![[80% Nerdier]](/jdf/images/firefox_64.gif)
Many of us in the Internet Technology community had a looming, growing concern regarding Firefox, the web browser based on Netscape and Mozilla’s “Gecko” rendering engine. A great deal of hype has flown hither and thither across the ‘net regarding this product, including a little from me. The growing concern was not regarding glaring security issues or the viability of a wildly-popular-but-free software package, but rather one of popularity. No self-respecting Unix-using, pocket-protector-wearing, pencil-neck computer geek wants to schlep around on the web using the same browser as the unwashed plebian masses. Rest easy, o geeky one: Firefox’s recent gains in widespread usage have come to a halt. That’s right, for reasons surpassing understanding, the vastly-inferior Microsoft browser, Internet Explorer, has regained a portion of its lost market share, and is once again weighing in as the browser-of-actual-use for 87.2% of web usage. Fly your freak-flag high, Firefox users: your browser’s position of obscurity is safe, for now.
damn hippies and your freaky open-source software… free huh? Made by the community? community… comm… communism? I think so.
Stick with Internet Explorer if you’re a true blue american. Especially if you like your privacy, and don’t want to get infected with viruses due to exploits in your “open” browser.
I don’t think it has anything to do with Internet Explorer being an attractive web browser, but rather the good old “blinking 12:00 syndrome” common to many fields of technology. End-users often cannot be bothered to learn a new system, even a good new system, in order to address a problem that they are unaware of or simply do not care about.
After spending a half-hour figuring out how to program the clock on your home entertainment system properly, there’s a power outage. Rather than re-learn how to set the clock (this process was never high-enough in priority to be retained), you opt to simply not set the clock, thinking it is more trouble than it is worth. Similarly, your computer came with an operating system and web browser that appears to work “well enough.” You hear your nerdy friends say that Macs are better, but Apple doesn’t make a Mac OS that will run on your computer, so you keep using Windows. Your other, nerdier, friends tell you there’s an OS named Linux that will actually function on your computer. You take one glance at the instructions for switching over and decide it isn’t worth the trouble.
This is also why operating system updates should be automated by default, and wifi access points shouldn’t be shipped from the manufacturer as wide-open networks; to do otherwise encourages security problems. Nobody expects Smith & Wesson to ship their firearms pre-loaded, right?
That’s just crazy; who says : “Firefox suck, I’m going back to IE.”? I mean honestly WTF?
Nobody does. Instead, they get a new computer that already has IE installed on it, and say “Funny, this browser doesn’t look quite like my old one (Firefox) did. Oh well.” Firefox, while my personal browser of preference, doesn’t really provide a lot of value to a typical user.
speaking of open wifi routers.. I am looking at the configuration screen of my neighbor’s right now. HYPOTHETICALLY.
anyways. Please understand that I was kidding. I tell folks all the time “either just use safari because it’s mostly decent and renders HTML quickly, or download firefox.”
IE for the mac hasn’t been updated since… June 2003. And Microsoft says they’re not going to bother, since Safari and Firefox really dominate that platform.
It’s usually PC switchers who are using it these days. I show them safari and firefox’s “block popup windows’ section, and the handiness of tabs, and they’re like “oh! How do I export my bookmarks?” 😀
I use Firefox almost exclusively, but I have to say with the last two updates I find a number of web pages that simply won’t open. The page starts to load and then just sits there blank. One that did it to me recently was the Buccaneer Bass web site. Then I open IE and it loads right up. Sucks, because I hate to open IE, but something changed between about 1.0.3 and 1.0.6, and whatever it is happened on both of my computers. Since then, I can’t open certain sites.