Miaplacidus
22nd Apr 2007, 03:20 AM
If we follow statistics, 126 of this forum's members use it. The web browser market, after having been dominated for years by Microsoft's Internet Explorer, is changing. The company based in Redmond, WA. is quickly losing its dominance in a key branch of the software market, thanks to a new, strong contender to the once impossible to contend Internet Explorer. Its name is Mozilla Firefox.
Firefox has quickly gained market share at the expense of Microsoft. As of March 2007, over 15 percent of all Internet users use Firefox as their default browser. However, what makes it so special? It is known that computer users tend to stick to the programs they're used to. So, what made millions of users switch from Internet Explorer, the browser they had been using for years, to this new product?
Yes, Internet Explorer works. I won't deny that. But experience taught me (and millions of users as well) that Internet Explorer has a number of design flaws. Some have been addressed in the last release, Version 7, which can be downloaded for free for Windows XP and is included in Windows Vista. Most of them haven't.
The main concern I have about Internet Explorer is safety. Like other Microsoft products (most notably Windows), Internet Explorer is known to be very vulnerable to be attacked by viruses, spyware, adware and other forms of malicious code. Then I'll mention stability (Version 7 is even more unstable than Version 6), memory footprint, visual clutter (in version 7), among others.
Cross-platform, easy to use, expansible and sporting a simple yet powerful user interface, Firefox addresses all of those perceived bugs of Internet Explorer and adds some features of its own. It can be easily customized through extensions. Its look and feel can be changed. It isn't as vulnerable to malicious code. Its last version (2.0.0.3 as of April 22, 2007) is definitely faster than Internet Explorer 7, including startup speed. It isn't that Firefox has improved that heavily criticized aspect - being cross-platform, it uses its own system to draw its user interface, which is slower than the native Windows/Linux/Mac OS functions to do so - : Internet Explorer has become slower instead.
Personally, I love its integrated download manager, something that Internet Explorer still lacks as of version 7. It's very useful if you have to download large files (they would fail to download under IE).
I give Firefox five gold stars. For a more comprehensive set of features check the Wikipedia article on Firefox here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Firefox
Firefox has quickly gained market share at the expense of Microsoft. As of March 2007, over 15 percent of all Internet users use Firefox as their default browser. However, what makes it so special? It is known that computer users tend to stick to the programs they're used to. So, what made millions of users switch from Internet Explorer, the browser they had been using for years, to this new product?
Yes, Internet Explorer works. I won't deny that. But experience taught me (and millions of users as well) that Internet Explorer has a number of design flaws. Some have been addressed in the last release, Version 7, which can be downloaded for free for Windows XP and is included in Windows Vista. Most of them haven't.
The main concern I have about Internet Explorer is safety. Like other Microsoft products (most notably Windows), Internet Explorer is known to be very vulnerable to be attacked by viruses, spyware, adware and other forms of malicious code. Then I'll mention stability (Version 7 is even more unstable than Version 6), memory footprint, visual clutter (in version 7), among others.
Cross-platform, easy to use, expansible and sporting a simple yet powerful user interface, Firefox addresses all of those perceived bugs of Internet Explorer and adds some features of its own. It can be easily customized through extensions. Its look and feel can be changed. It isn't as vulnerable to malicious code. Its last version (2.0.0.3 as of April 22, 2007) is definitely faster than Internet Explorer 7, including startup speed. It isn't that Firefox has improved that heavily criticized aspect - being cross-platform, it uses its own system to draw its user interface, which is slower than the native Windows/Linux/Mac OS functions to do so - : Internet Explorer has become slower instead.
Personally, I love its integrated download manager, something that Internet Explorer still lacks as of version 7. It's very useful if you have to download large files (they would fail to download under IE).
I give Firefox five gold stars. For a more comprehensive set of features check the Wikipedia article on Firefox here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Firefox