Norman — Let’s get one thing straight, right up front: “Foxfire” was the title of a series of books about mountain living and folklore, published in the 1970s. Foxfire also was the name of a cheesy teen angst movie made in 1996.
Firefox is the name of the world’s best Web browser. Why people want to call it Foxfire is beyond me. Just remember: Firefox. Firefox. Firefox. Thank you.
A browser is a program that lets you look at Web sites on the Internet, i.e., the WorldWide Web (WWW); that’s all a browser is. Internet Explorer is a browser. Apple’s Safari is a browser. Firefox is a browser. A browser is not “the Internet,” any more than an e-mail program like Outlook is the Internet. Both are simply programs that let you do things on the Internet, such as view Web sites and read e-mail. Also (no extra charge for this one), you do not need to “logon” to the Internet.
If you’ve been using computers long enough, you may remember a browser called Netscape Navigator. Invented in the mid-1990s, Netscape was the best and most popular browser of its time, but was eventually killed off, partly by Microsoft aggressively marketing its own Internet Explorer browser. Lame management and poor development by AOL, who bought Netscape in 1998, finally ran Netscape into the ground, with Netscape disbanding in 2003. AOL still tries to push the Netscape brand, but the awesome, cutting edge Netscape Navigator browser of Internet lore no longer exists.
While Netscape was in its demise, Mozilla Firefox was on the rise. Netscape had made Navigator’s underlying programming code freely available to anyone who wanted to experiment with it back in 1998, as part of a project called Mozilla. Mozilla programmers took refined and improved versions of the original Netscape code and released Firefox Version 1 in 2004, achieving immediate success.
To computer geeks like me, Firefox has always been a no-brainer. Its usability and security features are constantly and relentlessly being improved, making Firefox clearly superior to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE). Simply put, with a little tweaking, Firefox can be less susceptible to allowing virus and spyware infections than even Internet Explorer 8 with its “SmartScreen” filter.
Firefox is free to download at www.mozilla.com. I also like to add a few “plugins,” which add features to Firefox, enhancing its usability and security. Adobe Flash Player tops my plugin list, followed by Java and Windows Media Player. Next, add Web of Trust, to warn of Web sites that may be carrying viruses. Round out your Firefox security package by installing NoScript, which can prevent viruses, spyware and scareware from installing.
Firefox also can be configured to delete temporary files, cookies and information entered into forms, such as passwords and credit card numbers that have been used to make online purchases. Make sure you enable these features, which can be found in the Tools section.
All told, for usability and security, Firefox is the best browser around, and that’s not just for Windows PC users; Firefox also beats the pants off Apple’s Safari browser, too. Why waste time with anything else?
Dave Moore has been repairing computers in Norman since 1984, when he borrowed $1,200 to buy a Commodore 64 system. He can be reached at 919-9901 or www.davemoorecomputers.com.
