Mozilla users.

[snoleopard]

I'm thinking of switching from IE and outlook express to Mozilla (Firefox I think). Can anyone tell me the benefits, the drawbacks? Will I have to set up a new mail account, and how do I do that? Will it work with my MSN IM? Will IE still be available to me if some things don't work. Do most programs work with Mozilla? Do I have to change my email address? Any help appreciated.
Edit to add: I've been reading about just the browser part (Firefox?)and it seems great, but there is no answer in the faq or the forums that I found on whether it will recognize my MSN instant messenger or not. Does it. I was also reading about the new, stand alone email client, (Thunderbird?) and can't find an answer to the MSN IM for this software either. Does anyone have the two together, and if so, will my MSN IM work with them?

One other question while I'm here. What do you put in the run command line to get to the HKEY_Users on a computer? I keep getting a DSO reg change from SpyBot and I'd like to delete them permanently as they keep coming back every day.

Since there's hardly anyone on here right now, and I've got no answers yet, I do have another question. I don't have SP2 on my computer, but I notice that there are fixes for it in my add/remove program. Do I need to have these fixes since I don't have the SP2?

[Carpet_pissr]

Will I have to set up a new mail account,
no

Will it work with my MSN IM?
yes

Will IE still be available to me if some things don't work.
yes

Do I have to change my email address?
no

[The Mad Hatter]

"REGEDIT" is the command line to get into the registry. As for Mozilla, it's a very smooth transition from both browser and email client. I haven't looked back.

[Fireball]

I'm thinking of switching from IE and outlook express to Mozilla (Firefox I think). Can anyone tell me the benefits, the drawbacks?

Out of the box, Firefox is a much better browser than Internet Explorer. It has a great find feature, RSS feed subscription tools, tabs and a great extensions interface. With the addition of the Syncronized Bookmarks and a couple tab browser extensions it's pretty much the best browser I've ever used.

It's also in active development and improving at a rapid pace. Microsoft hasn't rolled out any real improvements to the core functionality of Internet Explorer since 2001 (some would say since 1999).

The only downside is that badly written sites which were only proofed against Internet Explorer may not work perfectly in Firefox.

Will I have to set up a new mail account, and how do I do that?

No, aside from Hotmail accounts, Thunderbird will work with any account that Outlook Express works with.

Will it work with my MSN IM?

The two can run concurrently, if that's what you mean.

Does anyone have the two together, and if so, will my MSN IM work with them?

What sort of interconnection is it that you're expecting between your browser/email program and your IM client?

[Rhett]

Firefox is seriously Gods gift to browsers. Just make the switch, download the Otimoz gestures, and a skin/theme that fits you and you are off. I have not looked back once.

[Lee]

Kirk are you using Firefox on your Mac? I didn't really like Opera or OmniWeb on the Mac, they weren't bad but had little things that annoyed me, especially if I had to pay for them, so I stuck with Safari. Is Firefox worth the effort over Safari?

[Fireball]

I use Firefox at my office, where our Macs are on Jaguar. Since the version of Safari that runs on Jaguar is outdated, I moved the company over to Firefox back when 0.9 came out.

I use Firefox some on my Panther Mac at home, but typically I use OmniWeb 5.1 (the beta) or Safari.

However, the new Syncronized Bookmarks extension makes me more apt to use Firefox at home, because like Safari it keeps my bookmarks consistent.

It's not entirely Mac like. For a real Mac version of Mozilla you need to look at Camino 0.8. But Firefox is pretty slick on the Mac, if only because it's pretty slick everywhere.

[snoleopard]

Thanks everyone. Fireball 1244, the two programs were firefox, and the new email client they have which I think is called (Thunderbird?) Since it's new, (I think) I just wondered how the browser and the email program worked together, and if anyone using them together had any problems. One thing for sure, I'm really getting sick of the bugs/exploits in IE, and that's why I'm looking for a better browser/email client. As for the MSN IM I have, in my Outlook Express, it shows the people in my address book as being either online or offlline in the email client. Just wondered if the new one from Mozilla did the same.

[Lee]

It's not entirely Mac like. For a real Mac version of Mozilla you need to look at Camino 0.8.

I read somewhere that Camino was still having some minor problems, so I haven't tried it.

I think I am just going to hold out to see the Tiger release of Safari.