Okay,
I know I said I was going to review a motherboard in my next post, but the battle of the Fiery Fox vs the Redmond Rascal is too exciting to wait.
So, I've upgraded both IE9 and Firefox 4 to see what the buzz is all about. Over the past few years, I have been more of an IE user due to the speed of the browser and the integration with some Microsoft owned services such as SharePoint. I did have Firefox installed and used it mainly on my Macbook and love many of the features and customizations it offers. So this review is very conflicted but honest.
Both FireFox and IE sport a new minimalistic look and feel that gives the user more real-estate for browsing. On top of the extra screen space (especially when you are using a 13" laptop screen), the speed of both browsers is impressive. Keeping with the honest theme, it is difficult to determine a winner based on real estate and speed alone since both seem to have the same drank from the same Koolaid. Based on my eye, it looks like IE may have a slight advantage in the real estate arena as the toolbar is not a big as Firefox's (sometimes size always doesn't matter). This gives the user a little bit more screen space for browsing though to be honest, is only a minimal difference.
Talking about the tool bars, the layouts for both IE and Firefox are very similar, almost like they were trying to copy each other ;). Right down to the right click on the tool bars to enable additional bars/views, both browsers seem to sport the same advantages over their previous versions. To be honest, at this time I am having a difficult time trying to outline a difference between these browsers and provide a recommendation for which on to use.
From a corporate stand point, I can see IE still leading the pact as integration with such Microsoft services as SharePoint is key in many organizations. If your corporation hasn't drank the MS Koolaid, then this may not be an issue (lucky you).
From a portability standpoint, Firefox wins as it is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux (other OSes as well but I can't recall). Since I have been using a Mac system over the past few months, being able to use the same browser on any OS is a nice advantage. I can have the same look and feel on any system and don't need to remember how each works.
So... If I had to choose between IE9 or FireFox 4, what would it be? Well, here are my thoughts:
IE 9:
- If my work was using MS applications and services, such as SharePoint, I would pick IE 9 due to it's tight integration with these applications.
FireFox 4:
- For all systems out side of work, I would go with FireFox. Simply because it's a product that I can use across multiple platforms and the look and feel are the same (no learning curve).
My choice - FireFox... Yes I've switched from a long time IE fan to Firefox 4. This is the best browser I have used in years and love the speed and look. Sorry Microsoft, Firefox had me at "http://"
Final thought... The Browser War is very similar to the Tablet War...
- Firefox is like the iPad... It is for people that want to have fun and be able to do work on the same device.
- Internet Explorer is like the Blackberry Playbook... It is more for the corporate user that is strictly business and doesn't care about playing games and cool multimedia applications.
Firefox and iPad may not be the best association (open versus closed systems), but you should get the point ;)
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