Lately I have been having some post IE7 upgrade woes. Sure, I avoided the upgrade as long as I could, but eventually I upgraded just to stop having to worry about canceling it every time Windows Update popped up. Long time readers will know that I am a regular user of Avant Browser, a shell for Internet Explorer that adds all of the tools we’ve come to expect in new browsers such as tabbed browsing and RSS feeds. Following the IE7 upgrade, Avant started to have some wonky behavior. While I am not abandoning my old favorite completely, I am open to entertaining other options. So today I’ll be looking at Firefox 2, arguably the best alternative browser. (Pause for Opera fan boos). Constantly updated and improved, Firefox has grown in popularity every year, stealing away IE users everyday. So let’s take a closer look at Firefox 2 and see how it adds to the web browsing experience. I have not used Firefox since I tried Firefox 1.5 over one year ago, so my comparisons will come largely from my Avant (IE) experience.

When installing Firefox, you have two options: Standard and Custom. Custom allows you to choose to add the "DOM Inspector" and the "Quality Feedback Agent." Then you can choose to add any or all three of the shortcut icons; Desktop, Start Menu and Quick Launch. You can start right away by launching Firefox from the installer. But first, Mozilla will offer to import your options, bookmarks, history and saved passwords from Internet Explorer. You can choose to go clean also. You’ll have the option to import those things anytime later. Lastly, Firefox will ask to be your default browser. Be sure to uncheck "always perform this check" unless you enjoy being interrupted every time you want to go online.

When you first use Firefox, you’ll see two tabs open already. The first, with focus, is a welcome page to learn about Firefox’s features, while the second is a homepage with a Google search. Kudos for the latter, Google is my homepage anyway. The first thing I noticed is the noticeable and plentiful references and links to Mozilla’s Add-Ons. Of course any Firefox fan will point out that extensions are what make Firefox infinitely personalized and useful. I’ll spend some time on those in a moment.

The interface is fairly simple in Firefox. There are three bars along the top; the menu bar, the address bar with just five buttons and a Google search bar, and finally a bookmarks toolbar with two links for Getting Started with Firefox and the latest RSS Headlines. Of course you can rearrange, add/remove toolbars and buttons as needed.

As a new Firefox user, I wanted to look at browsing speed. So I compared loading times for several of my daily websites between IE, Avant and Firefox 2. I counted from the moment I clicked ‘Go’ to the moment the load bar disappeared. Interestingly Firefox took a few wins and Avant took a few others. They never differed by more then a second or two. Internet Explorer on the other hand was consistently a second or two behind the others. With the spread of high speed connections, speed tests hold little importance for many users, but the results are still an interesting means of comparison, revealing the rendering techniques behind the browser.

Now let’s look at memory usage. I recall from my previous trial of Firefox that it tended to use more memory then other browsers. So I wondered if that trend continued with Firefox 2 or if the developers had ironed out that kink. I found that sitting on the PC Mechanic homepage, Firefox 2 used 58MB. On the same page, Internet Explorer used 36MB and Avant Browser used 34MB. So Firefox is still a bit of a memory hog and can only become more of one with multiple tabs running. I would not recommend using it on any light-weight systems, but for any modern PC with plenty of RAM (1GB+), this should not be a major issue.

Lastly let’s look at a few of my favorite Firefox extensions. Extensions will download inside the "Add-ons" window and usually require a restart of Firefox. But that task is simplified with a convenient "Restart Firefox" button tacked right on. After restarting, you’ll often see a welcome/get started tab for each of the extensions you have installed.

Coming from Avant, I’m very used to being able to move around and resize my tabs within the browser. Avant comes with a handful of buttons just for this task and after a while, I grew to find them irreplaceable. But Firefox comes close with "Showcase", a useful F12 shortcut that will display every tab in a grid, so you can easily navigate among them. Next is an extension I found via the PCMech Forums, called StumbleUpon. It does require a signup, but you can start using it immediately via an installed toolbar. StumbleUpon is aptly named, and will load random websites based on the interests you specified during signup. It is a fun way to browse the net, or as StumbleUpon describes it; "Channel Surf the Web". Next, I enjoyed using CoolIris previews. This unobtrusive extension adds a small blue icon next to a link if you hover over it for a moment. Clicking this icon opens a small preview window of the site behind the link. Very helpful for researching. Lastly is IE Tab. This right click option lets you open a link as it would be rendered in IE. It was created for any stubborn old websites that just do not function properly in new browsers. I found that it was eerily accurate; recreating the exact problems I turned to Firefox to avoid.

So that wraps it up for this Freeware Frenzy. Firefox 2 is a very well made program with plenty of options and extras just waiting to be discovered. Try it out, you’ll find something to like.