Internet Explorer vs. Mozilla Firefox

Just when everyone thought the IE vs. Netscape issue had been put to bed, the browser wars have begun to heat up again!

This time the competitor to market behemoth Microsoft is a new version of the Mozilla browser (the basis for Netscape) named Firefox.  And more importantly, this upstart has appeared on the scene just as the giant has tripped up.

Even Bill Gates himself was quoted as saying a few years ago that he did not think Microsoft would develop a new browser beyond the current offering of Internet Explorer 6.  But IE has been plagued with one niggling security vulnerability after another.  Most of these have seemed little more than annoying as the Windows Update service in the system tray alerts you to download yet another patch.

But things started getting bad in 2004 when a new generation of advertising software started taking advantage of weaknesses in IE.  Soon, home users were getting pop-up ads on EVERY site they visited, even sites containing no advertising.  This pop-up software was managing to exploit a flaw in IE, install itself on the users machine, then was replicating itself and hiding in various places on the hard drive.  If the user found the program and uninstalled it, eventually the files in hiding would re-install it!  Additionally, this pesky software tended to bog down even the most stout of PCs, making them slow to a crawl.

Folks seeking relief from this adware quickly came to a stark realization: Microsoft seems unable to stop or even control it!  Despite several new patches and updates, adware is still a pervasive problem.  Apparently, this software is exploiting a flaw in Microsoft's Active-X component, which allows websites to develop their own custom plug-ins.

It is the Active-X component (or lack thereof) that is the most noticeable difference between IE and the free-of-charge Firefox.  Many consumers, mired in malignant pop-up adware, quickly realized they could circumvent the problem by abandoning IE and switching to Firefox.  This new browser is not just an update of the fat and heavy Netscape Navigator which many people used to know (and some loathed)... This was a much "lighter" and efficient version that loads quickly and serves up pages quickly.  The difference was made more obvious as IE got slower and slower with each security patch.

The newest version of IE is version 7, which most Windows users are being compelled to convert to through Windows Update.  While the new version is certainly an improvement, it still seems to lag behind Firefox in speed.

Firefox serves up several new features, chief among them something called "tabbed browsing" which allows users to have multiple web pages open in a single window.  Because Mozilla's source code is open and freely available to developers, there are scads of additional browser features that can be downloaded and installed, ranging from color samplers and RSS readers to MP3 players.

The adoption of Firefox by the home user has been climbing quickly and steadily.  For the first time in years the percentage of users using IE has been dropping from the 90%+ levels seen in recent years.  By early 2007, some sites were reporting almost 20% of their visitors were using Firefox, while it is generally accepted that Internet-wide that Firefox users constitute 12% of the market.

Pros and Cons


So if both browsers are being widely used, what are the strengths and weaknesses?  One of Internet Explorer's biggest strengths is simply its dominance.  Because it has been the defacto gold standard for so many years, there are many websites out there that simply don't work as well (and maybe not at all) unless the person surfing the web is using IE.  Some sites use JavaScript or Active-X controls that Firefox is unable to interpret.  And of course, there are the ongoing security concerns over Active-X.  Imagine what could happen if instead of annoying adware, a malicious virus writer managed to exploit the same holes!  This is a very real worry in the minds of many.

Firefox, like IE, is a free program.  It's features and speed make make even the new IE 7 look pretty shabby.  But Firefox is not without its faults.  Many users have complained that certain web content (in particular Flash movie content) slows Firefox down considerably, and sometimes slows down the entire PC.  Some folks have also complained that after downloading and installing Firefox, their Internet Explorer no longer works as well as it once did.  Also, as mentioned above, some sites just won't display or function quite as they should.

Which One is Right for You?


Who says you need to choose?!  Most people freely switch back and forth between the two as needed.  You may choose to do most of your browsing in Firefox, then use IE if/when you need to visit a site with that doesn't seem to function properly with Firefox.  However, given the problems with IE and the excellent performance of Firefox, WebZealot does recommend downloading and installing Firefox, even if you don't use it all the time.

Ultimately, the decision is up to you!