A non-profit group called the Mozilla Foundation has recently released a new web browser to compete with Windows Internet Explorer. Called "Firefox", the program took three years to be developed by volunteer programmers using "open source code". Initially released for free to the public on November 9th, 2004, the program was downloaded by over 10 million users in the first month! I have personally begun using Firefox simply due to its speed; web pages open 3 or 4 times faster than when using Internet Explorer! You can download the setup file yourself for free by clicking here. The file is only 4.7mb, so it only takes a short time to download. When you run the setup program, it will automatically import all your settings from Internet Explorer (such as Favorites, cookies, security settings, etc.).
The user interface is very similar to Internet Explorer, so you will be surfing the web in only minutes. The built in pop-up blocker has worked flawlessly for me since I began using the program and, since all Active X controls (which often contain malicious programming and spyware) are disabled, Spybot S&D is no longer finding spyware on my computer.
According to the Mozilla homepage, these are some of the advantages of using Firefox:
Stops annoying pop-up ads in their tracks
Will not allow spyware to be installed on your machine
Contains a comprehensive set of privacy tools that are very user friendly
Google search is built right into the toolbar and there is a plethora of other search tools, including Smart Keywords
Live Bookmarks allow you to see news headlines, etc. in real time right on your homepage
Tabbed Browsing makes web surfing faster and more convenient
Simple, hassle free downloads saved automatically to your desktop (but easily changed to any other default location)
Totally customizable
Faster downloads and web surfing
Since Firefox is open source, it will be continually improved by hundreds of thousands of programmers who want to do their part to improve the program interface. That will only make it better and more secure as time goes by. And you certainly can't beat the price! The installation process is quite simple, but please contact me personally if you have any questions.
Note: Thanks to Chris Currin of Pegasus Advisors for bringing this to my attention!
03/10/2008
