Firefox 1.0: Try It, You'll Like It!

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?