It's no secret that Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the most widely-used browser out there. It comes pre-installed on all Windows machines, and to your average computer user, "does the job." Most users don't really know that there are alternatives available to them (heck,
most folks aren't even sure what a browser is). Some stick around for fear of the unknown, others because they feel that "if it ain't broke..." and are unaware that, in many ways, it
is broken.
How is it broken, you ask? Gosh, you're impatient. I'm getting there!
1. Security
All browsers have their vulnerabilities. It would be irresponsible for me to say otherwise. However, a more important measure of browser security is how quickly these vulnerabilities are found, reported & patched. With Mozilla's Firefox being open source -- meaning the application code is freely available for people to download, view, alter and share -- it has tens of thousands of developers all over the world scouring its code for vulnerabilities and offering solutions at a much faster pace than your average proprietary application. Firefox even offers a
Bug Bounty to those who report valid critical security bugs as incentive to help keep the browser as secure as possible.
Also, IE uses ActiveX to enable it to view multimedia and add functions (toolbars, etc.), which allows it to be accessed by other programs without the knowledge or consent of the user. Using this back door, the bad guys can gain access to your computer, your personal information, and even install viruses, spyware programs, and other malicious software. Conversely, Firefox uses plugins for multimedia, and extionsions for added functionality. This brings us to our next point.
2. Customization
Everyone has their own personal tastes and preferences. However, if you have IE, there's very little you can do to customize the look and behavior of your browser. Take a look across the isle at Firefox's offering, and you'll see 30,000+
"personas" (themes), not to mention icon sets and thousands of
extensions to add functionality to suit your needs and allow integration with just about any web service you can think of. Almost all other modern browsers allow some kind of personalization -- Opera offers themes & browser widgets; Chrome has themes & extensions similar to Firefox -- without the requirement of installing third-party software (TPS) or digging through configuration files.
With IE, you can alter the way sites are rendered by setting colors for backgrounds, text, links, etc. which isn't (in my mind) useful in almost any way. Any other modifications require either digging through registry entries with an editor or installing TPS applications like
Tweak IE.
3. Speed
Results on this one may vary to a degree, as benchmarking browser speeds is far from an exact science. However, Firefox has consistently beaten IE over the years in speed tests measuring start-up time and javascript rendering (javascript is what makes your gmail, google docs, and most other web-based applications run). I'll admit that IE8 has gotten much better, and even outperforms Firefox in the load time category in some tests. However, the difference is often negligible.
4. Standards Compliance
Ask anyone you know who designs and/or develops web sites about Internet Explorer's compliance with accepted web standards, and make sure you have a few hours to listen to them rant. Anyone who's ever coded CSS (Cascading Style Sheets - the stuff that makes the sites you view look pretty) can attest to the fact that IE leaves a
lot to be desired when it comes to properly rendering pages. Web designers will usually code their sites according to standards, which causes it to render perfectly in just about any other modern browser. Afterward, though, they often have to spend hours "hacking" the CSS code for compatibility with IE. Even Microsoft's own developers admit that their
CSS support is lacking.
We fully recognize that IE is behind the game today in CSS support...we've made sure the bugs and features are on our list - however, there are some fairly large and difficult features to implement, and they will not all sort to the top of the stack...
The quote was regarding the release of IE7, but not much has changed in terms of compliance in IE8.
5. Freedom
When I say "free," I mean
"free" as in "free speech" or "freedom", not just "free" as in "free beer." Sure, IE comes packaged with Windows at no cost to the consumer, but there are several features that lock users in and limit their use of the product. You cannot view the source code for Internet Explorer, make changes to the way the application behaves, or even remove it from your system without jumping through several hoops first (notice that it's not listed under the "Add/Remove Programs" list in your control panel). Also, Microsoft attempts to force you into using their browser for updating your operating system through Windows Update. That doesn't seem very "free" to me.
The friendly folks at Mozilla have found a way to get around this evil and have provided the
IE Tab Plus extension, which embeds IE's engine within a Firefox tab. Add to that the transparency of open-source and the ability to extend Firefox in just about any way you can imagine, and you have freedom that no other browser can offer.
How Do I Switch?
Making the switch is extremely easy. Simply
Download Firefox, follow the steps to install, and start browsing! You can easily add plugins (for multimedia such as flash) and extensions by installing them from the
Firefox Add-ons page.
