No Need To Stick With Internet Explorer

No Need To Stick With Internet Explorer

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Story Published: Jan 31, 2005 at 1:36 AM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 1:51 AM PDT

By Herb Weisbaum

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SEATTLE - When it comes to web browsers, Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the unquestioned king, but it's not your only choice.

A number of competitors offer browsers that are easier to use and work just as well, with less risk of a hacker attack.

For its February issue, PCWorld magazine tested Internet Explorer and its strongest competitors. The editors gave top honors to the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox for its "fast, simple and secure approach to the web."

PCWorld's Dennis O'Reilly says Firefox is the first new browser built from the ground up. "They really took a different approach," he says. "They wanted to keep it streamlined, nice and simple, just the components you need to browse the web."

Firefox offers a neat feature you won't find on Internet Explorer- tabbed web browsing. If you have more than one open, each page can get a separate tab at the top of the Firefox browser. No need to go between web pages by clicking on the launch task bar. I've tried it and it's really nice.

The bottom line: While Internet Explorer rated 3 out of 5 stars, PC World gave Firefox 4 and a half stars.

(Read the full PC World Story on Browser Ratings at this link.)

PC World says Firefox is less likely to be attacked by hackers than Internet Explorer. When there is a problem, O'Reilly says, you're more likely to get a patch very quickly. That's because Firefox is an open-source program.

"With IE you have to rely on Microsoft to provide the fix and they do so at their own sweet time," O'Reilly says. "With Firefox, since it's sort of a public project, everybody's always working on it, trying to find the holes and patch them just about the same time, so you could get updates in a matter of days."

Firefox isn't about to replace Internet Explorer. Some sites don't support browsers other then IE. If you want to go to msn.com, you've got to use Internet Explorer. But, close to 20-million people have already downloaded Firefox. Remember, there's nothing to prevent you from having two or more browsers on your system.

Computerworld Magazine does advise business users "to think twice about making the switch from Internet Explorer, since Firefox lacks the ability to run Microsoft ActiveX code."

For More Information:

Firefox Takes Aim At Microsoft's Web Browser Dominance

Switch2Firefox: this website is designed to answer your questions about Firefox -- www.switch2firefox.com.

The New Web Challengers

The Firefox Explosion

Business Must Be Careful with Firefox

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