Firefox

Firefox 1.5 came out 4 days ago and here is the browser distribution chart of my site from StatCounter.

Out of last 100 hits:
Microsoft Internet Explorer = 36
Firefox = 53
Safari = 10
Netscape = 1

I think the security issue of IE has finally drove people to migrate to Firefox. Morrighu said it best on her Slashdot post:

The first prophet was called Netscape and he was mighty, leading the people serenely through the internet. But the people forsook the prophet and the prophet turned to evil ways. In time, the first prophet was corrupted by evil in the form of the giant ISP known as Baal or AOL.

The second prophet was a false prophet called Internet Explorer, which hid its true nature from the people until it was nearly too late since it was sent out by the great deceiver, Microsoft. The great deceiver tried to limit their access to the internet and to turn them aside from anything that the deceiver did not make money off of.

The people groaned and labored to feed the great deceiver, but alas, nothing could fill his belly. The great deceiver blessed the heresy of having the browser integrated into the operating system. Loudly did the people cry unto the computer gods for a new prophet to lead them, but the gods were angry since they had given the people Linux. The people ignored Linux and chose to follow the great deceiver.

Finally, the computer gods softened their hearts and heard the cries of the people and sent a third prophet. The people are fortunate that they have not been abandoned for straying from the path of Linux. Mighty indeed is the penguin. A new prophet has been sent to lead us out of the valley of the shadow of ActiveX.

Hallelujah!

The heavens opened, the angels sang, and Firefox descended into our midst to relieve us from the woe that is Internet Explorer.

Now if you are still using IE, I urge you to consider moving to Firefox. This simple action will save your engineering friend many hours of grief trying to revive your virus ravaged computer.

Firefox is not just more secure, it is also more powerful. You can choose and pick extentions to add functionality to the browser. Here are some that I use, there are literally hundreds to choose from:


Adblock, (4.2 stars, 121436 downloads)
Once installed, it's a snap to filter elements at their source-address. Just right-click: Adblock: done. Filters use either the wildcard character (*) or full Regular Expression syntax. Hit the status-element and see what has or hasn't been blocked.


Tabbrowser Preferences, (3.23 stars, 62836 downloads)
Enables enhanced control for some aspects of tabbed browsing.


IE View, (4.39 stars, 46451 downloads)
Lets you load pages in IE with a single right-click, or mark certain sites to *always* load in IE. Useful for incompatible pages, or cross-browser testing.


FoxyTunes, (4.73 stars, 20386 downloads):
Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? Now you can control your favorite media player without ever leaving the browser and more...


Google Preview, (4.54 stars, 9870):
Inserts preview images (thumbnails) of web sites, Amazon products and stock charts into the Google and yahoo.com search results pages.

Besides extensions you can also equip/integrate your browser with plugins. Which you can choose to include or not with your browser - Acrobat Reader, Flash Player, Java, Quicktime, RealPlayer, Shockwave, Window Media Player...etc.

Last but not least, you can customize the browser with various skins. Below are iFox, Aquitant, and Aquafox.







For the love of God. If you are still using IE, upgrade to Firefox right away. Your computer will thank you for it.

Friends don't let friends browse IE.

[Technology]