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Firefox 3.5 now available

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

Firefox 3.5 is available for download at Mozilla’s website.

If you download it now, some of your add-ons might not be compatible with the new version (especially true for themes). It’s still not a bad idea to upgrade to it; most add-ons become compatible with new versions before too much time passes. If your favorite theme isn’t available, you can always take the opportunity to change it up a bit.

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What web browser are you using?

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

Note: This page can also be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/5m46l7

Which web browser are you using right now? Is it Microsoft’s Internet Explorer? What about Apple’s Safari? Maybe you’ve even got something different, like Netscape. But does it matter? Is there such a thing as one browser being better than another? More importantly, is there a browser in existence that’s better than the one you’re using? And would it cost anything if you wanted to switch? If you’re at all curious about this—especially if you didn’t know that switching browsers was an option—keep reading; this is gonna be good!

At the time this was written, Microsoft Internet Explorer had close to 75% of the overall market share among browsers. [1] The reason for this is simple: most people don’t care what browser they’re using, and they use whatever came included with their computer. (Sound like you? Keep reading!) Is that a smart way to do things? Maybe, maybe not. Right now, I’m using a browser that is free to download and use called Mozilla Firefox (often just called “Firefox”). Let me tell you what sort of things influenced my choice.

(This argument is mostly concerned with Internet Explorer and Safari vs. Firefox, but many of the points can be expanded to other browsers as well.)

Would you like to try Firefox for yourself? Download it now!

It’s made by good people

The company that created Firefox is called Mozilla. Mozilla is a non-profit organization dedicated to giving everyone they can the best web experience possible. They list their primary goal as “making the Internet better for everyone”. [2] Sounds like a good mission, but with only roughly 100 employees, how can they pull it off?

As it turns out, they’re not alone. Firefox follows a software policy called “open source”. What that means is that instead of keeping the code that makes the program work to themselves (the common practice, used by Internet Explorer and others), it’s open; anyone can access it and improve it. You can even use their code to make other products, if you want to. The only catch is that once something is open, it stays open; if you used Firefox’s code to create a new piece of software that made dish washers run more efficiently, that new software would have to be open source too. In this case, instead of selling the new software, you’d do better to form a contract with other companies to help them install it in their machines and help them stay up-to-date with it. (There’s more to open source than that, but that’s good enough for a quick explanation.)

So what’s all this mean to you and me? It means that in addition to Mozilla’s 100 or so employees, people all over the world can also contribute to making the browser better. There are many different add-ons that you can add to Firefox once you’ve downloaded it. The vast majority of these come from programmers who are not associated with Mozilla. And despite what today’s media will tell you, there are still plenty of good people everywhere you go. The end result? People all over the world are working to make Firefox the best browser it can be for everyone.

Q: “If this browser was as good as you say, wouldn’t I have heard about it by now?”

This is a perfectly valid question. Remember when I said Mozilla was a non-profit organization? They don’t have much of an advertising budget, which is why you’ve probably never seen a TV advertisement for their products. Instead, they rely on a community of people who tried and liked their browser to tell others. Anyone can tell the people they know to try it, but they also have a more organized system at SpreadFirefox.com. It’s sort of word-of-mouth to the power of three, or something like that. So to sum it up in one sentence, you’re hearing about it now.

Q: “So, if I download and use it, do I have to help too?”

Not at all; it’s completely up to you. You can help to any extent you’d like, or just take the browser and use it. I’ve told people how cool I think Firefox is and that I think they should try it, but I’ve never even so much as looked at the code, let alone try to create any add-ons (and I’m a programmer!).

Wouldn’t it be nice to have all those people working for you? Download it now!

It’s more secure

Let’s face it. While there are still good people out there, there are also people who want to steal your money, and they have a lot of clever ways to go about it. Of course not all the bad folks are just after your money; some of them would rather enslave your computer so they can use it to steal other people’s money. And even within this circle, some of them will just take over your computer and delete your stuff, which doesn’t earn anyone any money at all, but sure leaves you ticked off. (Most of the time, though, it’s just about the money.) So, as the bad guys are figuring out more and more clever ways to infiltrate your computer, often times without you noticing, should you be worried, and if so, how much?

