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First a little more
on exactly what Mozilla is: Mozilla is a free open source Web browser,
but is actually designed more to be a platform to develop other software.
Although it is not really intended to be an end user product, it has turned
out to be a very good one. The one caveat for novice users is there is
no end user support. You either need to figure things out on your own
or look for help from other users on forums and the like. This really
shouldn't deter you from trying Mozilla unless the thought of poking around
in the menus to find what you want makes you want to cry. With that out
of the way, here is a short list of things I really like about Mozilla:
- Tabbed Browsing
- Mozilla has support for opening as many Web pages as you want at one
time. You get tabs across the top that you can click on to move between
pages. If you have never used tabbed browsing, you really have to try
it to appreciate it.
- No Pop-Ups
- Mozilla has built in support for blocking pop-up windows, and it works
better than any ad-in product I've tried. You need to turn it on in
the preferences menu. Here is the menu path: EDIT - PREFERENCES - ADVANCED
- SCRIPTS & PLUGINS - uncheck the box labeled "open unrequested
windows." You can say good-bye to pop-ups unless you turn them
back on. Be aware that some sites use pop-up windows for more than ads.
- Standards Based
Browsing - Mozilla is designed to adhere strictly to HTML standards.
This means that pages that are coded correctly display correctly every
time. You will occasionally find something that looks or works differently
than it does in Internet Explorer. All of those (and there have been
very few) that I have seen were because of either sloppy coding, or
reliance on nonstandard (IE only) features.
- Speed - Mozilla
is very efficient at displaying Web pages. Depending on the speed of
your computer, you may or may not notice the difference.
- Security -
There seems to be a new security vulnerability in Internet Explorer
almost every other week. I'm sure Mozilla has some security holes that
have not been found yet -- it's inevitable with complex Internet software.
However, you don't need to load a patch every two weeks to feel safe
browsing the Web.
- Skins - It's
totally cosmetic, and I usually don't get into to making my software
look fancy, but the wood
grain skin is just too cool not to use.
- Good Email Client
- I got so feed up with the bugs in Outlook 2002, I took the time to
move all six of the email accounts I check regularly to Mozilla Mail.
It is much faster than Outlook and although it has a couple minor bugs,
I am much happier with Mozilla Mail.
If these points sound
appealing to you, check out the free software
page for the download link.
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