Posted on 12/22/2004 8:32:38 AM PST by holymoly
Remember those days back in 1995, when Netscape Navigator was synonymous with internet? That was the time when Microsoft’s Internet Explorer entered the market for a head-on collision with the Netscape Navigator. That was Browser War –I. Now the battle was reignited by the fire of FireFox, internet browser of Mozilla. This is the beginning of the Browser War –II. And it appears that this time Microsoft is losing it.
Internet Explorer is rapidly losing market share. OneStat.com a company in Amsterdam had conducted a worldwide survey in late November. The survey shows that Internet Explorer's share dropped to less than 89 percent, 5 percentage points less than in May. FireFox now has almost 5 percent of the market, and it is growing.
Net surfers are opting for FireFox to Internet Explorer due to security concerns. FireFox offers much more security from worms and viruses than IE. FireFox 1.0 was released for free on the web on Nov. 9. Within just one month 10 million copies of the browser were downloaded. It is an open source software which improves with time as bug-reporter and bug-fixer community grows.
Mozilla’s President Mitchell Baker is optimistic that FireFox will grab 10 percent market share and Mozilla's many technology parts will become an increasingly important application development platform.
She says that “the product is so nice that people love it when they try it. It is innovative and has new features, it makes the Web a more enjoyable experience, it makes people more comfortable, and it's fast. It's a set of things you would want in a browser if you sat down and really thought about it.” She added that people rarely realize that the quality your web experience is determined to a large extent by the kind of browser you use. Firefox gives them that wonderful browsing enjoyment.
Gary Schare, Microsoft's director of product management for Windows on the other hand feels that people will stick with IE when they consider all the things that made them to opt for IE in the first place. He said that Microsoft is developing a new version of browser but one will have to wait till 2006. Schare said that Microsoft goes to people and gets there feedback on what they want and what they don’t want in a product. It is not so easy to satisfy absolutely everyone.
To us however somehow the diminishing share of IE from the market says something else. It says that nowadays costumers have a new way of giving a feedback. They just switch to someone else.
My tech-savvy son swears by FireFox. I can't get him to use IE anymore.
As for me, my websurfing is not so demanding that I can discern a big difference.
IE is free, ain't that right? IE5.5 came with Winduhs ME, and I never paid for IE6.As I said before, IE 6 is an update to a product you have bought. When you buy Windows, several years of support are included with the software. Updates and patches are part of product support, nothing else. You have already paid for it. Nothing Microsoft does is free. Sometimes the charge is hidden, but you always pay for their stuff.
You nailed it - we all pay, and pay again, when we use that paragon of "security" known as IE.
I've bookmarked it. Thanks!
Also remember please, my remarks are just my OPINION.... How can you argue OPINIONS?
Jeez!!!
I tried Mozilla browsers on my machines in the past with very poor results. I just installed the most recent version of Firefox on my best machine(XP) and it works great. I have found a site or two which don't render properly, but I can always use IE when I need to. For most of my browsing I'm going to use Firefox. Man, that browser is FAST! It is also very secure.
I have that too, but it always takes me to BBC articles and nothing else.
I have Firefox on all my home computers, my laptop and my work computer. My brother has installed it on all of his and most of the computer savvy people I know have done the same. I have had it since last year and other than with some sites that are specifically designed to work with IE, I would have no reason to even have IE on any of my machines.
I don't get popups any more, I have far more control of what I see, I even get pages with no graphics that I can then "choose" to see. I don't bother since it is all "push" stuff.
And I no longer have a need to run Ad-aware any more. I used to have to use it constantly.
There is no comparison. Firefox is far superior in a world where people are scrambling to get control of you computer or just spam you with annoying popups,pictures and links. I just get a lot more done.
Just funny to go through old threads and see what people wrote.
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