if you haven't installed firefox yet, you're a chump

Firefox 1.0

Five years ago, Microsoft supposedly ended the browser war against Netscape when the dominant Internet Explorer emerged victorious. But while fat'n'happy Microsoft toasted itself and coasted, users became increasingly fed up with the constant surge of security updates and living in a state of perpetual panic that IE would give hackers free reign over their PCs.

Is it any wonder we're all fleeing to Firefox?

Firefox is a bare-bones version of the open-source Mozilla browser, and it's the only Softy winner nominated by every single editor on the staff -- for the second year in a row! Much like last year's beta version Firefox 1.0 eschews the typical "everything and the kitchen sink" approach that cripples many applications. Instead, Firefox provides the bare essentials for browsing -- fast speed and good compatibility -- with vital advanced features like tabbed browsing and an integrated RSS reader. The secret sauce is its extensible architecture, which lets independent developers add whatever functionality they want via small, cross-platform extensions. Last time we counted, there were more than 150 extensions available, and more are being added every day.

If you need another reason to love Firefox, check out it's security chops. It doesn't support the ActiveX applets that many spyware vendors use to breach your computer's perimeter, so Firefox is effectively immune to many vectors of infection for your PC.

It's about time IE got 86'd. Get Firefox now. (Dig it: it's free, www.mozilla.org)

We're the first product listed in the Maximum PC Softy Awards article and it's pretty clear, to me at least, that the editors think Firefox is not just one of, but the "BEST, the COOLEST, the most ESSENTIAL software for PC power users." Posted by asa at January 20, 2005 01:59 PM