Java/Chat

[Twinky]

Thought I'd have a dive into Chat tonight but when I tried to get in, my computer complained about Fatal errors. SO I clicked on the links that are set up on the Cafe page which take you into the Sun Microsystems pages.

I've done this before and think I just deleted Java recently on tidying up my computer, or maybe CCleaner tidied it up for me.

Anyway, what do I need to download now?

This computer uses Win 2000 and IE. Have Firefox too but don't really use it.

[WordWolf]

Thought I'd have a dive into Chat tonight but when I tried to get in, my computer complained about Fatal errors. SO I clicked on the links that are set up on the Cafe page which take you into the Sun Microsystems pages.

I've done this before and think I just deleted Java recently on tidying up my computer, or maybe CCleaner tidied it up for me.

Anyway, what do I need to download now?

This computer uses Win 2000 and IE. Have Firefox too but don't really use it.

http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

IMHO, if you're using IE, you'd be happier using Firefox (after a small adjustment.)

http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_xpi.jsp

is the Firefox (Windows) version you'd need.

[Twinky]

Why d'ya recommend Firefox, Wolfie?

And what would be the "small adjustment"?

[WordWolf]

The "small adjustment" is the time it takes to get used to the differences.

People here said I'd wonder why I waited so long to switch.

They were right.

Reasons I recommend Firefox over IE:

1) Security.

Security updates are made available for Firefox a LOT faster than for IE.

Remember, IE is a Microsoft product.

Microsoft's assumptions are that they know what you want, and you need to

be convinced to conform.

2) Firefox is CUSTOMIZABLE.

With Add-Ons, Firefox can get lots of things to make it more the way you like

it. My way involves lots of security and ways to find information.

3) Firefox is consistent across platforms. If you ever move on to Linux or

Mac, you already know Firefox, which means you already know a browser

compatible with that.

4) Firefox is not proprietary. The more you depend on any one company's

software, the more that company owns your computing and internet experiences.

I use Windows, and the O/S is most of what I use from Microsoft.

5) Ideas.

Firefox has lots of good ideas. EVENTUALLY, MS adds a few of them to IE.

It wasn't until the government said they were going to recommend Firefox

because IE wasn't making a particular security patch that MS came out with

the patch. (In HOURS, yet.)

IE added popup blocking, and some few Add-Ons.

Firefox had them for YEARS before that.

That's off the top of my head.

I use IE when I HAVE TO. Usually, I don't even have to-

Firefox has an Add-On that imitates IE for the few sites that aren't standards-compliant

and only work with IE.

[RumRunner]

I'll second W/W's reasons for recommendation and add one more which he already alluded to.

Innovation.

Firefox is constantly, in cooperation (<== important word) with other partners adding innovation such as the add-ons W/W mentioned. Firefox had tabs from day one. It took MS two years and an entire major new release to toss in tabs. As an after thought they added pop-up blocking.

Firefox (Mozilla folks) give full credit to their third party partnerships with the corporate logos etc posted on their web site. Got to MS and see if there is any credit given. MS has a history of looking at a good idea and either buying your company or simply ripping off the idea and replicating it in their closed environment.

Now I confess to being a poster-child for Linux - I was on the kernel development team when Linus Torvalds was still in college and Linux itself was barely a year old (Yes I am older than dirt and when I was born the earth was still cooling).

Firefox is also more robust. Small errors crash IE - Firefox has never crashed on me - it deals with errors as gracefully as possible depending on the error.

W/W also makes another good point. In my house we have all three - Linux (Centos), MS Windoze, and a Mac which my daughter got on a scholarship. We all use (both kids and me) Firefox because we can move from one computer to the other and (as W/W pointed out) the interface is the same.

[leafytwiglet]

I'll second W/W's reasons for recommendation and add one more which he already alluded to.

Innovation.

Firefox is constantly, in cooperation (<== important word) with other partners adding innovation such as the add-ons W/W mentioned. Firefox had tabs from day one. It took MS two years and an entire major new release to toss in tabs. As an after thought they added pop-up blocking.

Firefox (Mozilla folks) give full credit to their third party partnerships with the corporate logos etc posted on their web site. Got to MS and see if there is any credit given. MS has a history of looking at a good idea and either buying your company or simply ripping off the idea and replicating it in their closed environment.

Now I confess to being a poster-child for Linux - I was on the kernel development team when Linus Torvalds was still in college and Linux itself was barely a year old (Yes I am older than dirt and when I was born the earth was still cooling).

Firefox is also more robust. Small errors crash IE - Firefox has never crashed on me - it deals with errors as gracefully as possible depending on the error.

W/W also makes another good point. In my house we have all three - Linux (Centos), MS Windoze, and a Mac which my daughter got on a scholarship. We all use (both kids and me) Firefox because we can move from one computer to the other and (as W/W pointed out) the interface is the same.

OOOH OOOH OHHH raises hand ..

some more good reasons to use firefox.

When you post to forums and such you can see all your spelling errors to fix them.. and if it does have to shut down for some reason it remembers all your web sites you were at and will reload hem when you re-open it. always helpful when you have had 4 or 5 sites open.

[Twinky]

Well, folks, thanks for your suggestions. I have now been using FF for some time, since that scare that IE wasn't secure re banking things. I really like that there are different tabs at the top which I think are available in IE when using Vista or high versions of the operating system; but I have Win 2000 which doesn't support tabs. (Or maybe I just got something else all mixed up here. Anyway I had no tabs with IE)

The remembering of websites is useful too.

Any other tips about FF that I could play with? :)

I still haven't downloaded anything for Chat...which was the point of starting this thread...

[WordWolf]

(snip)

Any other tips about FF that I could play with? :)

(snip)

Tools-AddOns-Extensions.

There's thousands of "AddOns"/"Extensions" to add features to FireFox.

Everyone's got their favorites.

If you want to add security, it's worth the effort to get to learn to use NoScript.

AdblockPlus, once set once, will screen out ads, and you can add more things for it to screen out for you.

Download Helper, DownThemAll, FlashGot, MediaPirate add downloading features,

as does DownloadManagerTweak.

Flashblock stops Flash animation from running until you click on the button that replaces it.

This makes pages load faster, cuts download bloat, and trims out distracting, blinking spots on pages.

(Add this to NoScript and there's another layer preventing automatic Flash.)

IETab allows you to simulate IE use on a page, so you won't need to open IE again except to download

Windows Updates. ;)

ImageZoom allows you to zoom on any image.

NukeAnythingEnhanced allows you to remove any object from your screen.

Redirect Remover allows you to go straight to the page at the end of a redirect, and skip the pages

in between.

There's more, but those I actually recommend.