| Firefox v. Internet Explorer |
 Browser Wars – Internet Explorer or FireFox - which one is best? A History Lesson Internet Explorer STINKS. For those of us who remember the web’s earliest orchestrations in the mid-90s, the term “Netscape Navigator” was ubiquitous. Netscape Navigator was that browser that, upon purchasing and configuring of any new computer, you would spend two hours downloading over your 14.4 kbps modem, install and light up so you could start surfing the web. It wasn’t long before Microsoft got wise to the potential market value of the browser, and created Internet Explorer – which they soon embedded as a pre-installed program on any Windows configured computer, much to the dismay of the NN folks. Eventually, IE had completely crushed NN as the browser of choice. The problem is, Internet Explorer STINKS. In the early part of this decade, Internet Explorer had nearly cornered the browser market. Save for the few rebels out there using Macs (which, by default, use the “Safari” browser), EVERYONE used IE. Almost. There was always someone in the office at the coffee machine or passing by your cubicle – the office technogeek – who would swear by something called “Mozilla”. (or, “Opera” or some other very obscure name). Mozilla soon gave way to Firefox. Firefox was and is an open source browser (meaning, the code is available to anyone) that slowly but very surely began to give Internet Explorer a run for its money. Depending on which stats you read, FF has now increased its market share to anywhere from 40% to greater than 50%, where Internet Explorer’s usage has dropped to under 40%. The balance is shared among the other browsers out there, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc. FF is winning the war. Here’s why: IE Besieged by Security Problems Every time a new version of IE was released, it seems as though there would always be a news story that followed about some vulnerability that needed an immediate security patch. Some iterations of IE were so unstable (eg. IE v. 6.0) that entire coding hacks had to be created to correct websites that would not render properly. (Ask any webmaster about IE6 and watch for the reaction!) Firefox has largely avoided security issues. There have been bugs, but the community is usually quick to address them and there are traditionally few reports of major vulnerabilities. On the other hand, IE continues to be the focus of security issues as if evidenced in this well-written article. Website Rendering While IE seemingly renders websites without regard to web standards, often crashes and really does little to enhance your browsing experience, Firefox was created by a team of developers dedicated to web standards, meaning the sites you are viewing, provided the sites themselves have been developed according to standard, will look great. Plus, FF is open source which means any adventurous developer can access the code and create add-ons that truly make FF a highly useful web browsing tool. One such tool is a little widget that “unhides” your passwords when you are typing them into an account, which can be extremely helpful. Rather than seeing ******* you see “aA#3B”, which is great if you are simple a consumer that doesn’t need to hide your password from anyone in your home and you have trouble remembering them sometimes. There are hundreds of add-ons and enhancements that make your browsing experience more pleasant. IE has no discernable add-ons. Microsoft itself does offers add-ons for Explorer, but requires you to upgrade to the latest version of the browser. I haven’t really every known anyone to install plugins to IE. What you see if what you get, which is basically a browser. Privacy FireFox offers a slick group of options to allow you to maintain privacy: Browsing: set your browsing mode to private and leave no trace of past Web history. Clear History: delete where you’ve been on the Web after the fact—simple and easy. Pick Your Privacy: remove the history of your visits to a particular site but retain the rest of your browsing history. Easy Options: Firefox asks you straight up about how to store your history and gives you fine-tuned privacy control. Conclusion FireFox is clearly a superior browser in nearly every aspect. It is stable, secure, fast, and has a suitcase full of add-ons and enhancements that allow you to completely customize your browsing experience. Internet Explorer is buggy, unstable, and weak. You can download the latest version of Firefox here. |