That’s it. My days with IE are done. Mozilla is finally better, thanks to Mozilla:Firebird, a streamlined end-user version of the technically dominant mozilla browser. Tabbed browsing is definitely the way of the present and future… but for me personally, I’ve always found myself going back to IE because more sites are IE compliant than WC3 compliant… like msnbc.com for example. The previous version of mozilla would not have had the built-in menu extensions to run MSNBC’s news menu. Or Blogger for another perfect example. It has been said that blogging is mozilla’s killer app because tabbed browsing fits so well the way that readers and writers of blogs navigate the web (among other things). However, blogger wouldn’t work with mozilla.
And I *know* that mozilla was, is, and always will be a skinnable app, but let’s face it, the default skin for mozilla - which is the same as netscape version OLD.7 - just plain sucked … and it took up too much room on the screen. And the average end user is not going to be excited enough about skinning their browser to go wade through the millions of available skins to pick out a half-decent one.
But all of that is changed. Mozilla: Firebird rocks. Appearance-wise, its menu is small, helpful, straightforward, and just good enough that I don’t even think about it, which is what a good menu/toolbar should be. Blogger works. MSNBC.com works. Plus add in built in consistently faster page loads, pop-up stopping, tabbed browsing, a heck of a lot of customizability everywhere, and full, fat, extensive use of keyboard shortcuts for those of us who prefer the keyboard’s speed over the mouse. Plus, add in really cool keyword searching ability like dictionary and google right into the address bar.
And the bottom line? Mozilla is a non-profit open source group made up of contributors from all around the world… and the browser wars are back on, buddy.
For more details on why Mozilla: Firebird should be your browser, check this out.
Oh yeah! Did I mention that Firebird also goes a step farther than IE in filling out login/passwords for you — when you want it to — it will automatically do both login and password when the site loads, so you just have to click “login” rather than select the username involved. AND you can set Firebird up to alert you when a site has been updated or changed… like a UPS tracking page for when you’re waiting and waiting for your mathcaddy.com t-shirt to get here like I am right now.
You can get Mozilla: Firebird right here.