I woke up this morning to one more story/report from zdnet regarding saying goodbye to Internet Explorer, but as I read continued to read this cute anecdote it ended up with the same results.. more discussion about Mozilla's Firefox as the alternative.
Now I have talked about this before, offering my opinion of a few others, and certainly promoted the change to something other then Internet Explorer what with all these problems that are very much because of the browser the user has been using. So I always give a new program a try and then use it for a while, either until I just don't like it, or until I feel it is not the program I would use and then get rid of it. This is no exception with Mozilla's Firefox browser version 1.0 I have tried a few earlier beta versions and didn't quite understand all the hoopla over the "tabbed browser" features, especially when most of the other browsers offer this. Sure I like the "open source" issue so that security should not be a problem since the guru programmers should always be able to work around security issues that do arise as this web browser becomes more popular.
Popularity seems to be the key and to get that popularity it appears the more that is written about it, the more likely you are to download it and try it out. That is, so long as you read the reviews and feel it is worth a try, Being a consultant, I believe it is part of my job to try out all the different versions of software available to do the same thing, such as web browsing, or email or instant messaging. In any case, I have now downloaded and installed Firefox 1.0 which I have used for all of about 30 minutes, I believe I have tricked it out to the best of my ability with what I am given..Knowing that there will be scads of "plug-ins" that I will eventually find and also install. Now to me, this is not what I call a browser I am going to like. Why? Because I like to have most of my features of what I use in browsing at my fingertips. Maybe this is because I have actually already been spoiled with AVANT BROWSER. I have been using it pretty much as my main browser for over a year. Why? Because I too do not like to have to fight the security issues within the Internet Explorer, but faithfully continue to keep it on my task launch bar for things like webpage updates. You see, I use Microsoft Front Page for that and since the websites I work on all have front page extensions, it is very easy to browse to the page, click on the EDIT icon and viola, front page opens and I am ready to make changes. Also the fact that I need to try and stay on top of the changes, I pretty much need to be fluent with all the changes and problems Internet Explorer has since that is still the most widely used web browser.
But I guess that is slowly changing with Mozilla? I'm not sure why, because to be honest, after playing with it in only a short period of time, I am already missing key features, like my "links" bar, tabbed browser functionality (yes firefox has it, but it isn't quite the same as you would find with Avant).
I am not sure by AVANT is not getting the publicity it deserves because from the way I see things, it packs a lot more punch then Mozilla's latest browser right out of the box. It too deals with internet security by simply updating whenever there is a new version available, which seems to be ever few weeks. To me, that is peace of mind, when you can start your browser and have it tell you that there is a new version available and you click "OK" and it takes you to the download site, installs and has you back up and running with the newest version within usually less then a minute. So what is so good about mozilla and why is AVANT not raising more eyebrows? I guess because people just aren't talking about it.. So here I am, talking about it.. Pushing what I believe is the best browser to date, being Avant Browser. Yeah sure, if you want to get away from Internet Explorer, I suggest trying another browser, but do give it a fair trial period. Just because I have played with Mozilla's for 30 minutes and don't like it as much, I am not going to just quite using it. I will continue to try it out for about a month before deciding whether or not I will keep it around as a likely replacement in the big scheme of things. If that is the case, I will need to be up to date on issues so that I can repair them when the time comes. After all, that is part of my job.. To make sure my clients computers are running at top performance and to educate those that are willing to listen to me on the do's and dont's of the internet.
With the added security features of the Internet Explorer and the pop up features, it has given the Internet Explorer more life but I still do not find any browser that compares to Avant. But then, don't take my word on it alone, you must give these new browsers a fair trial. If you do like Avant however, I might suggest passing the word around to your friends, much like what is happening with the rumor mill on Mozilla's firefox.
In closing, one item of interest was the slogan I read from Mozilla as I was downloading the firefox. It read "the fastest browser on earth". Funny.. Because that has been and still is, Avant Browsers claim to fame. I guess this isn't a registered trade mark slogan which means it is up to you to decide just which is the fastest browser on Earth.