Q: “What kinds of things can go wrong if security is poor?”

We’re all familiar with those spam e-mails that try to steal your information, right? The old “don’t click on a link if you don’t know who it’s from” thing. If your security is bad, someone might be using your computer to send these without you knowing about it. But more to the point, here are some news stories of what can happen when security isn’t doing its job (the first and last are probably the most relevant to the average user):

- July 2, 2008: Sony’s Playstation website was hacked. A message would pop up saying that many (fake) malware programs were on your computer trying to get you to buy—with your credit card—a full version of a fake anti-virus program to get rid of it.

- July 10, 2008: Dan Kaminsky (security expert) discovered an easy way for hackers to take you to web pages you didn’t ask to see (i.e. it doesn’t matter what link you click or what you type in the address bar; they decide where you go) and to intercept your e-mail. The issue has since been fixed (although it happened so slowly, it is uncertain whether or not all the DNS providers have updated as they should—if you’re at all worried, you can double check by going to www.doxpara.com and clicking “Check my DNS”. If this comes up unsafe, get a computer expert to help you get in contact with your DNS provider; mention the “Kaminsky bug” or “DNS bug” and they should know what you’re talking about).

- July 25, 2008: A virus on a NASA astronaut’s laptop went into space and infected the International Space Station. NASA brushed it off as a nuisance, but confirmed that this kind of thing has happened before.

- August 7, 2008: Someone accidentally purchased the “I Am Rich” iPhone app with no apparent way to get a refund. It’s a $1000 add-on that is nothing but a screensaver that reminds you and anyone you show it to that you were rich enough to buy the thing. (It has since been removed from Apple’s store.)

- August 8, 2008: 11 hackers were busted with over 40 million stolen credit and debit card numbers. Even if they didn’t use these themselves, they could have sold them off to others.

Microsoft’s convention when it comes security issues is to keep it quiet, come up with a solution, and release it the next time they do a big update. In other words, they like to release several fixes at the same time. This might not sound like too bad of an idea at first, but what happens if someone finds the issue before the fix gets out? Sometimes all they need to know is that there is an issue somewhere and they can find it.

In the case of Firefox, things work a little differently. If a security issue comes up, it’s made public right away. It’s a two-edged sword, if you will; the bad guys can immediately get to work on trying to exploit the issue, but the good guys can work just as quickly to fix it. (Since the bad guys can still use problems that haven’t been publicly disclosed, though, they don’t have that much of an advantage in this department unless it’s a really big issue.) The nicest thing about it, though, is that by its default setting, Firefox will perform security updates automatically in the background without you needing to care. (It won’t automatically notify you when a totally new version is available—for instance, Firefox 3.0 is out now while some people use Firefox 2.0—but there are lots of sites—including this one—that will notify you.) Because of these automatic updates, almost all Firefox users have the most up-to-date version of Firefox. Conversely, more than half of all Internet Explorer users don’t have the most up-to-date version!

[Update--9/12/08: I was mistaken. Firefox does indeed notify you once a new version (such as 2.0 to 3.0) has been released.]

An interesting argument on paper, but does all this really mean anything in practice? Well…

In 2006, there was a known vulnerability in Internet Explorer—the kind of things bad guys could take advantage of. It took 284 days for a fix to be released. That’s just over nine months. And if you can believe it, there are a lot of folks who don’t install these kinds of fixes on their own—but why would they? They didn’t get any notification about the issue; they didn’t get any notification about the fix; how can they be expected to stay secure on their own like that?

The closest known comparison Firefox has to this is a nine day period when a vulnerability went unfixed. And as mentioned, Firefox downloads and installs these fixes automatically. [3][4]

If you like the idea that you can explore the sites you like and not have to worry about what kind of security risks are going on, you definitely want to start using Firefox; it comes much closer to this than Internet Explorer does.

Q: “Wait a second. I’ve been using Internet Explorer for weeks/months/years, and nothing like that has happened to me.”

