UPDATED: Microsoft, be afraid... (Mozilla Firefox)

Member Name: grahamt

Product:	Mozilla Firefox
Date:	03/08/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast ; the almost limitless opportunities for customisation

Disadvantages: Rel 3.5 is a little flaky right now

I have been using the Internet, in one form or another, for well over 15 years. Back in the days when it was this strange new thing that no one really understood, I was using some of the very earliest IBM Personal Computers. This when Windows was just a twinkle in Microsoft's eye. We were still using MSDOS, and a graphical display was simply a picture made up of the various special characters in the standard character set.

The normal screen was green on black, which was all we really needed as most of our work was done using IBM Mainframe computers, where green on black was the order of the day (still is in some respects). The PCs we used had special cards to enable them to talk to mainframes and were mostly desktops. Then we got our first "portable" computers. They were as big and as heavy as a sewing machine and needed a dial-up modem to enable them to dial into the mainframe. That modem was as big as a breeze block and ran at 4.8Kbs!

The first Internet Browser we used was a text-based one - Lynx - which is still going strong today. Even then it was realised that the true power of the Internet was in its graphical content and although you could find it and download it with Lynx, it wasn't until the advent of Windows that we could view it.

Then came Netscape.

I'm sure we are all aware by now of the war between Microsoft and Netscape and how, by one means or another, Microsoft came to win that war. Internet Explorer came to dominate the next decade, more or less, without any serious competitors.

Then came Firefox.

I started using Firefox around 2005. My first experiences with it were not promising. It was attractive but far too flaky. But, I realised its potential and so kept going back to have another look with each new release. Finally, around 2006, I made the switch and since then Firefox has been my browser of choice.

I have looked at others even so, even IE as it tries desperately to play catch-up, but nothing I have seen about any other browser has persuaded me that they are in any way superior to Firefox. Every time they think they've caught up, with one bound Firefox leaps out of reach and there is no reason to suppose that this is likely to change any time soon.

Currently I am using the new 3.5 release and this is the first release that has demonstrated anything like the flakiness of earlier releases. Mostly there seems to be a problem where Firefox falls over if, for whatever reason, you then open IE (I have the latest release - 8 - of that installed as well) at the same time. However, Firefox is so so civilised even when it goes wrong. It compiles a report of the problem and ask if you would like to send it to Mozilla for analysis and then enables you to restart Firefox where you left off.

So, what is it about Firefox that I like so much? Mainly that it's fast and very flexible. What I also like is that it is a community development and delivers what the community wants, quickly and, usually, very competently, although the occasional issues such as the ones I am experiencing with the latest release prove that no one's perfect. Still, at least you know that these problems will be resolved quickly, which is not something you can say about certain other software providers we could name!

Firefox works the way I want to work. The Tabbed interface was what really decided for me that Firefox would, in normal instances, be the only browser I would use. OK, it wasn't introduced by Firefox; it first appeared as long ago as 1997 but didn't gain real popularity until Opera introduced it to a wider audience about a year before Firefox. It took IE another 5 years to catch up.

What I didn't like was the palaver to add another tab to the browser but, listening to users like me, Firefox solved that in Rel 3.5 by placing a mini-tab with a "+" symbol on it at the end of the existing tabs, with which to open a new one.

Firefox has most of the options that you would expect. There's a built-in pop-up blocker that can be customised on-the-fly to allow certain websites. It will remember passwords for you if you wish; I don't use this as I don't see the point in having passwords if you're going to have someone else remember them for you.

No, it's not these sort of run-of-the-mill options that you find in most browsers that attract me to Firefox: it's the flexibility to extend it to add functionality that is of value to me, developed by like-minded people in the developer community, that is the biggest plus-point. So, let's talk about Add-ons and, most especially, the ones that I always install.

Security
======
The biggest issue with accessing the Internet is security. There are so many websites out there trying to suck[er] you in and then undermine your trust that security over and above that provided by the normal sort of computer security we all use, is essential. There are three different one that I use:

NoScript
~~~~~
If there is one add-on that keeps me loyal to Firefox it is NoScript. Developed by Giorgio Maone in Italy, NoScript automatically blocks all Java, Flash and other types of scripting, which is so often embedded in webpages and which can be used for system infiltration without your knowledge.

NoScript places an "S" symbol at the bottom left of the Firefox window and overlays it with a No Entry sign whenever a new website is encountered. Left-clicking on the symbol pops up a menu listing all of the hidden URLs to which the webpage also links. You can choose to permit access to some or all of these external links, either on a permanent or temporary basis. Any links barred will usually appear on the webpage just as the text of the URL, so you know what is blocked.

Of course, you may still be uncertain about whether or not you should access one of these links, if they look interesting. The choice is yours but, to be if you want to be really certain that anything you do won't have unfortunate consequences then It's probably best to take a look at Sandboxie or Xenocode. I don't but I suspect this will be coming as standard; it's already been introduced with Google Chrome.

UPDATE - Oct 2009
-----------------------
I have just discovered something that may prove very useful. I have been finding that when I click on the Home button in Facebook, more often than not I end up with a blank page. However, if I edit the URL from http to https the page displays properly. I find that NoScript has in its Options a tab - HTTPS - where you can force certain websites ALWAYS to use https. It's a lifesaver!

WorldIP
~~~~~
There has recently been a lot of publicity about certain websites, mostly in the Far East, that have been set up with a ".co.uk" domain name suffix to their URL. This makes them appear to be a genuine UK website. These websites are often used to sell fake goods, such as computer games, perfume and so on. You may not even be able to trust any personal financial information to them if you buy from them.

