For the past few months, all I've heard from people is, "Are you
using Firefox yet?"
and, "Download this now!" - this, of course, referring to Firefox,
which moved from beta to version 1.0 this week.
I'd already been using it for a few
weeks, and the question I ask, "Who isn't using Firefox (or one
of the equivalent Mozilla browsers)?"
The answer is over 92% of those using the Web. The rest of the
world is still plugging along with Internet Explorer. They're
somehow clicking away those annoying popup ads, dealing with the
constant adware and spyware that comes sneaks onto their PCs, and
living with the incredibly slow page loading that Internet Explorer
has to offer.
Internet Explorer was once a very good browser. In fact,
Internet Explorer was so fantastic, it essentially destroyed
Netscape, the company that created and once dominated the browser
market. That was 1998, and as of about four years ago, any real
development of Internet Explorer pretty much stopped. Sure, there
were a few new features added in versions 5 and 6 (PC only), but
Internet Explorer is still based on pretty much the same technology
it was based on years ago.
As for the Mac, you can forget about a new version of IE;
Microsoft is holding the line with 5.1 (classic) and 5.2
(OS X). For Windows, no new version will be coming unless you
upgrade to the next version of Windows, Longhorn, which Microsoft
seems to have no idea when they're going to release.
This means that the Internet Explorer 6 that came with Windows
XP in 2001 is pretty much the same as the Internet Explorer 6 that
comes with Windows PCs today. The Internet Explorer 5 that came
installed with Mac OS X 10.1 is almost exactly the same as the
Internet Explorer 5 that installs with 10.3.
The web-browsing world has changed. Internet Explorer hasn't,
and it's time to move on. Today there are popups, spyware, adware,
flashing animated advertisements, and RSS feeds. Internet Explorer
is clueless to all of it.
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a browser that could actually
deal with it?
Thankfully, Firefox can deal with it
all. It has a built in popup blocker, which does an excellent job
of blocking the popups you don't want while still allowing those
that you do click on.
When it comes to spyware and adware, using a Mac eliminates the
problem, but if you have to use a PC, bear in mind that most
spyware is written to take advantage of Internet Explorer. Take
away Internet Explorer, and your machine is a lot less
vulnerable.
Flashing animated adverts, annoying flash videos, and just about
any other annoying image or iFrame can be eliminated by simply
downloading an extension called AdBlock
for Firefox. See an advert you never want to see again? Just
control-click (or right click) it, choose Adblock, and tell it to
block just that image - or by using the '*' key you can block any
images from that source.
Like RSS but don't want to use a reader? Firefox has that
covered, too. You can have live automatic updating bookmarks that
updates headlines from your favorite sites that provide RSS
feeds.
What if you use Safari? Should you switch to Firefox as
well?
Safari wasn't a bad browser when it was released, and it's not
bad now. However, it has a "beta quality" feel to it that has yet
to be dealt with. It takes a long time to load graphically
complicated pages, and still - which I find absolutely unbelievable
- will not show the URL for pages that you print. And you still
can't sort your bookmarks alphabetically.
Come on Apple, that's one of the most basic features! Apple has
yet to do anything about any of it, and it would actually appear
that they couldn't care less about Safari.
Yes, even Safari users would be better off giving Firefox a try.
Firefox is no longer beta, so for those weary of installing beta
software, you now have no excuse. Firefox doesn't force you to make
it your default browser, and you can delete it anytime you want
to.
So what are you waiting for?
