PC MAX The Best Alternative to IE, and WHY!
I imagine most of you have at least heard of Firefox but know very little about it. Firefox has won so many awards from various computer magazines it's impossible to keep track. One major computer magazine listed Firefox as product of the year, beating out all other hardware and software.
Before going any further, this is a chart comparing the browsing performance of the the beta version of Firefox 3.0 against Internet Explorer 7 Elsewhere in that same piece you'll find that Firefox is also more standards compliant that IE.
So what is Firefox? It is arguably the best browser available and the best alternative to Internet Explorer. If more people new how well Firefox worked and how capable it is it would be at least 80% of the market. At some computer related sites it's 85% of the visitors. This is another case where computer support people will use Firefox but won't mention it to their customers for fear of getting into a long discussion they can't afford to, or just don't want to get into.
Since Internet Explorer, (IE), comes with Windows it has become the default browser, by "default", some people are unaware there is anything else. IE is by far the single biggest security problem on your computer. All the security patches Microsoft issues for IE won't make it safe to use because it makes use of two technologies not found in other browsers.
In the performance section of this site I talk about 3rd party software people add to their systems that one by one bring the computer performance too its knees. Firefox can eliminate many of those added programs.
By default:
Firefox blocks pop-ups. It can also block ads on WEB pages.
Keeps Visual Basic Scripts from invading your system.
Blocks ActiveX controls, (small applets that can invade your system).
Stores favorites as bookmarks, all in one easy to manage file.
Stores cookies in one easy to manage file.
Is far easier to migrate to a new system then IE.
Supports tabbed browsing, (discover tabs and you will never go without again)
Has LIve bookmarks, like RSS news feeds in that the bookmarks update themselves.
Contains a fully customizable search bar for Google, Dictionary and more.
Automatic security patching notification and small installations.
See this link for more Firefox Central and this page Firefox Home
In addition to the those items, Firefox supports extensions that integrate into the browser instead of having an additional program to install. Just a few of those extensions include:
A stock ticker
Weather forecast information.
NBA scores
Support for dozens of toolbars including Google.
WEB development add-ons.
Real time spell checking of forms on the WEB, just like Word.
Google even has a new bookmark Synchronizing toolbar just for Firefox
The list goes on for so long it would take you days to go through the options. There are several hundred extensions available. It would take a day just to look through them all.
There are ways to check your system for malware and virus infections and also get your "other" Windows XP security updates using Firefox. Just another reason for not needing or using IE.
One of the best things about Firefox is that you can convert to Firefox from Internet Explorer in about 3 minutes and still have all your passwords, history, cookies and favorites
There is a WEB site that tracks world wide use of browsers and in April of 2016 had the Firefox family of browser capturing 29.37% of the browser market. If you're designing a WEB site and you have designed it to work primarily for Internet Explorer, the April 2016 market share for all versions of IE was down to 61.66%, (down over 1% in the previous 4 months).
See the Firefox extensions page.
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