Firefox 3 Brings Opportunity, Choice to the Channel
Let's face it, Internet Explorer is the No. 1 browser for one reason and one reason only: It comes preinstalled with Windows! Of course, there are other choices than IE, so it would be unfair to call Microsoft's hold on the browser market a monopoly, but you do have to admit the company has an advantage when it comes to browsers. Further solidifying Microsoft's lead in the browser market (if that is what it should be called?) is the fact that most users are either unaware or uncomfortable with choice. For Microsoft and IE, user ignorance turns out to be pure bliss. So, how can any one company dethrone Microsoft in the browser wars? It's simple; it has to do it better, cheaper and most importantly, "LOUDER"! Firefox 3 Arrives on the Scene! With more of a whimper than a howl (thanks to overworked download servers), Firefox 3 has arrived, after a long (and uneventful) beta. My experience with Firefox 3 has been very positive. I have found it to be faster, more usable and much more stable than Microsoft's IE 8 (disclosure: IE 8 is a beta product). I won't bore you with all the gory details, so I'll point you over to my buddy, Jim Rapoza, who has blogged about Firefox 3 over at Emerging Technologies. What does this mean for the channel? Well, for one, solution providers have something to offer their customers that blows the doors off the current version of IE. Also, those same solution providers can tap into the "anything but Microsoft" market, by demonstrating a non-Microsoft browser that is just plain better (perhaps some customers will see the light and think Linux?) Most importantly, solution providers can educate their customers about choice! Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put down those Microsoft-only VARs and shops, but right now, in my opinion Firefox 3 is just plain better than IE. But, that is a good thing! With competition and challenge, Microsoft's products can only get better, and I'm sure the folks at Redmond have put on their thinking caps and may just come up with something really good -- time will tell! In the meantime, get yourself a copy of Firefox 3 and give it a test drive; it will be worth the experience! |
Comments (3)
I take it this is another, "anything but Microsoft" article. What's wrong with IE, that isn't wrong with everybody else's browser? As has been shown so often before, with the proper configuration, every browser pretty much works the same. Different browsers have different things switched on and off and that affects performance. Then you have different capabilities within a browser, turn those features on and off and you affect performance. None of that is a problem with the browser. Set up IE so it only works with HTML 1.0 and any other browser and you'll find that they work very close to identical. Set up each browser to work with HTML 3.0 and they work very much the same. However, turn on ActiveX, JAVA, etc. and machines act differently, particularly when things aren’t handled as designed. Microsoft chooses to handle JAVA differently than other browsers and other browsers either don't handle ActiveX or try to do it badly (and some of that is Microsoft’s fault). However, it is no longer an apples to apples comparison.
Firefox is a great browser, but so is IE. If and when Firefox is tried by as many people as IE, we'll see how happy everyone is with it. My security files show Firefox, like IE, is riddled with security and performance problems and they come to light one at a time as the volume of users expose them. They are practically equal. Simply looking at places like CIAC, CERT, Symantec, MacAfee shows they find plenty wrong with every browser. None of them are secure.
However, you mention Linux. I have been trying to get a working copy on any one of three machines for more than a year. The system is almost impossible for a non-geek to use. It doesn't load easily, it doesn't configure easily, it isn't compatible with almost anything (I can give you lists of hardware I have tried, almost nothing is automatically configured. The user must have profound knowledge of the operating system and the hardware to configure it to work properly.) Linux is a geek system for geeks. If you want to take the time, it is an outstanding operating system for geeks. For people who want to use a computer as a tool and don't ever, in their whole life, want to know the difference between a CPU and a USB, it is a miserable failure. It is not, nor will it likely ever be, a system where anyone can pick one up, plug it in and use it for word processing, accounting, data analysis etc. Nor will they likely be able to go to the store and buy a new something, video card, DVD drive, hard disk, etc and plug it in and get back to work. It just doesn't happen with *nix.
On the other hand, Microsoft asks you to know almost nothing. Plug the thingy in, stick a CD in the drive, turn it on and the thingy will be found, installed, including it's software and configured. A few minutes later you are using the device without knowing a thing about it. At worst, the machine might reboot; most of the time even that doesn't happen. It just works and people still know nothing about their machine.
That's what Americans want. That's what businesses want. That's what users want, and it is what only Microsoft has been able to provide. Stop biting the hand that feeds you. *nix was around long before Windows. It wasn’t popular then and it isn’t popular now. I started with BSD Unix in the 1980’s. It wasn’t friendly. Linux has come a long way. There is now a crude GUI, some self-awareness, a bit of compatibility – but it is still not user friendly. Just making something “good” isn’t a reason for people to like it. Cassette’s beat out 8-tracks. VHS beat out Beta. DOS beat out UNIX and Windows beat out all other GUI’s. With the hardware wars, the principles had to get a grasp of reality because it was too expensive to keep trying to make and sell hardware no one wanted, but in the software world, people are still trying to win a war they already lost. No one wanted it before and no one wants it now. It’s in a niche for and by geeks and it lives like so many internet rumors.
Let the stupid thing die. It hurts “computing”. Let all those eggheads try and invent something that is really useful and well liked and maybe people will flock to it. Apple was close, their own greed kept it from having a chance. People like the Apple operating system, but it’s high proce and propriety kept people from going to it. Someone needs to invent an Apple-like operating system that is open market and people will leave Windows.
Please, stop grousing about Microsoft until you have something people want and works at least as good. As for Firwfox, you get nothing extra for your effort, you just get to say, "I'm using something Microsoft didn't invent" - whoopee!
Posted by Michael P. Deslippe | June 20, 2008 11:23 AM
Michael, you sir must be a technological idiot! - Millions of users install and use Linux -
you can't get it to work on any of three machines after a year - my god, I hope you are not in the business of helping people with technology!
Firfox is superior to IE in almost all repsepects (execpt for activex, a technology that should be killed off due to the number of security problems it introduces!!!) - And Microsoft's implimention of JAVA support is a joke, they do it "differently", just so they can try and kill of a better, competative technology! -
your observations are completely wrong, your opionion is uninformed and your comparsions between DOS,UNIX,Linux, Windows and MAC are a complete joke!
Posted by Linux VAR | June 20, 2008 11:53 AM
Three machines in a year? That can't be true. We all stretch things a bit. It makes a better story. I'm no geek, but I bought a number of Sun machines cheap, and installed Debian on them, and my two youngest kids (11 and 13) have been able to use them for most of their computing needs. Most of the problems have been Dad's configuration, or some external hardware issues related to the stuff being MS/IE centric. They do grouse a bit about the games not working on the Suns, but not too much. It also gives them one less reason to sit around. They use the computer more for real work, rather than mostly entertainment.
This does not mean the system is devoid of problems. Some of the problems are due to trying to build the systems on the cheap (about $30.00, avg. total). Some of them are due to the limitations of the system designer (me) Some are due to the fact that a Sun/ultrasparcII system is not the direction a rookie should probably go. You know what, though--it is working, it was inexpensive, each of the boys has their own, and they are gradually learning that they can do something they need to do, exclusive of Microsoft
Posted by Larry | June 20, 2008 2:40 PM