Google has gotten just too intrusive. That’s really all there is to the matter. They already ‘read’ my e-mail … I don’t want them building up a click history as well.

Fast forward to yesterday.

Yesterday I upgraded FF to v 4.0 and, although I am still getting used to the revised UI, I’m liking it a lot. When taking sides in some fanciful browser war, it’s useful to remember that the other browser isn’t sitting still either.

I’m probably not an ‘average’ user … I don’t mind learning new software (I’m pretty good at it) and I don’t mind investing time in a d/l and install if something sounds like it will make my life just a little bit easier. I installed Chrome, I learned it passably well, it didn’t make the earth move for me, so it’s gone. Not certain if it will ever be back.

I think that David, above, really nailed an important point. FF has a “second team” of developers that they can send out on the field … the plugin developers. Any feature that FF itself lacks, the plugin developers can fast-track and graft on to the main body. Their contributions make FF work as if it were the joint property of two extremely talented and aggressive companies … one of which releases code roughly daily, whereas the other one focuses on beefier changes, released more slowly. In order to compete with FF, you have to compete with the plugins, too, and that’s a very tough nut to crack. You can’t write a monolithic block of code and do that … it would be too huge. But where, oh where, are you going to find plugin developers if you just write your code with lots of places to hook stuff onto? FF has already answered that question, Google MIGHT figure it out but MSFT is just totally out of the running for too many reasons to go into here. Who wants to donate code to a for-profit corporation — even if there is an off-chance of turning a profit?

QUOTE VVVV
anastasito on October 22, 2009 2:22 pm

hey, what about internet explorer?… it came with the computer i bought from my cousin last year, and i can see most pages in there

there should be a reason why all computers come with the explorer loaded on already, and that is experience and expertise
QUOTE^^^^

The reason IE comes on most computers today is because Windows comes on most computers today, and Microsoft makes Internet Explorer. Microsoft is a dark and evil empire that is trying to take over the universe. The only way we can stop them is by supporting smaller software companies that are trying to force competition against this mega-corporation. You see, competition breeds creativity, competitive pricing and software improvements. When a company has a nearly complete market control over something you end up with operating systems like DOS 4.0, Windows ME and Windows Vista.

So, experience and expertise has nothing to do with why you find IE on all your computers. It is all about market control and fear of competition.

So.. In case you were wondering.. Rather than use MS products or pay through the nose for other applications that you really don’t want to be without..

AVG Anti-Virus
Firefox Web Browser
Thunderbird E-Mail (from firefox makers-mozilla.com)
I am in a hurry and that’s all I can think of at this time, but don’t be a Microsoft sheep!! Explore the alternatives, and if you are still in doubt, search around the web for Microsoft, lawsuits and anti-trust, etc.

I’d suggest firefox to users who like their job to be done faster and chrome who pay more attention on visual stylz …

Chrome IS the future, and some websites will have to make themselves workable for Chrome. I observe some sites with tons of Flash codecs encounter problems, but that’s about it.