The open source revolution has begun, but not all computer users out there must use free and open source software exclusively—yet. If I said here that all users must immediately ditch Windows and Office to use Linux and OpenOffice, no one would continue reading, and I would not be able to make my point.
Whether you hate Microsoft, love Microsoft, or are just plain indifferent, Internet Explorer is a browser unworthy for you to use. Microsoft has neglected it for years, allowing all of its competition to far surpass it.
Where is Netscape? Netscape was bought by AOL and is no longer being developed, but a few years back, Netscape released their source code, and the Mozilla browser was formed from that source code. The Mozilla developers took Netscape and created a new rendering engine called gecko which was faster and more complete than what Netscape had. Firefox is an excellent new browser that is based on Mozilla but is faster and is a smaller download.
But Internet Explorer is used by over 90% of web surfers, unlike Netscape. This is of course because Microsoft has made Internet Explorer into a part of the Windows operating system. Microsoft has had numerous troubles with the U.S. Government over this issue because they were abusing their monopoly.
Microsoft has broken the Internet with Internet Explorer. IE is the only browser today not to follow the standards set by the W3C group, and has consequently broken the Internet. If everyone were to switch to alternative browsers, Microsoft would be forced to fix IE and the Internet would work properly again.
Internet Explorer opens up your computer to hackers. The US-CERT (http://www.us-cert.gov, United States emergency Readiness Team), a division of the department of Homeland Security, recently warned against using Microsoft's web browser because of its poor security. Johannes B. Ullrich, chief technology officer of the nonprofit SANS Internet Security Center, compares using Internet Explorer to “playing the lottery” because of its severe security vulnerabilities. Even Microsoft cheerleader Paul Thurrott discourages using Internet Explorer and recommends Opera, Mozilla, or Firefox. Microsoft “broke the Web with IE,” he says referring to Internet Explorer's poor support for standards. “Now it's time to fix it. Do the right thing, or be reduced to the dustbin of history.”
Beyond security, Firefox offers far more features to users. After a download that lasts less than a minute (15 minutes on 56k), Firefox offers tabbed browsing, pop up blocking, a download manager, a smarter UI designed for easier searching and more efficient navigation, a secure environment for browsing the web, and a library of extensions that can add yet more functionality to your web browser. Anyone who doesn't get this browser now is missing out on incredible time saving features!
Internet Explorer has a poor rendering engine that results in web pages appearing more slowly than with gecko (the rendering engine used in Firefox). Pages also lack some quality when shown in IE. Much color quality is lost.
Mozilla has a very active community. If you ever have any problems using or installing Firefox, you only need to head over to mozilla zine forums (http://forums.mozillazine.org) and ask the folks there how you can fix your problem. Firefox consequently has much better support than Internet Explorer does.
The bottom line is that anyone who is too stubborn or too lazy to switch from IE to Firefox is missing out on features and security that IE won't offer until at least 2006 when Longhorn comes out, and by then Firefox will be far beyond that. MSN says use Firefox. PC World says use Firefox. Microsoft cheerleaders use Firefox. Internet Explorer is a long neglected product from Microsoft that is not worth using. Continuing to use Internet Explorer endangers the future of the Internet because of IE's pitiful standards support; and by using it, you, too, are endangering both your Internet experience, your computer's security, and the future of the World Wide Web.
Why ALL Internet Explorer users should switch to Firefox
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Tebow2000
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Firefox is the way to go.. And a new version (0.9) came out with new enhancements.. Check it out at http://mozilla.org