Firefox Really Rocks
Yes it does. My complimentary comments on Firefox last week were understated. I had cause this week to spend more time with some other Firefox plug-ins. A reader (Chris) posted a recommendation for the Customize Google plugin, claiming it to be much better than than the standard Google Toolbar.
It was a cheeky recommendation because Customize Google isn't competitive with the functionality that the Google Toolbar offers. What it does is allow you to keep Google under control. You can block Google ads in various contexts and add other search engines in to your searches. If you resent Google's ads that's fine, but I couldn't help thinking that Google's ads are not particularly intrusive and, in some circumstances, when I'm looking to buy something, I often click on the ads. I'd prefer they were there. Customize Google understands this and gives you choices on which Google services (Search, Gmail, Froogle, Groups, etc.) you block ads for.
Another poster recommended the Del.icio.us bookmarks plugin. If you don't know delicious (URL Del.icio.us if you hadn't guessed) it's well worth playing with. It provides an alternative kind of search capability, giving you links to web pages/sites that other del.icio.us users have recommended. The quality of the links is surprisingly good. (I now use it regularly.)
I was amused by two other postings... Here's one from “Helena Fox”.
“Just installed the IE7 BETA—it knocks spots off Firefox for speed and usability. I am sure most enterprises would rather stick to trusted Microsoft software rather than gamble with Opensource hacks".
And another from “Boyd Schidt”.
“IE 7 Rocks. Firefox, get ready to be upstaged”.
Balanced and impartial comment, don't you think? More like the flamers that defend Linux, but with a different agenda. I remember not so long ago covering the awful Windows SP2 upgrade. I had sufficient problems with it that I abandoned it and the webmaster of IT-Analysis.com also had severe problems with it. So I told the tale on IT-Director and immediately several questionable postings of this kind appeared—implying that I, rather than SP2, was the problem and I was probably a moron. Go look if you want. The SP2 upgrade was really flawed and as time passed, many readers posted their own complaints. Over time, the list of such postings grew.
Anyway, I did a a reality check on IE 7—I took a quick look at its second beta. Functionally it bears no comparison to Firefox—there wasn't a single feature it had that wasn't present either in Firefox or through its wealth of plugins—and Firefox has so much more. IE 7 isn't crap, it's just pedestrian. Microsoft invents tabbed browsing! Give me a break.
Ultimately, it seems to me that Microsoft doesn't have its heart in the browser. The browser opens up the world of web-based services and these are gradually undermining Microsoft's precious office software monopoly. Microsoft neglected IE to the point of irresponsibility and Firefox stepped in and stole the initiative. Microsoft will have to deliver much more than IE 7 to get it back and it may never do so.
As for “Helena” and “Boyd”. Please get a life. It's got to be a miserable existence scanning the web for opportunities to be insincere about Microsoft products. “Oh yes, great and mighty emperor, it is a wonderful suit of clothes; the style, the cut, the miraculous sheen of the extraordinary cloth. Never in our lives have we seen such a browser.”
AVID: The Barkless Dog
This week AVID stands for AntiVirus in Denial. Denial, to repeat the old pun, is not just a river in Egypt, it is also the reaction of the AntiVirus industry to this blog. If you've stumbled on this blog by accident, AVID is my campaign to repeatedly expose the fact that signature-based AV technology is horribly inadequate, because it fails to protect its users from new viruses for many hours and often several days after they appear. And yet complete AV protection and more comprehensive all round security capability is available (from three companies, Bit9, Securewave and AppSense). Organizations that deploy these products don't need AV technology. Let's abandon AV.
Perhaps one might expect someone in the $3 billion plus AV industry to respond to this regular drum beat, by posting some kind of counter argument. But much to my lack-of-surprise, we have experienced (as Sherlock Holmes remarked in The Hounds of The Baskervilles), the strange phenomenon of the dog that didn't bark.
Much silence makes a mighty noise, as they say in Africa. Could it be that the AV vendors are too busy counting their undeserved revenues to care or are PR consultants strongly advising their AV customers not to engage with this turbulent analyst at all?
Here's a suggestion. There are two sorry individuals somewhere out there, who are clearly in need of a life. They know how to surf the web and peck at a keyboard and discernment is not their strong suit. Surely they would be better employed flaming AVID than exaggerating the capabilities of Microsoft's mildly improved browser. No need for them to engage in discussion. Just make postings like:
“I am sure most enterprises would rather stick to trusted AV software than gamble on technology that actually works”.
“AV rocks, AVID sucks”.
We're done here.
IT One-Liners
"After all, computers crash, people die, relationships fall apart. The best we can do is breath and reboot." - Sarah Jessica Parker
... the blue screen of life....
"Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, includ-ing the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog. - Doug Larson
... it's yet another extraordinary advance conferred on humanity by the IT industry - a truly plausible excuse for our school children: Microsoft ate my homework.
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