MikeWo took a peek at Firefox and has posted his thoughts. I used to use Firefox now and then, primarily for Googling [Google Groups] (I found it extremely wonderful to open new tabs and see the threads I had opened, as opposed to having to Alt-Tab to a new IE window).
I concur with Mike that the toolbars need some work. I have my IE toolbars set to No text labels and Small icons; I attempted to mimic this in Firefox, but I find that the toolbars are still too tall. IE accommodates my greed for screen real estate; I wish Firefox would.
There are many, many nifty extensions and add-ins (the search engines add-ins rock), and quite frankly, the level of trust I place in these is much higher than with those for IE.
Download manager: IE needs this. Options dialog: I think my wife could get through this herself without asking me questions (and it's prettier than IE's).
And lastly, the tabs; the wonderful, addictive tabs. Mike doesn't think that tabs aren't that much of an improvement over Alt-Tabbing through your IE windows; I'll agree to a point (Ctrl-Tab or Alt-Tab, pick one). Here's one reason I'm hooked on tabs: I'm a neat freak. Too many IE windows stacking up makes me twitchy (just like a cluttered desktop and non-emptied Recycle Bin). Using tabs provides, IMO, a nicely organized way to present all your browser 'windows'.
With all that said, I've stopped using Firefox. Why? Too many sites I visit (read: MSFT sites) do not display/function properly in Firefox*. Example: http://support.microsoft.com Open this site in IE and Firefox; looks fine. Now, click the Search the Knowledge Base link at the top (the one next to the books & magnifying glass icon). What happens? Firefox takes me to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx, and IE takes me to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;KBHOWTO Yeah, that's useful. Bad Firefox, no cookie! (no pun intended)
At the risk of public embarassment (probably do me some good, hmm?), I'd love to know if there is some setting I missed that would let Firefox follow that link appropriately.
What do I use now? Primarily Maxthon (fka MyIE2). I didn't install / disabled all the wack add-ins that it ships with (they make me nervous, security-wise, so I'm running it in a rather 'vanilla' configuration. Why Maxthon? IE experience with tabs, it's that simple. I also like how when using Ctrl-Tab to run through the open tabs it shows a list of them so that you can see the full page title (Firefox doesn't do this). Oh, and it's toolbars are accomodating to my screen real estate greed.
But hey, it all comes down to personal preference, now doesn't it? Firefox is cool, but I prefer Maxthon and IE.
-Nino
*Yeah, I know about the Open in IE extension for Firefox, but that defeats the purpose of switching browsers, eh?
[Listening to: Praise - Sevendust - (03:39)]