Firefox 3.5 RC1 came out today - well a few hours ago so technically yesterday - therefore in its honour I thought I'd write a little bit about it. If you weren't aware already FF is an Internet browser, the chances are if you didn't know that already then you're currently browsing this page using Microsoft's Internet Explorer, in which case you should immediately click the link above and start downloading FF, and here's why...
First thing's first, a browser is a browser is a browser right? Same shit different packaging - Wrong. There's an incredible amount of variety between different browsers across a number of different fields including security, speed, customisation and features. The problem with Microsoft's IE is that it's lacking, deficient or poor in every one of these fields. Of primary concern to most of you should be the issue security and it may shock many IE users to know that IE is notorious for its many security holes and that using IE can be one very real threat to the integrity of your computer and the security of your private data. Aside from that very important issue IE is simply not as fast or as customisable as other browsers and lacks many features other browsers have, or executes them poorly.
So we've ascertained that IE isn't the best Internet browser to use, but why should anyone choose FF? FF used to make the claim "Faster and more secure" on its homepage - a claim that is no longer present as they have probably realised that it's no longer strictly true. Faster and more secure than IE certainly, but there are now other browsers which have been shown to be faster or more secure than FF - last time I checked Google's own browser Chrome still laid claim to the crown of "Fastest" and Opera tends to be more secure over all. Although FF may not be the very fastest or the most secure it is still very fast and very secure, and FF has an Ace up its sleeve that no other browser currently available can touch it on - enormous customisation and range of features via add-ons.
In truth vanilla FF is pretty boring, their feature page is of course enormously long detailing the fairly unexciting basic features the program has "out of the box", and of course these are all good features that make a good functional base, but where FF shines is when its dolled up to the eyeballs in add-ons. FF is very much a browser built with add-ons in mind, it has all the basic shit a browser should have, but you can add an enormous amount of stuff on top of that that make it your browser.
I'm going to write a second entry detailing all my favourite add-ons, the reason being that this entry was written with a view to describing FF for non-FF users, obviously not much interest for existing FF users, but if one thing interests FF users it's discovering new add-ons, so the second entry will allow them to skip this shit and get to the nitty-gritty.
freedoms_stain, foxy, out-ish
First thing's first, a browser is a browser is a browser right? Same shit different packaging - Wrong. There's an incredible amount of variety between different browsers across a number of different fields including security, speed, customisation and features. The problem with Microsoft's IE is that it's lacking, deficient or poor in every one of these fields. Of primary concern to most of you should be the issue security and it may shock many IE users to know that IE is notorious for its many security holes and that using IE can be one very real threat to the integrity of your computer and the security of your private data. Aside from that very important issue IE is simply not as fast or as customisable as other browsers and lacks many features other browsers have, or executes them poorly.
So we've ascertained that IE isn't the best Internet browser to use, but why should anyone choose FF? FF used to make the claim "Faster and more secure" on its homepage - a claim that is no longer present as they have probably realised that it's no longer strictly true. Faster and more secure than IE certainly, but there are now other browsers which have been shown to be faster or more secure than FF - last time I checked Google's own browser Chrome still laid claim to the crown of "Fastest" and Opera tends to be more secure over all. Although FF may not be the very fastest or the most secure it is still very fast and very secure, and FF has an Ace up its sleeve that no other browser currently available can touch it on - enormous customisation and range of features via add-ons.
In truth vanilla FF is pretty boring, their feature page is of course enormously long detailing the fairly unexciting basic features the program has "out of the box", and of course these are all good features that make a good functional base, but where FF shines is when its dolled up to the eyeballs in add-ons. FF is very much a browser built with add-ons in mind, it has all the basic shit a browser should have, but you can add an enormous amount of stuff on top of that that make it your browser.
I'm going to write a second entry detailing all my favourite add-ons, the reason being that this entry was written with a view to describing FF for non-FF users, obviously not much interest for existing FF users, but if one thing interests FF users it's discovering new add-ons, so the second entry will allow them to skip this shit and get to the nitty-gritty.
freedoms_stain, foxy, out-ish
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