Ryan's Currently Unnamed Blog

Just when you thought the dust had setteled... Just when Microsoft had established dominance over Netscape. Along comes Firefox.

Sure, Internet Explorer actually had some nice innovations. But, it came down to Microsoft being able to throw more development effort into their product, and they were able to leverage their operating system dominance and use the average computer persons knowledge to solidify their stranglehold on the browser market.

There were some Netscape holdouts, and there were some people who stuck to small projects like Opera. Netscape was dead and they spun off their browser as an open source project, and have seen many short release cycles.

The result? A browser with built in features like pop up blocking and tabbed browsing. Actual innovations that make searching the web easier to use and safer for your sanity all at the same time. Meanwhile, Microsoft is stuck dealing with security holes and basically gives you the same browser you had 3 years ago.

Don't like something Firefox does (or doesn't)? There's probably an extension available to it that adds that functionality. And, there's a lot more sanity to controling what extensions get added to your browser.

Is it perfect? No. There's many websites that don't look quite right. More then likely the website is not adhering to standards in favor of building their websites for Internet Explorer. And, there have been a handful of security holes as well. However, compare a Firefox bug to a IE bug and you'll find that not only are the bugs less severe with Firefox, but they get updated much faster. Normally in a matter of days, as opposed to months with Microsoft.

3 days ago, they released a preview edition of version 1.0 of the Firefox browser. They set a lofty goal of getting one million users to download it within 10 days. Well, they currently sit at over 700,000 with a week to go.

So, you are not alone! There are hundreds of thousands of people already behind it! You are not limited to just the choices presented to you by the people in control of the marketplace. There arealternatives! (And, bah! I can't get through a post without saying something that can apply to Michael Badnark, the 'alternative' Presidental Candidate!)

Currently, of all browser traffic to this blog, I see about 28% Firefox traffic vs. 62% Internet Explorer. Above average, but then again, if you are reading this you are probably above average already! =p

So, download it or read more about it. Its a small download and it doesn't overtake your machine or install any other software. If you don't like it, it removes itself cleanly!