WorldIP adds another symbol to the bottom right-hand side of Firefox. This one is quite simple: it displays the true IP address of the actual webserver you are accessing and alongside it places a national flag of the country hosting the server. Hovering the cursor over the symbol pops up a windows displaying the Hostname, Host IP address, Country and Country Code. Try it for Dooyoo UK; you may be surprised!

DT Whois
~~~~~~
DomainTools Whois (for that's what DT stands for) is really an extension to the functionality provided by WorldIP. The DomainTools website is a treasure trove of information, especially about any website. The DT Whois add-on adds a new button to the Customize Toolbar feature from the View > Toolbars menu item. From there you can drag its blue cog icon to the toolbar (I've dropped it next to the URL Address field) and if you want to know more about the true identity of a website then you just click on the button. DT Whois then opens a new tab at the DomainTools website and invokes a search for the current URL.

In addition to the standard Whois domain name registration record you get all sorts of other interesting information, including the countries from which the website is most accessed. Once again, try it for Dooyoo UK: US 11.6%, India 8.1%, Pakistan 1.5%!!!!! I thought that this was a UK website!

Other Add-ons
===========
So, that's the security extensions; what about the usability add-ons?

Auto Context
~~~~~~~~
I use this one all the time, especially with Dooyoo. Highlight anything on a webpage (other than a hyperlinked URL) and immediately it will pop up a menu that will enable you to do lots of things with the text highlighted. The menu option I most use is to open a new tab in Google and invoke a search for the selected text. You'd be surprised how often I find that the text and, indeed the whole review, has been copied from somewhere else!

Other options include: opening the text as a URL, even if it isn't hyperlinked; copying the text in different formats, including plain text; directly saving or appending the selection to a file. There is just one thing it doesn't do and for that I need:-

Streetmap
~~~~~~~
Streetmap does what it says on the tin: it enables you to take an address or a postcode, for instance, that you've highlighted on a webpage and open a new tab on Streetmap or Multimap and so on, and search for the map section to which it points.

Sadly, at the time of writing, Streetmap is not yet available for Firefox 3.5 but the author assures me it soon will be.

TinyURL Generator
~~~~~~~~~~~
Another one that does what it says on the tin. Great if you want to pass a link to someone to a specific webpage within a website. These URLs can get very long. I've written a separate review of TinyURL if you're interested. Need I say more?

IE Tab
~~~~
The problems of incompatibility between the webpage code as interpreted by MS IE and Mozilla Firefox used to be a significant problem. MS would, as MS does, not always stick to the rules. Consequently, whilst IE was the totally dominant web browser, webpage designers would ensure that they wrote their code so that the webpage looked as they wanted it to look when displayed by IE.

Firefox was written to adhere to the international standards for HTML and so on and so it was often seen that certain webpages would not display correctly because they were designed to MS IE "standards".

This is not so much of a problem anymore, now that IE has lost its stranglehold on the browser market and webpage designers have realised that if they want their website to attract viewers they'd better make sure that it looks right when viewed in Firefox.

However, there are still a few websites that pose problems and this is where IE Tab comes in. Click on the Firefox icon on the bottom right of the Firefox window and Firefox changes the rendering engine from the Gecko/TraceMonkey of Firefox to IE's and the icon changes to that of IE so you know what engine you're using. Instantly you can see if there is any difference.

Reload Every
~~~~~~~~
Some websites, such as the BBC's Sports pages, automatically reload on a frequent basis so that the latest score and incidents appear before your very eyes. However, there are other websites which don't do this and where you would prefer it if they did. Reload Every enables this for you.

Right-click anywhere on the webpage and one of the options on the pop-up menu will be "Reload Every...". There are instant options from 5secs to 15mins but you can choose your own frequency if you wish.

Conclusions
===========
So, that's pretty much what makes Firefox my browser of choice. The add-ons that I use are just a small selection of those that are available but these are the ones that enable Firefox to meet all my needs. Maybe you want something else and, if you do, there's almost certainly going to be an add-on to meet your requirements. The possibilities are almost limitless.


UPDATE - Sept 2009
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just a couple of extras: Streetmap is now finally available for Rel 3.5 of Firefox; I've now added another very useful Add-on - gTranslate - which enables any foreign text on a webpage to be instantly translated using Google's language tools.

Summary: Surely the World's best Internet Browser.

Variety of features:
Reliability:
User friendly:
Installation:
Update possibilites: