FIREFOX

[I have a fondness for Firefox if only for the name: I was Clint Eastwood’s arctic location advisor for his 1982 movie “Firefox,” during which time we had a number of adventures together. I’m glad to see the Wizard finally discussing the Firefox web browser, as I have been bugging him about it for about a year now� —JW]

Many people with Windows use two mediocre programs – Internet Explorer and Outlook Express – for the most important aspects of their computing experience: browsing the Internet and managing email.

For email, Microsoft Office provides a better way. Microsoft Office includes Outlook, which is a robust email application. It includes tasks, scheduling and many other features of a Personal Information Manager.

But what about a better way than Internet Explorer?

You’ve probably heard of that better way by now. There have been widespread reports in the mainstream media about Firefox – a new and worthy challenger to Internet Explorer. Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 is the dream Internet browser you’ve been looking for. Featuring a host of small technical improvements, including tabbed browsing, built-in and customizable search bars, and a built-in RSS reader, Firefox browser is the one that should finally put a dent in Internet Explorer’s unrivalled market dominance.

From the Mozilla Foundation’s website:

Mozilla Foundation Announces 25 Million Downloads of Firefox Browser
Volunteer marketing arm Spread Firefox grows to 70,000 strong; Browser now available in 28 languages

Mountain View, Calif. – February 16th, 2005 – The Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving choice and promoting innovation on the Internet, today announced its award-winning Firefox browser has been downloaded more than 25 million times, fueled by consumers’ demand for a faster, safer Internet experience. Firefox has quickly become the browser of choice, offering user-friendly features such as tabbed browsing, built-in pop-up blocking and live bookmarks.

The Mozilla Foundation further announced that Spread Firefox, the volunteer advocacy group charged with promoting the browser around the world, has grown to more than 70,000 members. Spread Firefox was developed on the same model as the open source software itself – enlist passionate and talented individuals, each of whom bring unique and diverse experience to the project.

"Twenty five million Firefox downloads is a significant achievement, and we see that number continuing to grow," said Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla Foundation. "Firefox is being rapidly adopted by the mainstream, with this audience embracing Firefox as a more user-friendly web browsing solution."

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 can be downloaded for free or purchased in a CD-ROM Edition with Firefox Guidebook from the Mozilla Foundation.

You can download Firefox from the green box in the upper left hand side near the top, and the email client Thunderbird 1.0 right below it.

I started using Firefox and I am still using it. Actually, for a while, I was using both Firefox and Internet Explorer to surf, mostly in an effort to compare the two. I think Firefox outclasses IE for a number of reasons, especially for its convenient system of tabs that open within one instance of the program – thus saving memory – and the improved security due to its lack of ActiveX implementations.

By comparison, to get the latest version of Internet Explorer 6.0, you must already be running Windows XP SP2. If you’re not, you’ll have to pay for your operating system upgrade, as Microsoft no longer offers new versions of IE as standalone downloads.

Although Firefox’s lack of ActiveX support might prevent some sites from working properly, after more than three weeks of use, Firefox remained fast and stable, and displayed an impressive range of cutting-edge browsing options. I was able to view every Web site just fine. With a few exceptions. Pirate sites, sex sites, and wrestling sites. If you want to go there, you’ll have to use Internet Explorer.

But it was only recently that I discovered by just how much Firefox outclasses IE. And how did I arrive at this conclusion? Not through another round of Gates-bashing, and not even because of any particular problem with IE. Firefox is just better on its own terms.

What put it over the top for me was the extra functionality of Firefox’s extensions – which, as the name implies, extend functionality and make the program easier and more fun to use.

There is a whole industry built around the things Internet Explorer "forgot," from automatic form-filling programs to download managers. These additions are not provided by Microsoft, which means you have to search the Net, look for a suitable application, install it and deal with the extra memory load, potential software conflicts, and increased security risks. Some additions are easy to find and are safe – for example the Google toolbar and Microsoft’s own MSN toolbar.

Because Internet Explorer is so deeply tied into the Windows operating system itself, add-ons have to tie themselves not only to the browser but the operating system. That’s not true with Firefox. The additions attach to the browser only. They are easy to install and uninstall. They provide added functions without draining resources.

All by themselves, Firefox’s tabs save you a ton of memory and processor activity. One instance of Firefox with 10 tabs open on different Web sites takes less memory than three open IE windows. But Firefox also has more than 200 extensions that save you even more time, effort and memory (all available at Firefox addons).

When I finally checked out the Firefox extensions "store" (where everything is, of course, free), the extensions I installed help me work the way I want to, and you, too, will be able to shape your browser to do the stuff you want it to.

I often need to copy text from Web sites, for example, in order to do research and write about programs. In all Windows programs, including Internet Explorer, you highlight the text you want, go to the Edit menu and click on Copy (or press Control-C) and send the text to the clipboard for pasting into your word processor.

With Firefox’s Autocopy command, your text gets placed on the clipboard as it’s highlighted – no more moving your mouse to the Edit menu or keyboard combinations until, of course you paste the text. It even works when you "select all" on a page.

But sometimes it’s not enough to download text. If you work on a laptop that doesn’t have an always-on Wi-Fi network connection and want to browse offline, there are several options available with IE. One is to open the Web page while you’re connected and leave it open when you go out of network range.

Another is to use a Web site download program like HTTrack, which will "rip" a site and save it on your hard drive. Again, you have to install a third-party program to run it, further taxing your memory. In addition, because they are designed to handle downloads from sites with many links, these programs tend to be complicated to use.

But if what you want is a simple way to save Web pages while off line, Firefox’s Scrapbook utility will do the trick. This extension will save your information in a special folder, with the ability to save as many levels on the page as you wish.

When you install Scrapbook, your right click context menu includes a setting called "capture page," which will do all the work. The page is now saved for off-line surfing, painlessly and efficiently.

Do a lot of searching? Firefox offers dozens of search engines in your browser bar. The search engine bar sits on your Firefox toolbar, like the Google toolbar – except you can search with engines ranging from Google to Altavista to Dictionary.com to Yahoo to IMDB (Independent Movie Database) to Amazon.com’s search engine – you get the idea. To search, of course, you type the term you are looking for into the search box and click OK.

Unless, of course, you use the Conquery extension which, when installed, gives you a right-click context menu search function. You just highlight a term on a Web page, click the "search Web for" setting on your context menu, and Firefox does the rest. If you are looking for a definition, for example, just highlight the word and use Conquery’s "Query to" function to search Dictionary.com.

For easy entertainment, there’s Foxytunes , which gives you control over your favorite media player from within Firefox. And if you want to save your clicking finger for really important things, install Mouse Gestures , which lets you surf the Web – moving backwards, forwards, selecting text or downloads, or almost anything else you can think of – all using a mouse!

Again, all these useful little items are installed and run from within Firefox. Installation is a matter of clicking on a link, and to uninstall, you just open the Firefox extensions box and remove the extension you want to get rid of. They’re all at Firefox addons, and can be installed on Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

Another difference from Internet Explorer is in how Firefox handles secure Web sites, such as e-commerce or online banking sites. When visiting a secure site, Firefox highlights the address bar’s URL in yellow and shows the Lock icon. If you click the Lock icon, you can review the site’s security information and decide whether to continue.

The domain name of the site you are visiting is also listed in the right-hand corner of secure windows, so you know the true source of every page. A criminal hacker might be able to spoof the location bar address, but he or she won’t be able to spoof this secondary address display. Given all this security, we were still able to log on to secure financial sites, including Citibank.com and Fidelity.com, without any problems.

When Firefox first came out, the hype claimed it was completely secure. Wishful thinking abounded. One argument for example, claimed that because Firefox’s source code was open, hackers would be co-opted into being good citizens, helping Firefox in becoming more secure. Ah, if only human evil could so easily be banned.

Soon reports of security flaws trickled into the security sites on the web. And then the online computer magazines. There was a period of denial. You can read some of the stories of security flaws at
ZDNet:

Firefox flaw sparks a fiery debate
ZDNet UK Staff
ZDNet UK
January 07, 2005, 17:00 GMT

The news that the Firefox browser contains a flaw that could help cybercriminals to carry out phishing attacks stirred up plenty of reaction and discussion among ZDNet UK readers.

Security firm F-Secure warned on Wednesday that the vulnerability, which allows the URL in a Firefox download dialog box to be spoofed, could be exploited by online fraudsters.

Some of you took issue with the experts, arguing that the flaw shouldn’t be regarded as a security vulnerability because a Firefox user would already have to have clicked on a phishing email and been taken to a fake site. "Where is the problem? I hardly think that a spoofed site would link you to a legit download area," commented Pete Molina, a PC and LAN administrator.

Some members of the Firefox camp weren’t happy about any criticism of their favourite browser. "Thanks but no thanks for the information. We still trust and love FireFox," said Abe, an engineer.

Finally the flaws hit the popular press:

Mozilla and Firefox flaws exposed
By John Leyden (john.leyden at theregister.co.uk)
Friday 7th January 2005 12:14 GMT

Mozilla and Firefox users were warned of a number of potentially troublesome security vulnerabilities this week. The most serious flaw involves a buffer overflow bug in the way Mozilla processes the NNTP (news) protocol. The bug creates a means for hackers inject hostile code into vulnerable systems, providing they trick users into executing maliciously constructed news server links.

And that’s why the current download is Firefox version 1.01, improved over 1.0. It includes security fixes. Nothing is perfect, although Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer.

Next week I’ll discuss Mozilla’s email client, Thunderbird.

Dennis Turner