Mozilla or IE?

[shakoush2001]

I wrote an article about the differences btw firefox and IE, maybe you folks would like to take a look at it ( I wrote it like 4 weeks ago):

Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft IE that is the question.


Firefox is the new web browser everybody is talking about. But what is this mess all about isn't Internet Explorer the reigning web browser of cyberspace?
Well, it seems that Mozilla Foundation has finally produced a web browser which is capable of competing with Internet Explorer on windows platforms. At present time, Firefox has grabbed about 5% of the market share of web browsers and an estimation of about 46 million users, it is reported that "a whopping 237 percent increase in the number of visitors to the Firefox Web site -- operated by open-source developer Mozilla – [happened] in the past nine months. Some 2.6 million people visited the site during March 2005 to download the browser." (1). Mozilla foundation is looking forward to increase their share of the market to 10% by the end of the year. But why is Firefox emerging as a competitor to IE? The main reason is security, it is claimed that Firefox is much securer than IE and a lot more resistant to spyware, an article about internet security in USATODAY.com claims the following “Beware of spyware. If you can, use the Firefox browser.” (2). But on another hand, security chief John Donovan at Symantec claims that Firefox has an edge over IE in the security field because it has a lower number of users, if the popularity of Firefox increases it would be much more worthy for hackers to try and find security holes in Firefox because of the increased number of users (1).
However, Firefox claims the following features which make it such a popular web browser.
1. Popup Blocking
2. Tabbed Browsing
View more than one web page in a single window with this time saving feature. Open links in the background so that they're ready for viewing when you're ready to read them.
3. Privacy and Security
Built with your security in mind, Firefox keeps your computer safe from malicious spyware by not loading harmful ActiveX controls.
4. Smarter Search
Google Search is built right into the toolbar
5. Live Bookmarks
RSS** integration lets you read the latest news headlines and read updates to your favorite sites that are syndicated.
6. Fits Like a Glove
Simple and intuitive, yet fully featured, Firefox has all the functions you're used to - Bookmarks, History, Full Screen, Text Zooming to make pages with small text easier to read, etc.
7. Setup's a Snap
At only 4.7MB (Windows), Firefox takes just a few minutes to download over a slow connection and seconds over a fast connection. The installer gets you set up quickly, and the new Easy Transition system imports all of your settings - Favorites, passwords and other data from Internet Explorer and other browsers

8. Extensive plug- ins which include Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Shockwave, Java and Real player integration.

In short, from my point of view Mozilla's Firefox is worth at least a try. The main advantages that I observed about using Firefox for 2 months are the following:
• Tabbed browsing, extremely useful when you are making a search or reading more than one article from the same web site "The next release of IE might include tabbed browsing.
• Security, Firefox does not get hijacked the way IE gets hijacked and you don’t have to bother about the tons of popups you get as a result of an computer infected with spyware*.
• RSS feed, if you revisit a site you can directly know what has been changed in that site since your last visit**.
• Periodic security updates which use an automated install progress.
On the other hand I observed some problems with Firefox with automated forwarding in some sites ( for ex: www.flex.mtctouch.com.lb ). But as an overall evaluation Firefox rocks and it presents one more success for open source development over proprietary development, and "IBM plans to develop Firefox extensions to integrate the open-source browser into its server software" (4). I hope that you are considering to use Firefox after reading this article. You can download it for FREE at www.getfirefox.com. So what are you waiting for??





References:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nf/20050414/bs_nf/32881
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2004-09-08-zombieinfect_x.htm
http://www.netzeitung.de/internet/331620.html (This is a German site)
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/71486/ibm-to-bring-firefox-inside.html

Bibilography:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
http://www.netzeitung.de/internet/331620.html (This is a German site)



*Spyware and the ways to face it is covered in this issue.
**RSS feed is going to be covered in our next issue

 

[spacedude89]

ahh, i like netscape navigator 8, i havent had any trouble with adware, spyware, or anything, its got tabbed browsing too,(i couldnt use and internet browser without tabbed browsing)

 

[Bunchofstuff]

i think mozilla is the best, its really fast and again it has the tabed browsing that i use alot....

edit: its WAY faster with dial up because it shows the page b4 the images are loaded

 

[NeuromancerWGDD'U]

I used to run IE, but on dial-up, and Windows 98, IE just let in too much adware and spyware. Alone, I'm sure that IE is an acceptably fast browser, however, it seems that just by going online I'd get about five new items of spyware, and that alone was enough to slow it to a crawl (and no, I didn't visit "shady" websites, I didn't really visit many sites at all). I eventually couldn't do much of anything online, and so I moved to Netscape. Eventually the same thing happened with Netscape. I've been running FireFox for almost twice as long as I had run IE and Netscape, and I rarely have to scan for adware/spyware.

