Firefox

I started using the Mozilla Firefox browser a few months ago as part of my Anti-Microsoft Campaign (nothing big, just my own personal adventure), in the process I changed my email address to a Gmail Account (I love it by the way) and tried out Open-Office (also good but not anything to get overly excited over).

It took me a little bit of time to get used to Firefox, since I have been using IE (internet Explorer) for so long and no one like a change. But on the other hand I had heard so much good stuff about it I decided I had to give it a try. It me about a week to be convinced, I think that firefox is great, I found it works faster, it blocks most of my Poppops (without having to download anything) and the tabs Option is so good that when I use IE I still look for the tabs.

But not everything is all good, there are a few problems with it (like sites that don't work with it ETC.), although that is not why I am writing all this. As part of my experience with the new browser I also told my wife that she should try it, and Of course the first question that came up was, WHY should I? What does it do for me?

So Of course I started telling her all these great things that I found out about it (some written above), and most important how happy I was with it. And after about a month of talking about it she was finally convinced (or tired of my nagging) and decided to give it a try. That's when the real problems started.

she started using it and, well just like any good program it decided to crash on her the first night that she used it. To make matters even worse the next day something happened while she was writing a blog and the browser failed her again and she lost all that she wrote. At that point, she knew that she was going back to IE, and I couldn't help but feel guilty for causing this lose of writing.

All this lead me to the conclusion that Firefox has a very big problem, it can't just be good, or even better than IE, it has to be perfect. It was not like IE never crashed, or that it had never caused any problems to computer (like letting in Bugs and Spam and who knows what into the computer) but that alone does not seem to be enough. People are scared of change as it is, and trying to explain to people that this browser is many time is not enough so those of us who tried (and like) it, try in everyway possible to prove it and most of time draw a picture that is far from Reality.

SO.... I am saying it here and Now!!
I think that firefox is a better browser, although it is far from perfect, it is Miles ahead of IE. This does not mean that it will not give you any problems, it also doesn't mean that it will be easier at first (about a week) to get used to it and it's little issues. What I am saying here is that those of you who to try it, don't give up after a day! Give it a little bit of time and see what it does for you, and then if you still don't like it go back to IE.

You might be asking yourself why should I care. So first of all no I am not making any money from this (a Shame I know). Second, I truly think that we need more competition in the software world, and the Browsers at the top of them all. If we reach a point that Microsoft will think it is losing it's hold (it is losing it but not enough) it will be forced to come out with something better, safer, nicer ETC. And that will force the other Browsers (Firefox, Opera and a few others out there) also to improve making life better for us!

Shavua Tov,
-Oleh Yashan