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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Thursday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week June 16, 2005 |
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The
product of the year – or – it’s the tabs stupid Mozilla Foundation announced that its fast, customizable and
easy-to-use Mozilla Firefox 1.0 web browser took
the top spot on PC World's ranking of 100 best products for 2005. PC
World named Firefox its "Best Product of 2005". The PC
World review states: “It's
the Tabs, Stupid There
are a lot of reasons why users are fleeing Microsoft Internet Explorer, but a
lot of it boils down to security. Microsoft has chosen to run IE like a
highly automated factory. ActiveX controls, dynamic HTML, and other
technologies deliver lots of automation and programmatic control over IE. That's
great if you want to integrate, say, a billing system with your browser, or
have Web sites offer dynamic interfaces. But those same controls can be
misused or targeted, amplifying the threat from malicious code. Microsoft's
response has been a grim parade of patches, fixes, and advisories. In some
instances, Microsoft has suggested turning off features or setting security
levels so high that they disable the very capabilities that make IE
attractive in the first place. Finally in October, Microsoft released Windows
XP Service Pack 2, a wholesale update that helped close many of the
vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. But
understand this: No browser is without flaws. Mozilla
patched some holes of its own prior to and after the Firefox 1.0 release. The problem
for Microsoft is the overwhelming popularity of its browser. Virus writers
and hackers target IE because there are so many systems running it. Perhaps
more frustrating than security leaks is the fact that Microsoft quit adding
new features to its browser. The last major feature refresh for IE dates back
to August 2001--and it shows. Firefox
offers significant feature improvements over IE, including tabbed browsing
for juggling multiple Web pages, and built-in pop-up blocking to prevent ads
from opening new browser windows. Other refinements include helpful managers
for file downloads, integrated search bars, and more accessible controls for
managing histories, cookie files, and the browser cache. In
fact, the future of Web browsing comes down to one word: tabs. You can browse
a half-dozen Web pages with ease, jumping from one
to the next simply by clicking on the little tabs at the top of the window.
You can open
multiple tabbed pages in the background, so they could load while you look at
the page in the foreground. Of the
four browsers - IE, Firefox, Netscape, and Opera--Firefox 1.0 stood out as
the best overall choice. The browser does an excellent job of faithfully
displaying Web pages, offers a superior user interface, and suffers fewer
crashes. It's also highly customizable through something called Firefox
Extensions. Firefox
was also the PC Magazine
editor’s choice award winner. And isn’t it great to have
choices now for your web surfing ! For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2005 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html (509)624-7230 |
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