Browse Happy
When Mac OS X first came on the scene Mac web browsing was in a sad state. I had used Mozilla and iCab back on Mac OS 9 and when OS X was taking its baby steps I tried Opera, Omniweb, Mozilla, and Internet Explorer, and eventually settled on Camino. Camino was the best OS X browsing choice for me until Safari and Firefox arrived. It blocked pop-up windows and had tabbed browsing in single-window mode (meaning applications would open new links in a new tab in the same window). But now Firefox from the Mozilla project has taken the lead on all platforms and is running away from the field (and it a nice twist of fate Firefox for OS X and Linux has a single-window mode but the Windows version does not).
Firefox is fast and has been stable enough (I grew up with Netscape Communicator 4.x on Mac OS 8 so any web browser that doesn't crash a few times a day is an example of brilliant programing to me).
It is open source and at this point in time much more secure than Internet Explorer (IE). In fact, Penn State recently advised all 80,000 students to use anything but Internet Explorer. This was in response to another serious spoofing vulnerability in IE.
Over the past several months there have been several other serious security problems with Internet Explorer. The most serious was a flaw that allowed sites to steal passwords and install malicious code when browsed with IE, this led to the Department of Homeland Security recommending users switch away from Internet Explorer.
There's a web site called Browse Happy that has tales from IE switchers a la Apple's Switcher ads and a list of articles about why IE is unsafe.
Although there are concerns regarding Firefox - they come from a Microsoft guy. All of his concerns and issues are addressed in the comments section of his blog post and he has responded to those comments.
Sure, fast and secure web browsing without pop-up windows is nice but what is real exciting about Firefox is its extensability. Wired.com has an article on some of the popular extensions. The ones I use every day are:
Sage: a minimal RSS reader for the sidebar.
BugMeNot: right-click on login screens to bypass site registration.
AdBlock: Goes beyond Firefox's basic image blocking. Can also block Flash ads.
Google Bar: Like IE's Google toolbar. Right-click on a page to use Google's "find similar pages" and "backwards links" tools.
Switchproxy: I've just started using this extension. If you use different proxies (for ssh tunneling your web connection for example)like I do then this will be a useful extension.
And you can add many different search engines to the search bar. And it is easy to create your own search bar plug-in.
What it comes down to is Firefox is overall a better and safer web browser. But one thing to note is that to be on the safe side when visiting secure sites do NOT do so when mulitple tabs are open.
This is why I use Firefox.
For other's opinion check the Firefox page, FlexBeta.net, and Jeremy Gillick's page to get started.
Firefox is fast and has been stable enough (I grew up with Netscape Communicator 4.x on Mac OS 8 so any web browser that doesn't crash a few times a day is an example of brilliant programing to me).
It is open source and at this point in time much more secure than Internet Explorer (IE). In fact, Penn State recently advised all 80,000 students to use anything but Internet Explorer. This was in response to another serious spoofing vulnerability in IE.
Over the past several months there have been several other serious security problems with Internet Explorer. The most serious was a flaw that allowed sites to steal passwords and install malicious code when browsed with IE, this led to the Department of Homeland Security recommending users switch away from Internet Explorer.
There's a web site called Browse Happy that has tales from IE switchers a la Apple's Switcher ads and a list of articles about why IE is unsafe.
Although there are concerns regarding Firefox - they come from a Microsoft guy. All of his concerns and issues are addressed in the comments section of his blog post and he has responded to those comments.
Sure, fast and secure web browsing without pop-up windows is nice but what is real exciting about Firefox is its extensability. Wired.com has an article on some of the popular extensions. The ones I use every day are:
Sage: a minimal RSS reader for the sidebar.
BugMeNot: right-click on login screens to bypass site registration.
AdBlock: Goes beyond Firefox's basic image blocking. Can also block Flash ads.
Google Bar: Like IE's Google toolbar. Right-click on a page to use Google's "find similar pages" and "backwards links" tools.
Switchproxy: I've just started using this extension. If you use different proxies (for ssh tunneling your web connection for example)like I do then this will be a useful extension.
And you can add many different search engines to the search bar. And it is easy to create your own search bar plug-in.
What it comes down to is Firefox is overall a better and safer web browser. But one thing to note is that to be on the safe side when visiting secure sites do NOT do so when mulitple tabs are open.
This is why I use Firefox.
For other's opinion check the Firefox page, FlexBeta.net, and Jeremy Gillick's page to get started.
posted by Andy at 1:42 PM
<< Home