Even if the added security is due to low numbers of users, it's added security nonetheless, and I'd take it over the buggyness of IE and Netscape anyday.

 

[The-Llamalizer]

I have SP2, and have for a long time, and i get popups and spyware from IE way way more than with FF. You also cant beat Adblock for FF.

 

[Travo925]

Ya, i love it. Definately love customizing the look, and it's way faster than IE. I went back to IE just to try it out and it is wayyyy slower.

customize firefox?!?!? how so i want to customize mine

 

[Buzz1927]

In your bookmarks, hit firefox and mozilla links>themes and extensions.

 

[Geoff]

i know its been a long time since anyone has posted, but just wanted to say again, i think Opera and IE are the best. I tried mozilla about a week ago, and i dont like it. Takes a lot longer to load then IE does (ex. clicking on a link on the desktop) and it doesnt support everything that IE does (active X controls mostly). Only thing i like about it is tabbed browsing and the download manger.

I like opera the 2nd best for its tabbed browsing, and just the overall look. And the ability to recover the sites u were on if the program crashes.

 

[PuddleJumper]

To me, firefox is a great browser, but I still prefer ie6+sp2; I don't notice a huge speed difference, and tabbed browsing is neat but not a huge plus for me. I'm sticking with IE, even if it's not the hip thing to do.

 

[Lorand]

Which is better?
AMD or Intel... ATI or NVidia... IE or Firefox...
That is a false question because all of them have pluses and minuses.
I have AMD (becaue at that time AMD was cheaper and I was tight on the budget), ATI (because I wanted a VIVO card with tuner on it) and I use IE (because I'm too lazy to install any other browser).

In my opinion doesn't matter what is in your computer, more important is for what are you using it: gaming, working, or just fooling around tweaking Firefox all day...

 

[dragon2309]

Thats exactly what i was planning to post when i hadfinished readin gnad i get to the end and youe beet me to it. Damn you. Anyway, there is no holy grail so dont try searching for it.

Everything excels in different fields, thats why BOTH AMD and INTEL are still in business, if one was clearly better than the other the worse one would have gone out of business a long time ago.

And i think if you were to take a look at the website access logs of something like google it would be fairly evenly split as to which users have which browser.

 

[Elite]

Firefox is better because it more secure it has had over 50 millions downloads so far

 

[Praetor]

Which is better?
AMD or Intel... ATI or NVidia... IE or Firefox...
That is a false question because all of them have pluses and minuses.

Ah great minds....

Firefox is better because it more secure it has had over 50 millions downloads so far

Except two things
1. Short of formal methods (which i dont think apply here), you cant prove something is secure... only that it is insecure
2. # of downloads doesnt make something good

 

[Geoff]

Exactly, i saw a program at download.com with tons of downloads, but everyone gave it a one star. And i would image that IE has way more then 50 million downloads

 

[dragon2309]

IE doesnt need downloads, i would expect that 80% of the copy's of IE were already on systems when they were bought from the shop. If Firefox was really SOOO much better than IE then dont you think they would have struck some kind of deal and been included in windows....?

 

[Lorand]

# of downloads doesnt make something good

Yeah, I downloaded Firefox twice (once the beta, then the final) for testing it, and deleted also twice.
Let's suppose that 20% of those who downloaded it done the same. So the real figure of users could be 50 million - 20 million = 30 million.
Those who downloaded and kept Firefox on their computers must had their system full of malwares, so it's possible to had their connection broke while downloading. Let's say they tried it twice. So the real figure is 30 million / 2 = 15 million.
And because many users downloaded newer versions while already having Firefox on their computer (let's say 3 times on average), the real figure could be 15 million / 3 = 5 million.

Finally, considering that (an estimated) 500 million users are online worldwide, it turns out that only 1% of them are Firefox-fanboys...

 

[houssam_ballout]

I use IE

For me I use both IE and firefox, since there are some functionalities in IE that u don't have (or can be easily get via FireFox).

 

[red onion]

dont you think they would have struck some kind of deal and been included in windows....?

When pigs fly!
Don't you remember the Browser wars?

 

[dragon2309]

Yeh i suppose that would never happen but i was just saying that if it was really supposed to be utterly amazing then IE would be obliterated and wouldnt exist.

 

[Cromewell]

I use firefox for 1 reason: IE would randomly have an exception fault when clicking a link and firefox doesn't. Firefox has it's problems (like the damn unavailable plug in) and it crashes (also randomly) but less often. As for the poll I picked 'Internet? What's that?' because (as is visible in my sig) I just found out they have the internet on computers now

Complain all you want about IE's insecurities but FF has them too, just very few (if anyone) is looking for them. When you get down to it, just like windows and unix, they are both built on the same base and naturally will suffer from the same problems, you just need to know where to look.