Firefox or Opera? Alternative to Outlook?
I'm looking to stop using IE7 as it's just so s-l-o-w and prone to crashing, especially when first starting or when opening more than a handful of tabs.

I quite like Chrome for its speed and incognito mode, but it seems a bit basic.

It it worth trying Firefox or Opera? If I could only choose one, which should I go for and why?

Also, I tried to ditch Outlook (2003) and was initially impressed with Thunderbird, especially the ability to sort by "conversation". But then I realised it has no calendar or tasks. Is there anything out there as good but which which includes all of Outlook's elements and not just email?
(How soon is now?, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:04, 44 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Firefox.
It works. It has great add-ons if you do any web development. Its browser market share is creeping up. It's fairly well supported. I use it. I get my students to use it.

Take your pick.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:06, Reply)

I also endorse
Firefox.

And eating free cheese
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:08, Reply)

What kind of cheese?
and where did you get it?
(Bazongaloid, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:14, Reply)

Stop asking em questions to get
me to talk to you
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:16, Reply)

Who's em?

(Bazongaloid, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:17, Reply)

She's the cheese giver

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:18, Reply)

I like her already

(Bazongaloid, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:25, Reply)

She doesn't like you
you fat cunt
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:28, Reply)

She used to like me
but them I tried to touch her Frou Frou.

She didn't like that.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:39, Reply)

firefox
with decent addons (adblock pro is an absolute must) will change your life. IE7/8 are a waste of time.

your life will drastically improve. Slightly.

Google Calendar i use full time now, havent used outlook for years. Have no complaints.
( I have run out of coke is a little sweaty, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:10, Reply)

Firefox is great if
you are happy to spend 5 hours finding add-ons and plug-ins for all the stuff it is missing, I'd just go with Opera though.

The new Opera 10 beta is very good!
www.opera.com/browser/next/

As for the Outlook replacement I can't help there as I've been very happy with OL2K7
(bill, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:12, Reply)

5 Hours?
How shit at the internet are you?

It takes five minutes to add flashblocker, adblock plus and tab mix plus.

And then you can always use the STOP! Hammertime one for fun.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:15, Reply)

stop! hammertime is officially the best plugin for anything, ever

( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 14:24, Reply)

Installs FF
Adds flashblocker, adblock plus and tab mix plus

Now where the fuck are my mouse gestures, speed dial, feed manager & download manager that doesn't suck donkey cock for a start, never mind the fact that I can't move the fucking tabs to the bottom where they belong.

Well, ok I actually did none of these things because my Firefox keeps trying to download an update over my flaky 3G connection and failing whereas Opera can download fine.
(bill, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 15:19, Reply)

outlook replacement
the google apps (gmail, calendar, etc. with google gears for offline mode) probably come the closest to replacing outlook.
( robtoo is all out of gum, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:18, Reply)

Google can do no wrong
except for the like of Google Sites which is fucking atrocious.

But Gmail and Google Calendar are win. And Maps. God, I love Google Maps.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:24, Reply)

Is the b3tard uploader working again?
It wasn't earlier in the week.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:24, Reply)

or yesterday

( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:25, Reply)

Yes.
I asked that.
Then checked.
And it worked.
Good work robtoo.
( Cawl, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:26, Reply)

Wooo!
Thanks robtoo
(Bazongaloid, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:27, Reply)

yup
the disk had just filled up -- turns out there were 10GB of pictures on there... So I upped the disk allocation.
( robtoo is all out of gum, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:28, Reply)

Cheers for fixing it,
T'is a most excellent service.
( Cawl, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:29, Reply)

coughmassivesuckupcough

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:31, Reply)

Fuck off.
The internet would be far poorer if I couldn't upload masterpieces like this:
www.b3tards.com/u/33b5702509926c2beff6/hover-squid.jpg
( Cawl, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:32, Reply)

yeah...
I'm betting Robtoo is jumping for joy that you are filling up his space with shit amazing pieces of work shit like that
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:34, Reply)

I would be.

( Cawl, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:35, Reply)

That's ace!

(Bazongaloid, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:38, Reply)

I know.
It's part of the "Combined-Animals Series".
www.b3tards.com/u/33b5702509926c2beff6/ant-bear.jpg
www.b3tards.com/u/33b5702509926c2beff6/pig-eons.jpg
( Cawl, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:46, Reply)

I don't really get all this browser wars thing
I use Safari for most things (yes, I'm a Mac user) because it works OK the vast majority of the time, it's what I'm used to, and it does the job. For some sites which Safari has trouble with I'll use Firefox, but they're becoming fewer, because Safari works with virtually all sites now.

As regards functionality, they do pretty much the same thing in pretty much the same way, as far as I can see. Much of a muchness. In the past, I've used Netscape, Mosaic, Opera, IE, whatever, and can't really say any of them were hugely better than any others, rendering speed apart. But in a lot of cases, the limiting factor is the net connection speed.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:23, Reply)

Outlook replacement
Thunderbird has a calender plugin.

As for the browser I use Iron (exactly the same as chrome but without the analytics) and Firefox but I'm not as much a fan of Firefox as I used to be.
( Captain V, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:33, Reply)

When's your birthday?

( Cawl, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:33, Reply)

Erm
September, why?
( Captain V, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:34, Reply)

heheh
excellent
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:35, Reply)

Hmmm
What have I missed?
( Captain V, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:35, Reply)

*evil grins*
*rubs hands together*
( Cawl, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:36, Reply)

Going to have to start researching

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:37, Reply)

I'm not looking forward to my birthday anymore :(

( Captain V, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:38, Reply)

Aww you should
it's an awesome thing we are planning
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:41, Reply)

I don't trust you two
Not one little bit
( Captain V, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:42, Reply)

Ok who can we tell
that you trust and will agree it's awesome
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:43, Reply)

Nah don't
The suspense is more fun this way :p
( Captain V, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 12:45, Reply)

Well
STFU THEN
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 13:12, Reply)

Chrome

( WormuIus, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 13:04, Reply)

I use Thunderbird
With the Lightning plugin for calendar and tasks. Works great.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Fri 10 Jul 2009, 13:14, Reply)