With Microsoft loosing shares to Firefox, but yet having close to 67% of overall market shares, a question quickly comes up.Which is better? Firefox or IE? Microsoft has been dominant in Web browser space for years, justifying the 67% market share. But since the introduction of Firefox 1.5, Firefox is slowly eating away this margin. In 2004 Microsoft had 92% shares which came down to 85% in Sep 2005 and now its down to almost 68%.
So what is the reason behind the success of Firefox? Let’s see a comparison.
Installation: New IE takes ages to install. Also requires a PC restart. Also requires Anti virus to be turned off. Also requires Windows validation.
Firefox: Installation doesn’t take 30-40 seconds. Easy installation. No PC restart needed.
Tabbing: Both provide similar tabbing functionality. What sets Firefox part is the fact that Firefox makes it easy to reload all tabs where as IE has a thumbnail viewer.
Security: Firefox has much better security features compared to IE with a choice to check sites from a preexisting blacklist or via Google. Firefox 3 also offers more customization than IE 7 and IE 8 beta, letting you specify which warning messages you’ll receive and allowing you to view all your cookies in a list.
Firefox also has the following awards under its belt:
• PC Magazine Editors’ Choice, June 2008
• CNET Editors’ Choice, June 2008
• American Business Awards Most Innovative Company, June 2008
• Linux Journal Readers’ Choice 2008 – Favorite Web Browser,
Which web Browser do you prefer? Please share your comments.
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yah cool article
Microsoft is an old behind the times dying company, stuck in it’s own corporate beliefs. We will see real computer programs coming from other sources more and more. As their monopoly fades, and Linux based materials permeate the computing world much improvement will be seen, notably, fewer and fewer “Blue screens of Death” and frozen, overloaded hard drives that need servicing. Most innovation will come from India and Europe, who do not subscribe to Microsoft’s “Programming with strings attached” methodology and prefer systems like Ubuntu, in “open Source” format. The tax Microsoft wished to impose on the world of computing will not be tolerated by third world people – they simply cannot afford it!