Week11
- 1. Firefox is an alternative browser A Web browser is sort of like the tires on your car. You don't really give them much daily thought, but without them, you're not going anywhere. The second something goes wrong, you defnitely notice. Chances are, you're reading this article on a version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It's the browser that comes already installed on computers with Windows operating systems; most people use Windows, and many Windows users don't give a second thought to which browser they're using. In fact, some people aren't aware that they have an option at all.
- 2. The internal company name for the browser was Mozilla However, Firefox is not the browser the Mozilla group would have released if everything had gone as planned. Like Netscape Navigator before it, the Mozilla software was becoming bigger and bigger as more features were added in -- a problem in software development known as "feature creep" or "bloat." Enter Blake Ross, a computer enthusiast who frst started helping out the Mozilla project as a hobby when he was 14. Instead of accepting feature creep, Ross decided to start developing his own Mozilla-based browser, focusing on a streamlined and simple version. Software developer Dave Hyatt also played a major role. Ross was joined by Ben Goodger in 2003, and development progressed rapidly from that point.
- 3. Firefox Basics The easiest way to learn about Firefox is to go ahead and download it (it's free). You can fnd it at the ofcial site: http://www.getfrefox.com. There you'll fnd the latest version of Firefox: Firefox 3.5. If you're hesitant to install and learn to use a new program, rest assured that Firefox looks and acts very similar to Internet Explorer and most other Web browsers. There's even a feature for IE users that lists the expressions with which you're familiar and tells you the corresponding Firefox names for those functions.
- 4. Firefox Features Firefox comes with a few useful features that set it apart from earlier versions of Internet Explorer -- so useful, in fact, that virtually every other browser, including Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome, has also adopted them. One of the most noticeable is tabbed browsing. If you're browsing in Internet Explorer 6, and you want to visit a new Web site while keeping your current one open, you have to open a completely new browser window. Intensive Web surfng can result in browser windows cluttering up your taskbar and dragging on system resources. Firefox solves that by allowing sites to open in separate tabs within the same browser window. Instead of switching between browser windows, a user can change between two or more diferent sites by clicking on the tabs that appear just below the toolbar in Firefox.
- 6. Firefox Security Firefox simply handles security diferently from Internet Explorer. Where Internet Explorer uses security zones, which can sometimes be confused by malicious software, Firefox does not rely on zones. Also, Firefox doesn't use digital signatures, which are verifcations programmers can purchase. If you try to install software on your computer, Internet Explorer checks to see if the digital signature matches the actual vendor of the program. Peter Torr, a program manager at Microsoft, pointed this out as a serious faw in Firefox's security. However, a digital signature doesn't guarantee safe software, either. It just means that someone paid for the signature, and there have been cases of fraudulent signatures being issued.