Firefox -- Are You Using it?
Mozilla has released the latest version of its open source web browser, Firefox 3.0. Firefox is the browser that I generally use myself. I discovered it a few years ago, and I find that I prefer it to Internet Explorer. Here are some reasons you might consider it.
1. Tabbed browsing
I know Internet Explorer has since integrated this, but Firefox started doing this before IE did. Why do I like tabbed browsing? With tabs, I can browse multiple web pages without creating a new "instance" of the program. Firefox will put tabs just under the menu/toolbars so that you can switch between pages easily. This way, if one page is taking a long time to load for some reason, I can switch over to another page. I often go back and forth between pages as I am browsing. Even now that I am using a high speed internet connection, there are times I like to use the tabbed browsing.
2. Better W3C Standards Conformance
W3C is the organization that defines the standards for web technologies such as HTML, XHTML, XML, and CSS. For the average web browser, this may not mean much. Pages can be displayed on IE. But they may not look the same, depending on the CSS code.
I find the deviance of certain standards by Microsoft to be interesting because they are one of the organizations that helps to provide input for these standards.
3. Customization Through Add-Ons
Firefox has thousands of add-ons to customize your browsing experience. Some tools are useful for web page developers, while others may allow you to add search bars, weather reports, and many other features. Firefox also has many "skins" that allow you to change the way the browser looks.
In fact, I'm using an add-on right now! One of the add-ons is called "ScribeFire", and can allow you to post to some blogs.
4. It's Free!
I know... Technically, so is Internet Explorer, but there are some browsers out there that you might have to pay for. Firefox is free. It always has been, and as far as I can tell, always will be.
5. Multi-Platform Support
Whether you are using Windows, Mac, or Linux, or some other operating system, odds are that if it is a fairly widespread operating system, you can find a port that will run on your computer.
6. Crash Recovery
If your browser crashes unexpectedly, Firefox will take you back to where you were before the browswer crashed. In fact, with the latest version of Firefox, not only can you get this functioning when the program crashes, but now, you can set up Firefox to "remember" where you were the last time you had the program open! This can be handy if you are in the middle of checking something when you have to go off to do something else.
To be honest, for the most part, there is very little difference between IE and Firefox. Maybe I switched to this one to be using something other than "Microsoft". Whatever the reason I switched, I find myself using Firefox more than IE. Try it. What I mentioned is only a few of the features, but it has many more.
1. Tabbed browsing
I know Internet Explorer has since integrated this, but Firefox started doing this before IE did. Why do I like tabbed browsing? With tabs, I can browse multiple web pages without creating a new "instance" of the program. Firefox will put tabs just under the menu/toolbars so that you can switch between pages easily. This way, if one page is taking a long time to load for some reason, I can switch over to another page. I often go back and forth between pages as I am browsing. Even now that I am using a high speed internet connection, there are times I like to use the tabbed browsing.
2. Better W3C Standards Conformance
W3C is the organization that defines the standards for web technologies such as HTML, XHTML, XML, and CSS. For the average web browser, this may not mean much. Pages can be displayed on IE. But they may not look the same, depending on the CSS code.
I find the deviance of certain standards by Microsoft to be interesting because they are one of the organizations that helps to provide input for these standards.
3. Customization Through Add-Ons
Firefox has thousands of add-ons to customize your browsing experience. Some tools are useful for web page developers, while others may allow you to add search bars, weather reports, and many other features. Firefox also has many "skins" that allow you to change the way the browser looks.
In fact, I'm using an add-on right now! One of the add-ons is called "ScribeFire", and can allow you to post to some blogs.
4. It's Free!
I know... Technically, so is Internet Explorer, but there are some browsers out there that you might have to pay for. Firefox is free. It always has been, and as far as I can tell, always will be.
5. Multi-Platform Support
Whether you are using Windows, Mac, or Linux, or some other operating system, odds are that if it is a fairly widespread operating system, you can find a port that will run on your computer.
6. Crash Recovery
If your browser crashes unexpectedly, Firefox will take you back to where you were before the browswer crashed. In fact, with the latest version of Firefox, not only can you get this functioning when the program crashes, but now, you can set up Firefox to "remember" where you were the last time you had the program open! This can be handy if you are in the middle of checking something when you have to go off to do something else.
To be honest, for the most part, there is very little difference between IE and Firefox. Maybe I switched to this one to be using something other than "Microsoft". Whatever the reason I switched, I find myself using Firefox more than IE. Try it. What I mentioned is only a few of the features, but it has many more.
posted by Grady @ 3:16 AM
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