Why haven't you tried Firefox yet?

Ok, people, listen up!

Too many of you who visit this blog are using MS Internet Explorer 6. My question to you -- have you tried Firefox yet?

Don't wait for IE7. It's gonna offer a subset of what Firefox already offers, while in the meantime, Firefox just continues to improve.

Here are some good reasons to give Firefox a whirl:

• Tabbed Browsing. Yes, you've heard this buzzword before, but what does it actually mean? It means simplicity, space saving, speed, and more control for you.
  
  Simplicity & space saving, in that you'll have all your open browser windows in one place, easy to find and switch between, with no crowding of your task bar by lots of separate browser window buttons all squished up with other app buttons making separate pages difficult to identify.
  
  Speed, in that it takes far less overhead for Firefox to open 10 tabs than it does for Explorer to open 10 windows. [Can Explorer even actually open 10 windows without crashing?! I can open 30 tabs in Firefox with no problems at all, there ain't no way IE can do that.] Firefox opens tabs in next to no time, and pages simply load soooo much faster in this browser.
  
  And more control, in the form of keyboard shortcuts to jump between tabs, extra options for each tab individually (such as the ability to "lock" a tab, or to reload a particular tab every x minutes, or to close all tabs except the one you're on, or re-order them, etc) and a gazillion extensions to choose from that add their own functionality (maybe you'd like to be able to scroll the mouse over the tab bar to quickly switch between tabs? or maybe you'd like to colour all related tabs the same colour? Well, guess what, you can!)
  
  
• Find As You Type. What? you ask. Find as you type is a really nifty way to search for text on a page. Rather than needing to hit Ctrl-F (although you can if you want), you just start typing and the page will immediately highlight the first instance of your text. You can hit F3 to move to the next instance, or Shift-F3 to go back to the previous. Or you can "highlight all" the instances of your text on the page.
  
  
• Extensions. "Bah, 'stensions, fensions," I hear you muttering. Well, it's your loss, grumble-bum. Extensions will take your web experience to the next level. I have extensions installed for:
  
  - the Weather (I've got the current & the next few days' forecasts right on my menubar, just next to the Help menu option, with funky icons that I can click on for more info),
  
  - Text Resizing -- 3 really handy buttons for instant font-size changing (no more problems with sites using soopa-tiny fonts)
  
  - Closed Tabs (no more of that familiar "Oh damn! I didn't mean to close that window..." feeling -- I just reopen it from the drop-down list)
  
  ...and a heap more. Check out the official Mozilla Update site or the more extensive Extensions Mirror for all your extension needs.
  
  
• Security. Probably this is the best thing of all. I have never had a single piece of spyware or adware on my computer, I've never had any problems with sites opening truck-loads of windows that I can't close, and I have always (as a long-time FF user) had complete control over what a site can or cannot do when I visit it, such as with window opening/resizing/moving, status-bar changes, and more. Yes, all these IE-related problems stop once you start using Firefox. It really is that simple.

So, how am I doing? Have I convinced you yet?

I'm going to try & post more regularly about Firefox features, tips & tricks, shortcuts, etc. Obviously there is still some work to do convincing the masses, and considering there is no good reason not to try it, then I'm prepared to slog at your walls of resistance for a bit and see if I can't get them a-tumbling down.

As, really, you're only hurting yourself -- and your computer! -- by sticking with IE.