FIREFOX AND THUNDERBIRD – DID I SPEAK TOO SOON?

Now that I’m using Firefox and Thunderbird exclusively, I’ve become disappointed. Not surprisingly, I’ve read more about them, and a number of blemishes have been showing up in the Information Technology press. Some even question the integrity of Mozilla Organization.

Furthermore, press reports indicate that Internet Explorer 7 will be released this year. It will have a tabbed interface, cut way down on resource use, and allow third party additions that will dig less deeply into the operating system itself. I’ve also heard this directly from two Microsoft contacts, both of whom are in positions to know.

Let’s begin with letters from ToThePointers. I’ve received four emails criticizing my recommendation. Here’s the most biting:

Hi Dennis, Just to let you in on our experience, 3 users use the Thunderbird email, and the rest of us use Outlook Express. Thunderbird is a nightmare for booting up (forever) where as Outlook is immediate for one comparison and there are others. I can tell you several will not be using your advice for the switch to Thunderbird. As for Firefox it is a nightmare if you want to print articles, it will block some and then print another. So one has to keep Internet Explorer as well to copy over a site and open to print. So as Thunderbird, it is thumbs down. For Firefox, the question to you since you have all the download sites are you a marketing agent for both?

Arthur Taylor
Corporate Records
NOVAHEADinc
Phoenix Arizona

My reply:

Hi Arthur. Thank you for the information. I presume the last sentence is not meant at face value. I’ve never printed an article straight from a browser, I save them to a folder. Consequently I was unaware of this serious deficiency.

I booted up first Thunderbird, then Outlook Express several times. While it is true Outlook Express boots up faster, Thunderbird took only five seconds instead of two for Outlook Express. I don’t think that’s a major issue.

The most important reasons to question the two are security and integrity. There are a number of articles critical of Mozilla on these issues. The best is PC Magazine’s Are You Safer With Firefox? .

I’ll summarize the most important points.

1. Firefox may be a more secure browser than IE, but the jury is still out. “In fact, Firefox has its share of security problems, and has probably been saved from real-world attack so far only by its single-digit market share.”

2. The update to version 1.01 in February (which I mentioned in my column on Firefox three weeks ago) offered no new features but corrected 17 security defects. The worst: “Basically, an attacker could set up a site that had, to outward appearances, the same URL as another site (such as www.ebay.com), but in fact the domain name would be in an international character set, not English. (Mozilla didn’t actually fix this problem, which is less a bug in the program than a problem with the whole approach to IDNs; instead version 1.0.1 just disables IDN support by default.)”

3. Few heard about the security flaws before the update. Only after all the recent criticism did Mozilla begin issuing warnings as Microsoft has issued for years. You have to know of the special site to find the warnings. “But even here the organization isn’t totally open about security bugs; when new ones are reported, the entries in Bugzilla are generally made private for a time while they are investigated and fixed. “

4. When Mozilla fixes a bug it doesn’t release a patch. Either you wait for new releases – and 1.01 took 3 � months – or you install interim builds. The problem with interim builds is that they are not official releases, but beta versions of forthcoming releases. They will contain their own bugs, and support from Mozilla will be compromised by your using unofficial builds. Worse, unlike a patch, you have to download the whole build. It’ll replace the version you currently have installed, not just fix a problem.

5. There are a few more criticisms in the article. PC Magazine leaves out some mentioned in more technical reviews. They conclude with “Finally, anti-spyware companies Webroot and Sunbelt Software have said that they expect Firefox-specific spyware to start showing up this year, and if the browser’s market share continues to increase it’s easy to see why it would. So don’t forget to update, and don’t rest on your Firefox laurels. You’re not free of security problems, you just have different ones.”

I have other problems with Thunderbird. I downloaded a calendaring extension and another extension that purported to give Thunderbird the Personal Information Management features of Outlook. The PIM features of Outlook leave it woefully short of a true contact manager. However you can buy an add-in from Microsoft that will make it a full featured contact manager, but it’s expensive.

Still, for a single individual Outlook is adequate.

I took these screen shots from a ‘Virtual Machine’ (don’t ask) that I created just for these screen shots. That way I secreted my personal information. You can see from the screen shots that there are a variety of options, alarms, and views.

Thunderbird’s extensions don’t compare.

I also discovered that Thunderbird’s extensions slow it down, even though they don’t hook into Windows itself – such as having to make entries into the Windows Registry.

When I introduced Thunderbird I mentioned it contained its own newsreader. Newsgroups are forums where people discuss common interests. I participate in programming forums, cosmology forums and a few others. A few years ago, newsgroups were accessible only by newsreaders. These days most are also accessible through browsers.

What is the advantage of a newsreader? In many newsgroups – forums – attachments cannot be posted or downloaded through the web, only through newsreaders. This is true with Microsoft Developer’s Network forums for example. Sometimes I want to download a sample application a user has posted, so I can solve his/her problem, then post my corrections back to the newsgroup. In those cases I have to use Outlook Express.

However, most attachments are either pirate software or pornography. These days most wholesome newsgroups – such as any of the hundreds of physics newsgroups – are accessible through the web. The need for newsreaders has declined.

So, is my recommendation to switch back to Outlook and IE? That’s up to you. As far as I’m concerned I made a mistake. As they say on Wall Street, “Cut your losses short and let your profits ride.”

Dennis Turner