Thursday, March 24, 2011

Are you ready for Firefox 4.0? Is IE9?

Firefox 4 soars, thanks to Microsoft's Luddite customers
[...] Firefox 4 clocked about 5 million downloads on its first day and is fast approaching 7 million this morning, as the new browser from Mozilla attracts huge interest from around the world.

That doesn’t match the record-breaking performance of Firefox 3, but it trounces the 2.35 million downloads that Microsoft reported in the first 24 hours after the Internet Explorer 9 release.

[...]

Even though Windows XP is nearly 10 years old at this point, more than 40 percent of Internet users are still clinging to it, putting IE9 at a disadvantage in the numbers game by not supporting XP.

Firefox, in contrast, continues to support Windows XP. Mozilla knew coming in that it would have a built-in advantage, based on Microsoft’s choice to support only the newer Windows Vista and 7.

[...]

Of course, it’s also in Microsoft’s business interest to get people to buy a new Windows version. [...]

IE9 is slow and horrible. The article goes on to talk about how Google's Chrome browser now has 11 percent of browser market share. It also works with XP, and Mac as well. I've used Chrome, and it's pretty good.

Now, for the reasons one might want to upgrade their Firefox browser:



Firefox 4 Is Better Than Microsoft Internet Explorer 9: 10 Reasons Why
It didn't take long for Mozilla's Firefox 4 to gain immense popularity. As of this writing, millions of people have downloaded the new browser and by the look of things, its appeal to Web users has yet to slow down. By all measures, Firefox 4 seems to be on top of its game, and it's ready to take on its many competitors in the browser market.

But now that Firefox 4 is out to compete against Internet Explorer 9, some people are undoubtedly wondering which browser they should go with. On one hand, Firefox 4 seems to deliver some neat new features and much faster speeds. But Internet Explorer 9 is vastly improved over its predecessor. In other words, at first glance, it's not an easy choice.

However, as people dig more into the differences between Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4, one thing becomes abundantly clear: Mozilla's option is better.

Read on to find out why: [...]

It has some pretty cool features. I've downloaded it, and intend to try it out soon.

A good review of FF4 is here:

Firefox 4 Gains Features, Loses Charm
Firefox 4 has arrived, becoming the third Web browser to push out a major update in the last few days. The new version features a sweepingly reworked interface with a new menu system that cuts down clutter but also makes it a bit more cumbersome to use its functions. Firefox has long been a champion of add-ons, and its system for managing them has been further refined in this fourth edition. [...]

It's made some changes to the menu system, making it more like some other browsers that I don't like as much; it remains to be seen if it's something I could get used to. On the plus side, it's made some improvements with tabs, adding more options, some of which sound pretty neat, and useful too.

It's a good review, but ultimately I think I'm going to just have to try it and see.
     

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