A bug-free surfing zone By Mathew Ingram
UPDATED AT 8:19 PM EST Friday, Jan 14, 2005 http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050114/GEAR 14/TPTechnology Remember the Web browser war? Way back in the mists of time -- Internet-wise, at least -- there was a battle between a tiny startup company with a piece of software for browsing the Web (Netscape) and a giant software company with a reputation for playing hardball (Microsoft). The software giant won the war, and Internet Explorer now has about 90 per cent of the market for Web browsers. The story doesn't end there, however. Microsoft's browser won, but along the way it also became a magnet for every advertising popup maker and malicious hacker in the known universe (much like the Windows operating system). For many computer users, Internet Explorer is now so cluttered with spy-ware, advertising-ware, toolbars, popups and home-page hijackers that it has become virtually unusable. But what can anyone do about it? The good news is that there are solutions for frustrated Internet Explorer users, and one of the most popular is a distant cousin of Netscape. The original company was bought by America Online and its Web browser gradually faded into irrelevance, but a group of programmers took the guts of Netscape and created a new browsing "engine" called Gecko, one that was developed in a co-operative fashion along with the "open-source" software community. That engine forms the basis for a new browser called Firefox, which is free for Windows and Mac users. One of the best things about this approach is that Firefox doesn't suffer from any of the annoying pop-ups and malware that make using Internet Explorer such a pain. Since the browser uses completely different software, none of the usual tools that hackers have used to infiltrate Internet Explorer work with Firefox. Although this might change as the browser becomes more popular, the open-source nature of the project means that fixes will likely be easier to make and will also be available much faster . Firefox has a number of features that make it obvious how little Internet Explorer has changed over the past several years. One of the most popular is the use of "tabs," which allow a user to open multiple pages within the same window. You can set Firefox so that when you click on a link it opens that link in a new tab, and the tabs you have open are grouped together in a tab toolbar at the top of your browser window. You can store a group of tabs and open them all when you load Firefox. Other alternative browsers, such as Opera, have this feature, too, but they don't share one other thing Firefox has going for it -- its adaptability. One benefit of the open-source format is that any programmer who wants to can write a bit of software called an "extension," which adds features to the browser. There are hundreds of these extensions listed already at Firefox's home page (http://getfirefox.com), including everything from a plug-in that lets you play music from your browser toolbar to one that lets you search an on-line dictionary by clicking on a word. Firefox isn't perfect. It still has some bugs, which isn't surprising considering it only recently came out of "beta" or testing mode. It also can't do much with pages that require features only Internet Explorer has, such as the ability to run Active-X programs. These features are part of the reason IE is so riddled with malware, but they also allow it to interact with certain websites. Until Firefox finds a way around that, you might have to keep Internet Explorer around -- just for emergencies, of course. You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
