What Are the Pros and Cons of Firefox®?

If you are an Internet Explorer® user, you may be reluctant to trying another browser, even when people around you claim the wonders of Firefox® or Opera®. While IE serves many people well, it is worth considering Firefox® if you have dealt with certain problems, like security breaches and download problems, in the past. Here is a quick breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of Firefox®.

ADVANTAGES

• Speed. Firefox® is reported to be the fastest browser when it comes to download speed. Not only do programs and files download faster, but you get a record of all your downloads in the form of a table, so you can erase or move them at your convenience.
• Security. Firefox® has some advanced security measures that protect your computer from spyware and even certain viruses. Firefox® also comes with a state-of-the-art popup blocker that stops almost 100 percent of popups.
• Tabbed browsing and other advanced features. Tabbed browsing allows you to open an unlimited number of pages in a single window, thus helping you organize your browsing. Firefox® also has an embedded memory, which means that if your computer is turned off by mistake, Firefox® will remember which Internet pages you had open and offer to get them back for you.

DISADVANTAGES

• Compatibility issues. The main disadvantage of Firefox® is compatibility. Some websites do not show properly in Firefox®, and require you to view them with IE. This includes pages with ActiveX and VBScript, both of which are not supported by Firefox®.
• Memory. Firefox® takes a lot of memory to run. Even with an up-to-date computer, you may find that it becomes hard to run Firefox along with a couple of programs. Firefox® also tends to freeze and close when too many tabs are open simultaneously, which is why Firefox® invested heavily in creating the recovery memory feature.
• Interrupted service. Another disadvantage of Firefox® is that downloads cannot be resumed if interrupted. This may not be a big deal if you have DSL service, but those on a dial-up connection may have a lot of trouble with this. Firefox® was actually designed for people using high-speed Internet, which means dial-up users can run into many problems along the way.

Written by Diana Bocco