The Fox Is in Microsoft's Henhouse (and Salivating)

Published on December 19, 2004 By Black Xero In WinCustomize News

FIREFOX is a classic overnight success, many years in the making.

Published by the Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit group supporting open-source software that draws upon the skills of hundreds of volunteer programmers, Firefox is a Web browser that is fast and filled with features that Microsoft's stodgy Internet Explorer lacks. Firefox installs in a snap, and it's free.

Firefox 1.0 was released on Nov. 9. Just over a month later, the foundation celebrated a remarkable milestone: 10 million downloads. Donations from Firefox's appreciative fans paid for a two-page advertisement in The New York Times on Thursday.

Until now, the Linux operating system was the best-known success among the hundreds of open-source projects that challenge Microsoft with technically strong, free software that improves as the population of bug-reporting and bug-fixing users grows. But unless you oversee purchases for a corporate data center, it's unlikely that you've felt the need to try Linux yourself.

With Firefox, open-source software moves from back-office obscurity to your home, and to your parents', too. (Your children in college are already using it.) It is polished, as easy to use as Internet Explorer and, most compelling, much better defended against viruses, worms and snoops.

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For the first time, Internet Explorer has been losing market share. According to a worldwide survey conducted in late November by OneStat.com, a company in Amsterdam that analyzes the Web, Internet Explorer's share dropped to less than 89 percent, 5 percentage points less than in May. Firefox now has almost 5 percent of the market, and it is growing.

Read detailed article from New York Times at Link

Comments (Page 1)

CerebroJD

on Dec 19, 2004

As a recent Firefox convert, I can say that I'm sorry I didnt make the switch sooner. Microsoft should seriously consider bundling it with Windows, or at the very least, computer manufacturers should include the latest version with their computers. It would help Firefox get better known, and users would realize that there IS a better choice, and for free!

CygnusXII

on Dec 19, 2004

All, I have to say, is once you give Firefox a chance, you'll never regret it.
0 I mean 0- ZERO spyware, on my machines since I installed the FOX.
My wife was a little wary at first but now she loves it.As well as the other family members, I have turned on to Mozilla,and the Fox.

Kobrano

on Dec 19, 2004

Firefox 1.0 with Tabbed Browser Preferences is *WAY* better than IE or any of the IE shell browsers (Maxthon, etc). I've never, ever, had a single piece of spyware/adware installed.

Last week I accidentally loaded IE and within 1 hour, I had 5 attempts of trojan downloads through IE web page exploits on my machine! IE and IE shell based browsers are simply NOT VIABLE anymore!

I pity people still using them. Now all I need is an Alexa plugin for Firefox and i'm set.

George Rogers Jr

on Dec 19, 2004

Congrats Team Mozilla/Firefox....now if only they could make Firefox with toolbar changeability support I'd be all set! Thx!!

BasketWeaver

on Dec 19, 2004

Eat your heart out Microsoft. You wouldn't read the writing on the wall. Now it looks like you lose. Firefox is (as Tony the Tiger says

) GRRRREAT! Keep up the good work Firefox.

Scarebear

on Dec 19, 2004

Citizen Kobrano - You can add Alexa to the list of searches in the Web Search feature if that helps.

George Rogers Jr. - You can change themes in firefox and you can also edit the toolbar icons you wish to display. I'm not sure if either of those are what you're reffering to

I learn something new about Firefox daily and I've been using it for a while now. It's the best browser I've ever used.

bkpeck

on Dec 20, 2004

I love Firefox!! No spyware!!

Iben

on Dec 20, 2004

Mouse over Iben for my reply.

Tell me about the spell checker

davisson777

on Dec 20, 2004

as a long time user of firefox trust me you want it!!!!

1ke

on Dec 20, 2004

I beg to differ with those who think Firebird/fox/bat/whatever they call it this week is the penultimate among browsers.

Ladies and gentlemen, please try Opera. Link
Sure, Mozilla is open-source, and that's cool, but do you really want to feel more secure using a browser whose code is freely available to anyone?
From the same people who brought you Netscape? From those who brought you the AOL browser?? Come on, people, you've made the first step away from the IE heap, now let's take it one step further. To the top of the pile.

What makes Opera so much more than a browser, then? Well, to detail every capability and innovation would take quite a while, but suffice it to say that without Opera, the current Mozilla wouldn't exist. How about this: Every good thing about Mozilla Opera does better, with a fully-customizable user interface, hundreds of skins, a top-notch integrated mail, chat, and news program, and the code is so slick it's smaller and loads EVERYTHING faster. You think mouse gestures are a complicated add-in that you'd like to try but can't get a grip on? Try downloading Opera, and then when you're in a page, hold the right button down and click the left one. Boom, you're back a page. Hold the left and click the right, you're forward. Want it to be the other way around? You got it, just go and tell it what you want it to do when you do whatever you prefer. Don't like a feature? Turn it off. The program doesn't even include the code, and those CPU cycles are free again.

How about having your browser read the pages to you, and/or you controlling it with only your voice? Thanks to some IBM creativity, Opera can do it (7.6 Preview 1 and later, not the one you find on the main page). What about tabbed browsing? It's fairly popular anymore, and you ask anyone who started it and who's on top of it, you get "Opera" every time. Don't like tabs? Quick as a wink, you're using SDI mode, or even popping in and out of modes in separate windows. You want it, you got it. Need I go on?

Give it a shot, guys.

30 Days To Becoming An Opera Lover - Link

Opera 7.6 Preview 4 for Windows - Link

TP4 for Linux/FreeBSD - Link

Opera for your phone/mobile/PDA (Symbian OS) - Link

Opera Standard for Windows, Solaris, QNX, OS/2, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, BeOS - Link

mrdickie

on Dec 20, 2004

Firefox is the best browser I've ever used by miles. It blocks popups and anything that might be nasty. You can still use Roboform with it too, which is also amazing. THere are loads of extensions and themes for it. My favourite is Weather Forecaster. See my article here > Link

Keep up the good work, Mozilla. Get thunderbird too!

mrdickie

on Dec 20, 2004

I have to disagree with Citizen 1ke. I just tried Opera and dont like it at all.

1) It is only free if you have ads on it. (Yuck!)
2) I could not write this reply in Opera browser. (D'oh)
3) And it is not faster than Firefox at all.
4) You can get Mousegestures with Firefox anyway.

I have uninstalled it already (2 mins later!)

GreenReaper

on Dec 20, 2004

I agree. I won't even abide ads on the pages when I use Firefox, so I use Mozilla/Firefox Ad Blocking. Just make a userContent.css or open it up if it's already there in the Profile directory and paste it in. It just works! (most of the time)

Brandon Paddock

on Dec 20, 2004

I tried FireFox and couldn't stand its rendering. And not just the pages that it messes up, but the way it loads EVERYTHING one item at a time, like IE 2.0 and old Netscape browsers did. It gives me a headache.

I use Maxthon and love it. I've never had a single piece of spyware/adware on any of my computers, nor have any of my clients who all use IE.

Brandon Paddock

on Dec 20, 2004

Also, this article has a very misleading last paragraph.

It implies that the only change made to IE in SP2 is the by-default blocking of activeX controls.

However, countless changes were made to the browser itself, along with its APIs, to harden them against attack. That's why the IFRAME exploit, which affected earlier versions of IE, did not affect SP2. They also took many security enhancements from Windows Server 2003, particularly those that harden system services (like RPC) from attacks.

I'm not saying that IE isn't in need of updating... I agree, it is. But to downplay the steps taken by SP2 is ignorant at best.

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