Mozilla Thunderbird and Mozilla Firefox: Microsoft Alternatives Come of Age A Sense of Security Sorely Lacking in IE Wayne Kawamoto
A Sense of Security Sorely Lacking in IE
Speaking of security, while Microsoft continuously tries to secure its browser, Firefox in some cases takes the easy route by not supporting vulnerable technologies and therefore avoids the problem altogether. In cases where security holes are revealed, the Firefox team has typically been much quicker to resolve the vulnerabilities than Microsoft. (One benefit of open source software is that identified issues are often quickly addressed.) There is certainly merit and comfort in using a browser that isn't the constant target of hackers who always seem to find and exploit Explorer weaknesses.
We found Firefox easy to install and encountered no problems getting it up and running. After we downloaded the program file and executed it, a step-by-step wizard helped us transfer our existing history, bookmarks, cookies, and site passwords from Internet Explorer. In our testing, Firefox was able to quickly load and display our favorite web sites, and most appeared as they do in Internet Explorer.
We experienced a few minor glitches on some web sites — typically alignment problems due to the proprietary support of web standards by Microsoft. And while we didn't miss the pop-up ads that failed to display, the blocker did stop some legitimate pop-up menus from coming up. And, of course, sites that relied on ActiveX wouldn't display. For these sites, you'll have to resort to Internet Explorer and take your chances.
You can easily customize Firefox by modifying its toolbars and adding buttons. And if you want to change its look, you can quickly download and install themes via the integrated and ultra-efficient Themes manager. To add more capabilities, the program supports extensions that can be downloaded and installed through the Extensions manager. Extensions let you add helpful features such as the ability to zoom into images, display a calendar, copy text without formatting, execute common commands with a mouse, and more.
Overall, we were impressed with Firefox's streamlined interface and its tabbed browsing capabilities that let you open numerous web pages in a single window and view each by clicking on their respective tabs. We found the tabbed interface to be particularly handy when conducting multiple searches through Google or Yahoo. And we could also view a site as another one opened, which saved us time.
Once you become accustomed to opening and working with multiple web pages, it's a convenience feature that you may not want to live without. Another plus, Firefox lets you conduct Google searches from a port on the toolbar or by highlighting text, right-clicking on it, and then selecting a search option.
In the end, Firefox evolved into our everyday working browser. There's just not all that much to miss in trusty old Internet Explorer.
