Why Should You Use Firefox?

Bob Rankin over at the Internet Tourbus (a subscription I've maintained for nearly as long as I've been on the 'net. 1997, I think) is asking for feedback on whether or not Firefox is ready for prime time, and why should you use it.

I've had quite a bit to say on the subject of Firefox over the years. A good portion of it on this blog, but I apparently have neglected to get into my main reason for using it, security.

It's hard to conceive of any program less safe to surf the Internet with than Internet Explorer. I have used Firefox / Thunderbird for more than three years. I wouldn't use MicroSoft software to connect to anything for any reason. I only risk the operating system because I need software that isn't available on other platforms.

The security holes that MicroSoft's propaganda arm (known as the tech reporting industry) keep harping on concerning Firefox have been patched. If you download the current version you shouldn't have any trouble; not to mention the benefits of built-in pop-up blocking and spam filtering.

[MS is running scared from the threat that Open Source (of which Mozilla is part) presents to their business model. With good reason. I've also been using Open Office almost exclusively for the last couple of years. It's every bit as good as MS office is, and it's getting better. Linux and KDE are going great guns. I dual boot a Linux/Windows box currently; most of the programs I use can be installed in both operating systems. When I get a decent Linux CAD program I'm giving up Windows]

As someone who remembers working with Wordperfect and Lotus 123 on 386 DOS boxes (not to mention the playing around with the original MacIntosh) I think I can say I speak from experience. Not to mention the fact that I'm married to the #1 PC repair geek in all of Austin, and so can speak from experience on the repair side of the business, concerning the far greater risk involved in running Internet Explorer rather than Firefox. We routinely install Firefox on clients systems; and when I'm doing the work as a favor for a friend (in other words, for free) I do myself a favor and delete the icons (when uninstalling isn't possible or feasible) for MicroShaft programs which are a liability, so that they don't re-infect themselves and waste more of my time.

Why do I say this? Because half of the systems that come back for more work, when I question their owners, are re-infected because the owners went back to using Internet Exploder (the other half are because they don't update their virus/malware scanners properly) I have never yet gotten a system back that was infected through the use of Mozilla software. These are just the facts.

The other reason to use Firefox is it's ease of use and customizability...

[Yes, I know that Internet Exploder 7.0 does most of the same stuff Firefox does. Is it a coincidence that Firefox code is available for anyone to see, and IE's code is not? You decide]

...If I want a toolbar for a particular purpose, it's generally available at the addons site. There are far more addons than any one person will use, and the extents to which the browser can be modified are quite impressive. Right click customizations for searches (I use it in Thunderbird as well) as well as tool bars for many different popular destinations on the web. The most useful one, in my opinion, is ForcastFox; which is weather, right in the frame of the browser. Too cool.

The extensions work for all versions of Mozilla (including Netscape based on it) although you may have to dig back into the archives to get extensions for older versions...

When I read Rankin's call for feedback, my first response was "What, you aren't using it?" My second response was "Why wouldn't you use it?" Download it today, and give it a try.