Mozilla Firebird

There are two kinds of Internet users -- those who use Internet Explorer and those who have an enjoyable Web browsing experience. Between the plague of pop-ups, adware and spyware, and the endless list of security problems using Internet Explorer is a major hassle.

I’ve been using Mozilla for quite some time and been very happy with it, but now I’ve found an even better solution for surfing the Web -- Firebird. Firebird is a browser only product that is based on the same core code as the Mozilla suite I have been using. The Mozilla.org project team that is working on Firebird likes to call it a “lean mean browsing machine” and I think that sums up Mozilla Firebird quite nicely.

Firebird, formerly called Phoenix, is a browser only product. It does not contain the other Internet functions of the Mozilla suite such as email, chat, and webpage editing. There is another standalone product for email called Thunderbird. I’ll save the information about Thunderbird for a future article, but it too is an improvement over Mozilla mail and a vast improvement over Outlook or Outlook Express.

Firebird has been written to load faster and to display Web pages faster than its big brother. The user interface is different and, in my opinion, cleaner and more functional than that of Mozilla. My favorite new interface feature is the ability to customize the tool bars. If I had one complaint about Mozilla, the fixed toolbars would probably be it.

Firebird still has the great features that make Mozilla a pleasure to use including the blocking of pop-ups, tabbed browsing, and a lack of susceptibility to almost all of the tricks pulled by adware and spyware that try and install on your computer.

Give Mozilla Firebird a try and see how much fun and how productive your Web surfing can be. Firebird, like all the Mozilla.org software is free for everyone and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.