You, my friend, are both lucky and intelligent. You probably know what kind of websites you’re supposed to avoid, and you don’t click those suspicious links in e-mails from people you’ve never heard of. Aside from the update rate described above, what’s the difference? Well, let’s say some evil-doer hacks your favorite website so that it will install a virus on any computer that accesses it (a real-world scenario, unfortunately). Your website can probably get this issue taken care of, but what do you do in the mean time? (First off, if you don’t have an anti-virus software going, you might want to get one; ask someone who knows their stuff for help with this.)

A future version of Internet Explorer is going to keep track of which websites are reported to be dangerous, and if you try to access one (by accident or otherwise), it will flash up a big red screen that says “dangerous website” to keep you from accidentally getting infected. It does the same for those fake websites that pretend to be big companies like eBay and ask for your social security number. (As far as I’ve heard, Safari doesn’t have this feature, and there are no plans to add it in the near future.)

Guess where that idea came from.

That’s right; the latest version of Firefox already has this form of protection included, making it much more difficult to fall into these kinds of traps. Not only that, but on secure web pages that ask for passwords, a single click on the icon to the left of the address bar can tell you if the website appears to be legitimate. (For those wondering, a secure website will start with “https” instead of “http”; “s” is for secure, I believe.) The associated picture with it is a security guard checking a passport—an excellent analogy for what’s going on.

Security is one of the biggest things that Mozilla is dedicated to including in their products, and by the look of things, they’re doing an excellent job with it.

Notice the security info by the address bar. This site is safe!

This one was enough to convince me. Download Firefox now.

It’s more efficient

This is one where Apple Safari really takes a blow. Have you ever been browsing for a long time, only to find that your browser has slowed significantly since you began? This issue has to do with how much memory your browser is using. (Just to clarify, I don’t mean the same kind of memory you use to save your files; this kind is connected with the speed your computer operates at.)

An individual study comparing several browsers showed that while Safari seemed to consume more and more memory as time went on, Firefox was almost a flat line on the graph in terms of how much it used over time. [5] It’s fair to say that this isn’t a scientific study in the strictest sense of the word. A good analogy is comparing the mileage of two cars by testing them in everyday driving (with all of its stop signs, traffic lights, and unexpected drivers) as opposed to on a treadmill (as seen in the gasoline commercials). (If anyone is interested in refining it to a more scientific study, check the website; all the code you’d need is there.)

Using less memory means that it won’t slow down over time, and it won’t slow down any other programs you have opened.

One point worth mentioning is that some folks have said Firefox is slower to start up than other browsers. Maybe that’s true; I’ve been using it for so long I haven’t really noticed the difference. Of course, it wouldn’t be an Earth-shattering slowdown. What’s one second to open compared to three seconds to open if you plan on using the internet for a few hours? Or even one hour? Or half an hour? Or five minutes? Even if you only want to use the internet for one minute, this difference in time is negligible! Despite what some programmers might tell you about how “every millisecond counts”, that’s really more for accessing databases across the internet rather than anything you or I might care about at home or in the workplace.

Since we’re talking about startup speed, let me throw one more point out there. Some applications will ask you to restart them once they’ve installed updates. This isn’t as bad as restarting your computer, but it can take a few minutes, depending on what program we’re talking about. Firefox has made this kind of thing completely painless. If the “Restart Firefox Now” button shows up and you click it, it closes, opens, and puts you right back where you were usually in under a minute. The only drawback is that you might need to log back into some pages you were viewing if they required a password, but if typing a login name and password is what you call a difficult task, you probably (hopefully) don’t have any accounts online that require this anyway.

Have you been convinced yet? Why not try it out?

Some easy-to-use features

These aren’t things that you’d be forced to use if you switch to Firefox, but if you’re willing to try them, they can be very handy!

First up is the “awesome bar”. It’s really just the address bar at the top of the screen, but what it does is watch what you type and suggests the pages it thinks you’re looking for. It takes a few days worth of “training” for it to really get smart to what you like, but if it does, it’s pretty cool to use. If you prefer to go to Google and search for the page you want, there’s a search bar at the top as well. And of course, if you don’t like the awesome bar, you can always turn it off, and turn it back on later.

