Free yourself from Internet Explorer

FOR many people, they buy their computers with the Windows OS installed and bundled with whatever version of windows they have is Internet Explorer.

These people see no reason why they should change their browser (Internet Explorer). Similarly, most people see no reason why they should use anything other than the default Windows Media Player.

If you are such person, who uses Internet Explorer and sees no reason why you should move to Mozilla Firefox, read on and find out why you should do so, and fast.

First, let me give you some stats. Internet Explorer is the leading browser with a market share of about 66.1%. This majority is not surprising considering that Internet Explorer comes with every Windows OS.

In second position is Firefox with about 22.5%. These are April figures and are compiled by Net Applications Inc, a company that tracks web browsers and has been doing that since 2005.

However, according to the company, Firefox has been gaining 0.4% of market share every month for the past 12 months. On the other hand Microsoft has been losing 0.7 of the market share every month for the last 12 months.

Net Applications forecast that if this trend continues, and there is every reason to believe that it will, Internet Explorer will drop to below 50% by 2011.

Now that I have “evidence” that indeed people are moving from Internet Explorer to Firefox, let me show you why you should be one of those people as well. First, the browser has an unlimited number of “add-ons” that expand the functionality of the browser to make it by far the most versatile ever.

In my case, I have FireFTP which means I can upload files to my website from right inside the browser with no need for third party FTP programs. I also have a download manager add-on, which means I don’t need a separate download manager like Internet Download Manager or Free Download Manager.

When I am downloading particularly large files; my download speed can be multiplied by up to nine times. I also have Cooliris which allows me to play media files from right inside the browser without need for a dedicated media player.

Some of the add-ons are just exceptional. This includes Xmarks which allows me to synchronise my books across several computers. I can even access my bookmarks over the Internet when using any computer (with Firefox of course).

The list of add-ons available for Firefox is inexhaustible and can only be limited by one’s imagination. For example, I can send free SMS messages anywhere in the world from my web browser, thanks to the SMSalias add-on that I installed.

Another area where Mozilla Firefox soundly beats Internet Explorer is the area of web security. This is mostly because Internet Explorer is tightly integrated with the underlying Windows Operating System. Some companies have even advised their clients to revert back to Internet Explorer 7 due to the security holes in Internet Explorer 8 (http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1051908/security-outfit-calls-roll-ie).

On the other hand, Firefox has a number of add-on utilities that greatly enhance the security of the browser. These include, in passing, Roboform, which minimises risks of someone getting hold of your passwords when filling out forms. There is also NoScript which prevents malicious code executing itself and launching a phishing attack. There is also AdBlock which greatly frees you from malware.

Besides the added functionality of the add-ons, Firefox 3 has Private Browsing, which provides the same functionality and does not retain visited pages, form and search bar entries, passwords, cookies, temporary or cached Internet files, and so forth.

Without the niceties, several tests have proven that JavaScript speed of Firefox 3.5 is about five to ten times faster than that of Internet Explorer 8.

Mozilla Firefox even boasts of support for more than 70 languages which is more than that of Internet Explorer. Mozilla Firefox was even the first one to introduce tabbed browsing with Internet Explorer playing catch up.

With the release of the new Firefox 3.5 version later on in June, the browser is likely to improve much further. There is even a project of porting Mozilla Firefox to mobile phones, something that Internet Explorer and Opera have had a head-start on.

If you really feel that you can’t let go of Internet Explorer, and you can’t do without it, you can even run it inside Firefox using the IEtab extension.