We recently decided to have everyone in the office put the behemeth of Web browsers away for a few weeks, (i.e. Internet Explorer), and give the open-source Mozilla Firefox browser a shot at becoming our go-to browser. Microsoft's Internet Explorer has become such a household name over the years that the average consumer doesn't even know that other browsing technologies exist. In fact, the majority of Internet users across the globe use Microsoft IE, and not surprisingly, most of the hackers, adwares and malwares target IE for this reason. Also, IE utilizes Active X controls and has many other technical differences that lend to its vulnerabilities.

The Mozilla Firefox project aims to build the most useful FREE web browser for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Firefox makes browsing very efficient and the interface is very similar to other browsers you may have used. Some of its greatest features include built-in popup blocking, tabbed browsing, privacy & security tools, search functions, live bookmarks, custom themes & skins, text-zooming, hassle-free downloading and all the plug-ins that you are used to. Some of those include Flash, Shockwave, RealPlayer, Adobe Acrobat, Java and Quicktime. Pair all of this up with Mozilla Thunderbird email program and enjoy safer, faster, and easier emailing. Thunderbird includes some of the best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader, quick search, and many more. Considering the mountain of security problems with Microsoft Outlook Express, Thunderbird could easily become your guardian angel for email.

As for developing websites that work well on both browsers, we haven't experienced any real problems at all. Here at EarthQuake Studios, we do all of our coding by hand and do not use Web editor programs such as Frontpage or GoLive. We have heard from other developers that some issues do exist, mainly with Microsoft IE being the problem child as it continues to stray away from open source standards.

Regardless, both of Mozilla's programs have faired extremely well in our office, and we plan on using them for quite some time. All of the benefits are there for your taking and the cost is actually NOTHING. We give Firefox and Thunderbird two thumbs up.

About this author

EarthQuake Studios is a full-service web & marketing agency located in Florida. We offer custom web design, hosting, domain names, marketing communications, full-color print advertising, search engine optimization and digital photography.

 

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