Firefox

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The return of the browser wars... episode II William Nett 

A long time ago in a cyberspace nearly forgotten. An evil overlord sought to rule the Internet and all computers it touched... 

Ok, so we're not exactly traveling interstellar planets just yet, but please excuse me for having a case of dejavu. Once again we're having a browser-war much like we did in the mid-90s, if any of you young whipper-snappers remember it. Then it was Microsoft vs. Netscape, and Microsoft won because it gave its browser away for free, that is if you succumbed to the ideology of converting to a Darth windows user. Yeah, yeah, yeah,, I know... they made it for Mac too, but this is my story and Mac was never really supported that well, (not to mention that Microsoft has announced it's discontinuing IE development for Mac). 

Mozilla, and it's sibling Firefox, have made leaps and bounds in its presence on the Internet... a ~10% presence without 1% of the marketing capability that Netscape once had. Both HP and Dell are shipping their new computers with Mozilla's browser. An old familiar quote comes to mind here, "You can't gain market share or earn money by giving something away for free" -- Bill Gates 

And yet, here's an interesting twist... reviews of the new Microsoft Internet Explorer are pouring in! The general consensus? "IE7 looks a lot like Mozilla." I guess Microsoft took the Bugs Bunny approach about being able to beat them... and decided to join or emulate them. Still though, many have concerns about Internet Explorer's history of security or the lack thereof. It did take Microsoft almost two weeks after a zero-day report about an exploit in WMF extensions to come up with a patch, and even some third party vendors came up with a patch first. So will I dump Mozilla when IE7 officially comes out? Would you? 

I like Mozilla because it's portable... that is I can install it on a USB flash drive and take it with me anywhere. Try doing that with any Microsoft product. I like Mozilla because I can tweak the heck out of it... Microsoft is like Jiffy-Lube, take what you get and just sign the bottom line sir. I also like Mozilla because I can easily block pop-up ads and internal annoying advertisements via flash/java images. I don't like Mozilla because adding file extensions is like choosing a health care provider... you're happy when you get what you want, but inquiring about options is like talking to a paralegal. 

Then there's the little browser that could... Opera. I wonder how many Opera users report that they're Internet Explorer just to view video content from CNN or MSNBC? Please don't forget about the .005% population that use Lynx or Arachne, the little people need attention too. 

Just when I thought that this war was over, a battlefield veteran resurfaces... I think I'll keep Mozilla for now. Better tried and true, than re-engineered and continuously failing. All in all, maybe this article should have been titled attack of the clones?