Firefox vs. IE — Know The Facts

I admit, I’m pretty set in my ways. Once I start doing something a certain way, it’s tough to change. For example, I use Firefox primarily, instead of Internet Explorer to browse the internet. I like:

• the tabs
• the extensions
• the popup blocker built-in
• multiple tab home page
• the cool name
• how quickly security holes are patched

I’ve used Firefox thru all of it’s name changes and watched it grow up and evolve into a solid player in the browser playing field. There was a time in the late 90′s when Internet Explorer and Netscape were playing leapfrog and every few months, the other one would come out with some new features that put it ahead of the other. I would easily switch. At one point, Internet Explorer gave the final blow to Netscape, or more accurately, Netscape took itself out of the game and IE dominated for awhile, and still does to this day. As a result of the direction that Netscape took, the Mozilla Foundation was formed and Firefox has grown from that as an open source browser.

In my last post, I nearly included a disclaimer but honestly forgot, but I know there are people out there that feel as strongly about Internet Explorer as I feel about Firefox. The particular person I had in mind was Jason and he quickly commented. I’ve got a ton of respect for Jason, he knows technology and he has a heart for ministry and for pulling it all together. He also doesn’t comment on here much and that’s fine with me. I love getting comments and having dialogue, but it’s more of a bonus than an expectation. Jason has even told me first hand that he reads but doesn’t comment usually, so I know when he does comment, it’s something that has really grabbed his attention. (Thanks Jason!)

Nearly anyone else that would tell me that IE is better than Firefox, I would tell them to get a life and not even consider it. But knowing how serious Jason is about security, among other things, I take it seriously when he takes a stand saying IE is safe to use. That is an educated and experienced opinion and it has caused me to reconsider my hardline stance.

IE has come a long way in improving security and adding features. On the other side of the coin, Firefox has raised the bar in many ways and is pushing IE to become a better browser. IE7 is turning into a decent browser, that’s a fact, but the single point that steers me from IE (any version) is Microsoft’s slow response time on fixing known security holes. Firefox will quickly address issues and push an update out, granted, they haven’t always had auto-update but they do now.

Another thing is IE’s reluctance to adhere to web standards, although that expectation is questionable and probably deserves at least another post dedicated to that topic alone. Rendering CSS correctly is a biggie in today’s world and IE still struggles with that, much to the frustration of web developers. (Opera 9 is web standards compliant, for those of you keeping track)

Do your own research:

13 reasons to use Firefox over IE

14 reasons to use IE over Firefox

The bottomline is look at the facts and have an educated opinion on where you stand. Don’t take web security, on any level, lightly. Heck, I would listen to someone argue against me all day if their argument is factual and consistent and they believe in what they are arguing for. Just know where you stand!

If all else fails, let GoogleFight settle it for you:

IE vs. Firefox – 853,000,000 vs. 314,000,000
Internet Explorer vs Firefox – 243,000,000 vs. 314,000,000

Jim Walton vs. Jason Powell – 94,200 vs. 107,000 (I’m so close, maybe next time around!)