Next is the new one-click bookmarking system. On the right side of the address bar you’ll find a star icon (or something else appropriate, depending on the theme you use). Click it once, and the page you’re on is added to “Unsorted Bookmarks”, making it easy to find again using the awesome bar. This is also good if you’re quickly searching through a bunch of pages and want to grab your favorites, because you can always sort them out later. Click the star again, and you’ll be asked where to save the bookmark. There are some other bookmarking features that have been added in, but this much is enough for me. Feel free to explore the other features as you like. (Of course, the traditional method of adding bookmarks is still available.)

Finally, my personal favorite feature is tabbed browsing. This is a substitute for opening several windows to view more than one page. It took me some time before I actually wanted to try it, but now I think it’s very useful! To open a link in a new tab, hold “Ctrl” (bottom corner of your keyboard) when you click on it. (On the Mac, I think there’s a different key you press instead of “Ctrl”, but I’m not sure which one because it didn’t show up correctly on my screen with either browser.) You can also open a blank tab by holding “Ctrl” and pressing “t”.

Internet Explorer has a feature similar to this, but if you’ve ever had more than one page open at once, you’ve probably accidentally closed one before you meant to, or quickly realized you still wanted it open. This is no longer a problem. Holding “Ctrl” and “Shift” (just above “Ctrl”) and then pressing “t” opens the last tab you closed. Last, but not least, if you close the window with multiple tabs open, Firefox will ask if you want to save them and then open them all back up the next time you open the browser. Mozilla has a tutorial on their website with more info on tabbed browsing (among other things) if you’d like to learn more. [6]

If it’s starting to sound like fun, that’s because it really is! Try it!

You can still use Internet Explorer… within Firefox!

Different browsers sometimes represent different pages… differently. If a page was written for Internet Explorer, it might not show up right in Firefox. Anyone who’s switched browsers before has probably noticed this kind of thing (and I’ll bet you think it’s annoying to open the other browser and copy the page address, don’t you?).

There’s an add-on to Firefox called IE Tab, which let’s you switch whether the page is read by Firefox or Internet Explorer with a single click of a button. [7] Don’t let the name scare you; it might have been designed for tabbed browsing, but in no way is it limited to it! If a page seems to be written entirely for Internet Explorer, you can add it to a list of pages that should always be represented by it; when you go to that page, it will be read by Internet Explorer; when you navigate away, Firefox will take back over. The downside to this is that it’s for Windows only, because you need Windows to run Internet Explorer. Sorry to any Mac or Linux users out there.

I know I haven’t really touched on what “themes” are yet, but it’s worth noting that there exists one that makes Firefox look like Internet Explorer 7! [8]

It looks like Internet Explorer with added features!

Mozilla has a support page ready for Internet Explorer users. [9]

And just so no one feels left out in the rain, you can also make it look like Safari, iTunes, or even Netscape.

You must be wanting it by now. Download Firefox now.

Easily customizable

Mozilla doesn’t believe in a “one size fits all” policy with their browser. Up to this point, I’ve mentioned Firefox “add-ons” several times. So, what are they, exactly? Add-ons are anything that can be downloaded and added to your web browser, and almost all of them are made by that community of people outside of Mozilla. They can be for form or function. There are essentially no rules or limits on what add-ons can be developed save for the time people are willing to put into them. Add-ons encompass everything from blocking advertisements, to alerting you to new Gmail messages, to telling you what country the web page you’re viewing is in (along with its location and background info), to playing your music for you! The browser is not just for surfing the web anymore!

The other kind of add-on that I’ve already alluded to is themes. A theme changes the look (and sometimes the layout) of your browser. There are plenty to choose from, and you’re welcome to search on your own, but I have several recommendations to get you started. [Shown on a different page that will be constructed] You can find everything from the basic, to the cool, to the Internet Explorer or iTunes look-alike, to the simple and efficient, to based on Christian symbols, to cats! There’s a “cats” theme out there!

