Internet Explorer 7 v Firefox 2.0

Extras - Internet Explorer

There are less bells and whistles on Internet Explorer 7, but then it's had rather a major overhaul in the first place.

IE7 also has a built in RSS reader, which is a massive step up from the zero RSS support in IE6. There are various options for subscription and feeds can be accessed just like bookmarks in the favourites folder or from the toolbar. Good stuff.

There's now a Firefox-esque applet for managing extensions or, as IE7 calls them, add-ons. You can use this panel to enable and disable the ones you have, and also go looking for more.

More amusing is Internet Explorer 7's default behaviour when you try to download Firefox. Heading to the Mozilla site for download, then downloading the replacement browser, results in IE7 blocking the 'potentially unsafe' download. Monopoly? What monopoly?

Speed

A quick note on speed. We did not find any perceptible difference in page rendering speeds between the two browsers. As with XP, IE7 is faster to load for the first time than Firefox. However, once you've loaded Firefox, it's just as fast to close and reopen.

Thoughts

Clearly, IE7 is a massive upgrade - and now there's really nothing that Firefox does that Internet Explorer doesn't, in terms of functionality. What Firefox does have is a large library of extensions for those who like to customise their browser, as well as the general pro-security feature of open source vs. closed source.

It pains me to say it, but my initial impression is that for a lot of people, there's no real reason to head to Firefox. Internet Explorer is such a large improvement over version 6 that it's hard to imagine what would get you to bother downloading it, unless you're a Mozilla fanboy or an extensions addict.

Regardless of your position on the FF v IE debate, it's clearly good that average joes that haven't even heard of Firefox are going to end up with a better (and safer) browsing experience in Vista.

If IE7 is such a massive improvement, it's hard to see what about the new Firefox really justifies the moniker '2.0'. It really seems like more of a 1.6 - there's not a lot of difference here. The browser wars just got a lot more interesting...