Introduction
Firefox is the ‘next generation’ browser from the Mozilla group, and aims to be lightweight yet expandable. It is worth mentioning at this stage that this is version 0.9 - the program has not yet reached 1.0 and is still a beta program and when you download it you are given the disclaimer that it might not be stable enough to be used as a primary browser.
Value for Money
Well, its free! Mozilla firefox is open source software, and is available to use or modify to anyone. Great value for money I’d say!
User Interface
The user interface is very similar to other web browsers; the only differences being that the toolbars are slightly narrower than most other browsers.
The program is VERY easy to customize, with many, many skins available - I am currently using Mostly Crystal as my skin of choice. A great feature is the bookmarks toolbar folder (similar to the links toolbar in IE) which I use all the time.
There is also a sidebar which is used by many, many extensions such as a text editor, a web developer toolbar and others, as well as things like history and bookmarks.
Memory Usage
The current release uses quite a bit of memory - right now, with only this page open it is using 40k of my memory, and with the same page open IE is using 41k. In this respect Firefox is about equal to the market leader.
Help/Support
Being an open source development there is massive support on the internet and you can find an answer (usually a bug number, sadly) to any problem you might encounter. The in-browser help system is also very extensive and answers almost any questions you might have. One more nice thing; if there is a feature you think is missing then just make it yourself!
Problems
OK, well being a beta program you would expect some problems, and you would not be disappointed. A few problems I have noticed are that it sometimes deletes all you’re bookmarks - this has happened a few times to me, and is a major bug which I hope gets fixed. Also sometimes the favicons are messed up and in its current state it can’t seem to handle javascript redirects in forums properly.
In spite of all of this I AM using this browser right now, as my primary browser.
Overall Impression
My overall impression is that this is a GREAT piece of software which will, when it is completed, overtake the other PC browsers (IE, Opera etc.) in terms of features if not in terms of market share. The fact that it is free is just the icing on the cake, and a whole other article could (and might be!) written about its sheer expandibility due to extensions.
It is also very secure, whether this is due to lack of hacking attempts or a geniunely secure program remains to be seen.
