and support. I’d rather be able to see what’s going wrong in the app that’s likely to produce the problem, than having to back-track through the code after all is said and done.
Which is a sad way to go about things, but that’s life.
f0b0s | September 8th, 2007 @ 10:00 am |
yeah… just try opera!
Oskar Syahbana | September 8th, 2007 @ 3:01 pm |
ANYTHING is better than Firefox at this moment. Firefox 2 memory leaks is just unforgivable. How on earth does the browser use almost 1+GB of RAM when all I opened is just 4 tabs that display CSS only site…
Musikele | September 9th, 2007 @ 5:54 am |
Well, don’t forget that IE7 is strightly coupled with it’s operating system, while firefox is cross-platform, and it’s paying it’s flexibility.
You should give a try with Swiftfox (dunno if this is the right name!), the firefox version compiled for your architecture and operating system, optimizided for it. I have never tried it but I think I’ll do.
Kisses from Italy!
Kevin | September 9th, 2007 @ 10:14 pm |
I Konqueror mostly, except for when I’m at work(like now), and don’t have a Linux desktop handy, in which case I use Firefox and IE.
The development concerns I’ve always encountered with IE tend to deal with margins. The 3 pixel drop that IE adds when you have both a float and margin attribute set is annoying. This has turned me into a div happy designer, instead of using margins, I simply use box width + float + multiple divs to simulate margins. There are some other things that IE messes up (like the :before state) that merely get in the way of an aesthetic design.
As for speed, performace, memory consumption, etc. IE7 and FF seem to run about the same for me, FF just has the handy restore session capability that is awesome when you are running 20+ tools from one browser.
robert | September 10th, 2007 @ 1:37 am |
Opera, Firefox, SeaMonkey, GoMonkey, CatchMonkey…….?!
Too much for my insecure browsing mind to cope with!
I’ll just stick to IE7. Crap but I am too scared to move on to any of the others. So if FF is getting sluggish and catrching the IE7 doldrums, what would you guys suggest I try out?
Which is the best browser at this time in terms speed, rendering and plugins?
Reyn | September 11th, 2007 @ 11:47 pm |
@Robert
don’t be afraid to try them out and find out for yourself what best suits your needs. people would have varying opinions on this. In my case, I use Camino although it’s a slightly watered down version of the Firefox. Just because it has the functionality that I need.
Pingback: Microsoft on the margins | pacificpelican.us/blog
Adam | September 18th, 2007 @ 11:08 pm |
I’ve just lost all sorts of respect for you.
For me IE7 has been extremely slow, even to open, and screws up the look of so many sites due to the strange quirks it has.
Please see the light and escape the evil clutches of IE7.
Friend | September 26th, 2007 @ 2:21 pm |
IE7’s memory usage, at least what is claimed on the process list, is an order of magnitude more efficient than Firefox’s. Thus, less swapping, and faster performance.
GA | September 26th, 2007 @ 7:11 pm |
IE7 is fast, secure and has the best (and easier to use) UI of all the browsers in the market today. I’ve seen people use it without problems in seconds coming from IE6 and FFox.
The RSS reader is excellent.
I am sure that a lot of people here saying to use FFox, Opera, Safari, etc… secretly use IE7 at home or when nobody is looking. It’s just that being “alternative” or “anti-microsoft” is sooooo cooool these days!
C’mon Matt use whatever you want and don’t ask for forgiveness for doing it.