Angie Clever

So you’re still using Microsoft IE? For the first time in history, IE is being forced to make some serious changes to compete with third party browsers. If you haven’t been in the IT scene, lets flash back to Linus Torvald. Linus was a young career software engineer that had the idea that he could develop a more effective operating system (OS) than what was already on the market. And even more revolutionary, it could be offered for free. They called it Linux (You know, the penguin—and later red hat). This was really the first stepping stone in the Open Source Movement.

At this point in the game you’ve heard the term open source floating around, that applies to a number of free pieces of software (useful software such as shopping carts, blog software, operating systems, you name it) that users have the right to modify and change for their specific use. Linux started a cascade of events that has resulted in an amazing amount of non-proprietary software becoming available. It used to be that you got what you paid for—free was free, and you had low expectations. Now, it’s a whole new ball game.

There are some really amazing free products on the market now:

Shopping Cart Software	Blogging Software
OsCommerce ZenCart Fish Cart	Wordpress Nucleus b2evolution.net

And that just begins to touch the surface.

So whats the down side?

The down side to free products and open source products is that they do not come with support, and you have to install them yourself (or hire a web design professional to install and configure it for you). Also, if you do not know basic html and a little something about CSS web programming, it can be difficult to install templates to (change the way a site looks) or to install plugin modules. If you’re thinking about blogging, I would recommend WordPress. After working with many open source programs, I think that the WordPress interface is one of the most user friendly that I have seen to date. A novice user would have little problem accessing basic functions, and an intermediate user could control the entire functionality of the program without ftp access or extensive code modification.

Why should I use Open Source and free software?

Well, it’s free. Keep that it mind because some of your alternative can cost thousands of dollars. Now that being said, I always believe in using the best software for the job, whether it is proprietary or open source. Anything that saves you time is making you money.

The best thing about open source software has sprung up due to one of its biggest problems- lack of support. All reputable open source software makers have forums, and, for the largest and most well known programs, there are countless more private sites that offer information. Unlike proprietary software, there is a whole community of developers, programmers, and users that are just sitting out there, waiting to answer you questions, provide tips and tricks, and write new free plugins that don’t cost you a dime.

The best things about the availability of open source software are:

• Free programs equivalent to those that cost thousands of dollars.
• Plugins added to customize your program.
• Community of developers, programmers, and users to support you.
• Templates and design customizations avaliable

What does this have to do with browsing the web?

A web browser is a software applications that lets you, the user, interact with images, text, and objects on the web. Until the last few years, Microsoft Internet Explorer held the largest market share, a virtual monopoly in browsing. For a long time IE has lacked the advanced functionality, increased security and increased features of third party browsers. Because most people used it, web designers kept designing for it. Only now that some form of web standards are coming into play are people really about to break away from IE—and even so web developers are forced to deal with cross platform and browsers issues. Different browsers interpret and display data differently, making pages appear different depending on the viewers browser (or not appear at all in some older browsers!).

Mainstream Browsers that you should know (stats by e-janco.com March 2007):

• 70.52% Internet Explorer (Latest version is IE7) (85.97% in January 2005)
• 13.38% Firefox (More FireFox)(4.22% in January 2005)
• 11.85% Netscape (Download Netscape)(6.30% in January 2005)
• 1.24% Google Desktop (Download Google Desktop) (0.00% in January 2005)
• 0.95% Mozilla (Download Mozilla) (2.06% in January 2005)
• 0.94% Opera (Download Opera) (0.83% in January 2005)
• 0.76% Safari (Download Safari) (0.24% in January 2005)

Why Firefox?

FireFox has the original tabbed browsing system, allowing you to more easily browse multiple pages. While IE 7 added this feature, it is not available to browsers using IE 6 or below. Is also has quickfind search for its bookmarks.

Firefox popup blocker is the best on the market today. It more effectively controls dangerous content, while also offering you the option to display legitimate content.

The most impressive feature of FireFox is that it is customizable. You got it, like many other open source programs, there are thousands of people out there making adons and plugins that help you (all for free!). For instance, I use a FireFox web design toobar that allows me to toggle CSS and Javscript on and off, view pages as if from a PDA or mobile device, test compliancy, and many other nifty features.

Plus, Firefox is the most standards compliant browser out there (no IE still plays by its own rules and has not, even in IE 7, updated to the most compliant standards). Now I’m going to get up on my political web design soapbox….

What do I care about web standards, I don’t build webpages?

Because it’s your money and time web designers are wasting! Because of the cross platform and browser compliancy issues, we web designers have to have more training, learn a whole bunch of tricks and hacks, and just plain spend more time writing code. And who do you think gets the bill for our time?! You got it, it you the consumer!

As long as large proprietary corporations control the largest market share of browsing and refuse to come into compliancy (they’ve got the virtual monopoly, they can do whatever they want, right?) you get to pay for their efforts to keep that monopoly! Support web standards and use the best product, not the one you’re forced to use. In the next few years, third party browsers are going to compete more and more heavily with IE. This means, for the first time ever, the consumers-the viewers-the users get to control the functions of browsing. We have a choice to use a superior program, not just what any corporation hands us.

That being said, if you haven’t tried FireFox, try it. Go out to their website and check out the FireFox addons that can enrich your viewing experience.