I confess.  I'm a Microsoft gal.   I've had a PC on my desk for 26 years (well, a series of them, that is); I'm a  Microsoft Office (2007) and Vista fan – and I've never used any browser other than Internet Explorer.

So a week or so ago I upgraded to Internet Explorer 8 from IE7, which I have been very happy with for the past couple of years…..  but being a quasi-techi, I just HAD to get the newer, bigger, and badder version within days of its public release.  Well, it was bound to happen eventually; luck ran out on this "early adopter" and it turns out that IE8 doesn't (yet, anyway) seem to work with the ordering system we use when placing our Stampin' Up!® orders.  Oops!  But who knew?!?

Soooooo on the recommendation of several people I trust, I then installed Firefox 3.  ("Oh, I just LOVE Firefox", everyone said.) 

OH.    MY.   WORD!!!!

I haven't encountered such slooooooooow responses on my computer since way back in 1983 when I was using an antique dial-up modem connection to telecommute from home after the birth of my son!  (Yes, I was one of the original "telecommuters"!  Did you know that about me?) 

But back in those days you could click the "enter" key (actually, we called it "hit" the enter key in those days, but somewhere along the line apparently it became more socially correct to "click" an enter key rather than to "hit" it – but I digress)……and then you'd have time to change a diaper, wash your hands, and then heat a bottle before you'd get your response back on the screen.  Pretty pathetic when we '09'ers contemplate that, but hey -  we didn't know any better in those days. 

So anyway, this week I've been doing a lot of not-so-welcome reminiscing, 'cuz what I've seen of Firefox so far has transported me to those long ago days of 26 years ago.  WHAT exactly is it that people "love" about having to wait for sometimes up to nearly a full minute before getting a response back when clicking "enter", I wonder?!?  I'm absolutely losing my MIND here!  I've spent hours and hours this week googling and reading all kinds of suggestions for speeding up the performance of this browser, but in spite of everything I've tried, its performance is just disgusting.  The only thing I've found that even remotely seems to help is to close it all down and reopen it every couple of minutes – but THAT's no way to get anything done!

So PLEASE!  If anyone out there has any clue at all how to make Firefox perform like a piece of 2009 software, PLEASE leave me a comment and share your secret!  Before I go completely insane.  Or bald.