You can use as many or as few add-ons as you like. Keep it simple, or make it look like no other browser in the world. If you’re looking for some, you can check ones that are officially recommended [10] or popular [11], or you can search the entire add-ons page yourself [12]. (I will also be writing a list of add-ons I recommend soon.) If you ever decide you don’t want an add-on anymore, getting rid of it is as simple as clicking on the “Tools” menu, choosing “Add-ons”, finding the one you’re done with, and choosing “Disable” or “Uninstall”. This is also where you can select between themes you have downloaded.

You can’t not be wanting it by now.

Now it’s portable!

This might be more interesting to slightly more advanced users, but anyone who’s interested should take a look! There’s an edition of Firefox that you don’t install on your computer, but on your flash drive. [13] This means you can take your preferences with you and use them on any computer Firefox is compatible with (that’s a lot), whether it’s actually installed on that computer or not. If you like this idea, just be sure to read some of the instructions offered on the page, such as improving the performance of the device [14] (flash drives can only be rewritten a limited number of times; while it’s more times than most of us need to worry about, there’s no need for Firefox to be making unnecessary rewrites if no one is using them). I have this set up on my iPod, and I also have an add-on that keeps its bookmarks in sync with my other computers. It’s like I’m using a computer at home no matter which one I plug it into. The only downside is that the browser doesn’t update automatically this way (but if you’re using it at home, you’ll notice when there’s a new update available).

Q: “If I decide to set this up on my iPod (or any other MP3 player that can be used for flash memory), can I still use it for music at the same time?”

In my case, no. This might be different from model to model, or it might be the same; all I can say is try it and see. If listening to your music is that essential, a logical option is to simply buy a USB drive specifically designated for this purpose. You can get a brand new 1 GB drive on Amazon.com for about $15 (shipping included), which is plenty of room to hold the browser, your preferred add-ons, and some extra room for other files.

[Update--9/29/08: If you go this route, don't make the same mistake I made. When updating, the file you download from portableapps.com is the installer, not the browser itself. Download it to your desktop and launch it from there to install Firefox on your flash drive; don't download it onto your flash drive and overwrite your browser. I didn't lose any data or anything, but it sure was confusing.]

If you haven’t gotten it yet, I’m going to assume you either have it already, or are waiting for the bottom of the page.

Firefox is cool!

Given what it is, there are many ways that Firefox could have seriously been messed up in its development. Developers could have easily gotten bogged down on minute features that wouldn’t be helpful to anyone. The fact that anyone can make changes to the code could have meant that so many different, incompatible versions were made that no one could help anyone else with it. Since it’s 100% free to download, the company could have lost interest in the project if they couldn’t get funding. Revealing a security flaw to the public could have resulted in catastrophe anywhere along the line if the developers couldn’t fix it quickly enough, which would have scarred it for life in the public’s eye.

In other open source projects, even the name has been something that would turn most people off. For instance, one of the first open source projects happened when UNIX was a big vendor of computers. Another group rivaled them with what they called GNU. It was an acronym for “GNU’s Not Unix”. It happened again with a programming language called PHP. It stands for “PHP: Hypertext Processor”. You’d have to be a geek just to remember that! Mozilla was originally going to call their browser Phoenix or Firebird, but Firebird was already taken, so they needed to change it eventually. They made a good choice; their logo looks very cool now. And as much as we might like to see them sing and dance or run middle schools in cartoons on TV, I’m pretty sure the name “Firefrog” wouldn’t have caught on so well with the public.

So many things could have gone wrong. None did.

If that’s not a sign of competence on the developers’ part, I don’t know what is.

Despite the fact that Mozilla has no real advertising budget, it’s the second most popular browser in use. Many of the folks who have tried it love it. They’re willing to tell everyone they know about it. Some of them hand out flyers about it. Some will tote the logo on a hat or shirt (available at Mozilla’s store, for those interested [15]). Many folks place download buttons on their websites. Apparently, somebody left a crop circle of the Firefox logo that can be seen from Google Earth [16]. And someone was crazy enough to write a detailed argument on why they thought Firefox was currently the world’s best web browser and that everyone should be using it (what a nutcase, huh?). [17]

There was even an event when Firefox 3.0 was first released to get it downloaded as many times as possible in the first 24 hours of its release, and have the results set as a Guinness World Record. It was a success. The record, which previously didn’t exist, now stands at 8,002,530 downloads. [18]

Remember when I said Internet Explorer had 75% of the market share? Firefox has second place with about 18%. It just doesn’t seem right. Mozilla’s product just seems to be… better. Imagine for a second what things might be like if Firefox was the leading browser.

