Firefox 3: give it a try
It might sound a bit sad, but I was genuinely excited last week: Firefox 3 was finally released. If you’ve never heard of Firefox, it’s the open source web browser that rose from the ashes of Netscape, after Microsoft claimed victory in the original browser wars.
Since then, the browser space has started to get interesting again, with Apple’s excellent Safari now available for Windows, Opera appearing on the Nintendo Wii, and Microsoft restarting its browser development with the release of Internet Explorer 7.
Firefox is now a mainstream browser, with market share of 10-20%, depending on who you ask. It runs on three major platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux), and version 3 features improved performance, an ingenious bookmarking system, a smart interface for saving passwords… I could go on. Check out the Wall Street Journal’s review.
If you’ve never used Firefox, I urge you to give it a try–it makes using the web feel more like a pleasure and less like a fight. It’s easy to install–just get the download and you’ll be up and running in minutes.
If your IT department only supports Internet Explorer, try giving them a call–many IT people won’t mind installing it. If that fails, you always could install it on your home machine…