Good: Firefox has a super-small installation (4.9MB), tabbed browsing, multiple shortcut features, integrating pop-up ad blocking, integrated Google search, large viewing area, compatibility with IE shortcuts/ favorites/cookies, clean interface, very user friendly design, and no glaring security holes.
Bad: images load 30% slower than IE; Firefox does not integrate well with Outlook email or Pocket PC Synching; browser plug-ins like Flash and Shockwave require extra user effort to install; some Javascripts will not run in Firefox. Some online banks and other password-protected websites are not designed to allow Firefox users.
Overall: Despite its small flaws, Firefox is an excellent browser that is within a two years of unseating Microsoft IE from its throne.
BACKGROUND
In the mid 1990’s, a heated courtroom battle of Microsoft IE versus Netscape Navigator was waged. After years of legal wrestling, Microsoft triumphed with the permission to bundle its IE browser into its Windows software and distribute it freely. By the sheer inertia of this distribution, 90% of the world now uses Microsoft IE to surf the web.
Netscape, while losing the market share battle, did preserve a spot in the universe by starting the Mozilla Project in 1998, where they published the Netscape source code for open developer use. Within six years, “Firebird” was designed, which has now become “Firefox”, a very respectable browser that will give Microsoft a run for its money.
Now, Firefox is available as free software at www.mozilla.org and at www.getfirefox.com
FIREFOX PROS
1. The Mozilla Firefox browser is amazingly lean. At just over 4.9MB to download and install, Firefox does not suffer from being overweight (unlike Microsoft IE6 at 80MB). The 4.9MB Firefox install does not include plug-ins like Java Virtual Machine, Flash Player, Quicktime and Shockwave, but those features can be added through 30 minutes of user effort.
2. Firefox supports plenty of user shortcuts and keystrokes. Both novices and power users will like the helpful little perks like “Type Ahead”, CTRL-enter to complete URLs, and CTRL-T to launch new tabs. In many ways, it feels like Microsoft IE, and IE users will find it easy to switch to Firefox.
3. Integrated pop-up blocking! Yes, Firefox will shut down those pesky advertisements for you. No need to install 3rd party software…just set your Firefox options in your Tools menu to prevent pop-ups.
4. Power User Feature: Firefox can prevent annoying Javascript code from hiding your status bar, resizing or moving your window.
5. Larger viewing area than IE. With smaller toolbars, Firefox can fit nearly 10% more surface area onto your monitor.
6. Nifty bookmarking features for researchers! It is possible to bookmark and folder-organize multiple tabs at once.
THE BEST FEATURE OF FIREFOX
Tabbed browsing. This is the most elegant and efficient way to run multiple windows at once. Instead of loading another 40MB of code into your computer's memory, each new "tab" window in Firefox adds less than 1MB of overhead load. With a simple press of keystroke CTRL-T, you can have a Google window, a Hotmail window, a news window, an Icebergradio.com window, and multiple other browsing screens. This is particularly useful for people on dial-up who want to multi-task while waiting for slow pages. Microsoft IE should take a lesson from this extremely useful tabbed design.
FIREFOX DOWNSIDES
As much as Firefox is a great tool, there are some small deficiencies in this application. Gratefully, these deficiencies will be quite minor for most users, and with impending improvements, these glitches will likely be repaired within the next 12 to 18 months.
1. Images inconsistently load slower than IE. While Internet Explorer will render most web pages quickly on DSL or cable bandwidth, Firefox seems to intermittently take 30% to 100% longer to render the same graphics. This is not a consistent flaw; it seems unique to whichever website you are visiting.
2. Firefox does not integrate well with Outlook or Outlook express email. With little annoying things like viewing HTML email, or launching links from a message, Firefox does not respond quickly, and often fails to respond at all.
3. Firefox also fails to integrate with Pocket PC Windows and USB cradle synching. Although only a small percentage of users actually download web calendars and web mail into their Pocket PC’s, that small percentage will be frustrated until Firefox fixes this.
4. Firefox will not render the same web page format and styles that IE will. For example: where you would normally see a page's black table outline in IE, you will see a blurred grey outline in Firefox. Not a show-stopper, but annoying, especially to web developers.
5. Plug-Ins do not auto-install as easily as IE. To add Flash player, Shockwave, Quicktime, and Java Virtual Machine, Firefox users need to manually search and download/install these tools. Sometimes, you will even need to tweak the installs using Firefox Tools menu.
6. Power User Complaint: intermittently, HTML form buttons fail to respond to the keyboard enter button in Firefox. For example: to log into one of my online bank accounts, I normally enter my account number and PIN, and press enter to submit. In Firefox, I need to switch to my mouse to press submit. This is a small peeve for those of us who love our keyboards.
PERSONAL COMMENTS
I must confess, despite my devout loyalty to Microsoft's IE browser, I absolutely adore Firefox! It's clean, fast, similar enough to IE for immediate transition, and better in many little aspects. I am particularly fond of the tabbed pages, group bookmarking, and personal skin options. For repetitive browsing, searching, and viewing 90% of web pages, Mozilla’s Firefox is now my preferred choice.
Most significantly: I prefer to do online financial transactions in Firefox instead of IE. Firefox is much more reliable for encrypting my passwords and protecting my online PINS.
Granted, there are times I need to switch back to IE: viewing my web calendars, synching my Pocket PC, and viewing a select few web pages that render better in IE. But outside of these few exceptions, I am now a Firefox convert.
SUMMARY
Whether you are loyal to IE, Opera, Safari, Mozilla, or Netscape, the imperfect-but-lean Firefox is a highly recommended alternative. With so many helpful little features like pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, horizontal bookmarks, and integrated Google, Mozilla's Firefox is working hard to win its users affection. By focusing on the most-appreciated browsing features, the Mozilla developers are giving users a slick and lean alternative to the bloated-and-insecure Microsoft IE browser.
Is this the end of Microsoft IE? No, not by a long shot, but this is the first really serious threat to IE's market share, and perhaps the beginning of Browser War II. As of this writing, an estimated 35 million users have switched from IE to Firefox, or roughly 15% of the Internet public. Accordingly Microsoft's market share has dropped from 90% to less than 80% since Firefox was released.
Try Firefox out for yourself. Maybe you'll see why so many users are switching over.
Yours Truly,
Ferdinand Che
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