- Since it’s free, new computers and those hand-held devices people seem to love so much would come with it pre-installed, allowing more customizability (not to mention security) on all of them.

- Web pages that were written specifically for Internet Explorer—which, believe it or not, actually breaks an official W3C standard when reading web pages [19][20]—would be written for Firefox instead, making them compatible with other browsers much more seamlessly.

- Because people could count on Firefox being found almost anywhere, new add-ons could be created to take advantage of the fact by bringing up personal preferences, files, or what have you from any computer in the world.

- Browser-based computer attacks on businesses would be much less frequent, because by default Firefox updates itself to resist the latest threats, as opposed to the norm, where an attack that has been known about (and even had a fix released) for months takes over the company’s network.

This may be a somewhat utopian picture of the future, but does it really seem that farfetched?

When I started to figure out just how nice Firefox was, I couldn’t help but wonder why people are still using Internet Explorer. If you feel the same way, be sure to check out SpreadFirefox.com when you have time.

Q: “I’m afraid to try it, because I don’t want to mess anything up on my computer.”

I plan on writing a step-by-step walkthrough to install it, but the setup process is pretty simple, so feel free to try it.

Q: “Can I use it in the workplace?”

Absolutely. I know I do. You can even use different settings and add-ons more suited to where you work than you would use at home, if you’d like.

Q: “It’s not my computer!”

If it belongs to one person (that is, a friend’s computer), check with them whether or not they’re using it already and if they’ve seen this article or not. If it’s more like a computer lab, talk to whoever’s in charge of it. Most of them are tech-savvy enough to know why it’s a good idea to use Firefox, but you never know what you might find out!

Q: “You’ve done fine bashing other browsers, but are there really none that stand up to this one?”

The closest competitor is the browser Opera (made by a company called Opera). It has a lot of the features discussed here, and it’s free to use, but it’s not “open” (i.e. Opera [the browser] can only be improved by Opera [the company]), and it’s not as popular as Firefox, so the growth potential is a little lower.

Q: “These are just opinions.”

Well, I certainly can’t argue with that. I’ve heard that while everyone is entitled to their own opinion, each opinion is only as valid as the facts that it’s based on, so I hope my references are convincing enough. If someone was, indeed, able to surpass Firefox with a better web browser, I’d be willing to switch and change my opinion. If Opera said they came out with a new browser that had impenetrable security (and could prove it), I’d be willing to switch to that. If Apple said the same thing about Safari, but that it now also used almost no memory, I might switch to that. Simply put, I’m not blindly loyal to Firefox; there are adequate reasons as to why I like it so much.

Q: “I really don’t want to switch.”

I can’t make you. Everything I’ve laid down here is just an argument as to why I think you should switch. If you really like the browser you’re using that much, I can’t stop you from using it (well, someone probably can, but I wouldn’t know how). If, however, the only thing keeping you from switching is “I know how to use this browser, and I don’t think I’d like the look of a new one”, remember that you can customize Firefox to look and behave the way you want it to. Again, though, the final decision is yours.

Q: “I’m not convinced.”

If you want a little more convincing before you switch, take a look at Mozilla’s website. [21] A list of awards the browser has won doesn’t hurt, either. [22] If you still need more information, try using Google to search for it and see what people are saying about it (and why; don’t forget to check their logic!).

It’s free. It’s secure. It’s sensible. It’s easy to customize. It’s fun to use. Millions of good people are working to make it better for folks like you. It’s not losing any momentum in its production. It may well be the best web browser the world currently has to offer. There are no strings attached. Don’t wait. Download Firefox now.