I heard from a friend of a friend that Firefox got another mention in the Wall Street Journal today. Anyone have a subscription? If so, could you excerpt the relevant text for us?
Thanks for the link!
Posted by asa at September 9, 2004 10:54 AMgood stuff
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Firefox is a Web browser that is a popular alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It comes from an open-source organization called Mozilla (www.mozilla.org) and is offered in versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. It is more modern than Internet Explorer, and features tabbed browsing, an approach I like a lot that lets you open multiple Web pages at once on a single screen.
Only a small percentage of Web surfers use Firefox, but that number has grown sharply recently, in the wake of warnings that Internet Explorer's security holes are making it easier for viruses, spyware and other malicious software to enter a computer. Microsoft has recently fixed some of these problems in the new Service Pack 2 update to Windows XP, but Firefox has a number of characteristics that still make it inherently safer than Internet Explorer.
If you're worried about security, Firefox is a good way to go. I have been using it recently, with no problems. But there are some downsides. For one thing, it's not finished. It's still a preview, or beta, with a version number that hasn't reached 1.0 yet. And, there are some Web sites it doesn't handle properly, because the developers of those sites have tailored them to specific features of Internet Explorer. But it's stable and fast, and you could always use Internet Explorer for those few sites Firefox doesn't render correctly.
Posted by: anonymous on September 9, 2004 11:11 AMThanks, anon!
--Asa
Posted by: Asa Dotzler on September 9, 2004 11:24 AMhttp://ptech.wsj.com/mailbox.html
Here you go.
-Rafael
Posted by: rebron on September 9, 2004 02:06 PMslightly off topic but Thunderbird gets mentioned in the press every now and then too..
The Guardian 02-09-04 Ask Jack
A question about searching email for key words end with this:
You could also switch to the impressive Mozilla Thunderbird mail program. This has better search and better spam blocking than Outlook Express, but it is still in development, and you might want to wait until it reaches version 1.0.
Posted by: matt on September 9, 2004 03:02 PMWow--surprisingly correct and educated reporting, it seems! I'm impressed.
Posted by: Robert Morris on September 9, 2004 04:28 PMThere's also a permanent link to the article:
http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/mailbox-20040909.html
Posted by: Jeff Walden on September 9, 2004 04:58 PMI agree with Robert - kudos to Walter Mossberg!
Posted by: Greg K Nicholson on September 9, 2004 06:29 PMNew Scientist had an article on spyware back in June, not sure if anyone here reads it, but the magazine is pretty popular. I wrote in saying they should have mentioned alternative browsers. Because I'm weeks behind in my reading, I have a pile of NS magazines on my desk, and only got around to reading the August 7 edition last night. I was pleased to see they published my letter. =)
An online version of it can be seen here:
http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opletters.jsp?id=ns245913