Browse Safe with Firefox 3

Firefox 3 was released yesterday to much fanfare. The first tallies are showing over 8 million downloads in 1 day. Of that total 269,901 were by Canadians.

Update June 19: Download total is now over 11 million, 320,000+ by Canada.

I’ve been using it for about a day, here are my initial impressions.

I don’t have any stats to back it up, but Firefox 3 seems faster. Pages come up fast, there is very little lag when switching tabs and so far the memory used by Firefox 3 is not growing by the second. Now I never had the memory issues some users of Firefox 2 have had, but, I regularly have 8-10 tabs open a time, often even more, and Firefox 3 so far seems to hang around 120-140K. Much like my old install of Firefox 2. This may be because I keep the amount of add-ons I use to a minimum, so I was never affected by the memory issues.

After installing Firefox 3 the first thing I noticed was the update interface. Thankfully Mozilla didn’t mess with the standard browser placement like Microsoft did in IE7. I also noticed that a new folder showed up on my toolbar. Firefox 3 adds a “Most Visited” folder. I’m not sure if i will use it yet, but could see how it could be useful.

I’m still learning & playing with all the new features in Firefox 3, and getting used to the new url bar, but, so far I like the new version. This is a required upgrade to all Firefox 2 users. I also strongly recommend IE users to take the plunge and give FF3 a try. I really think you will be impressed.

So can these improvements further take a bite out of IE's market share?  Not without an inovative marketing plan or, better yet, a large PC builder installing it on all its PCs.  Dell & Google have a deal to install the Google Toolbar and Desktop on Dell PCs.  Mozilla should explore this type of deal.  Firefox's ~15% market share would quickly improve if our grandma's and mom's had the browser installed and ready to go on their new PC.

In related IE7 news, Microsoft will be pushing IE7 via Windows Update as a high priority update, but will be an optional update.  There have already been a few concerns over possible exploits, but one thing is for sure, this update will be worth the time to download it.  Until website developers stop designing sites to use activeX there will always be a need to keep a IE around.  It may as well be a more secure version than the porous IE6.

1. A computer is nothing to be afraid of. So, go ahead and explore the file system. Aside from deleting any files located in c:\windows, or c:\program files, there isn't to much that can go wrong by going into My Computer and taking a look around, Trial & error work for you as a small child, why not as an adult.

2. Beware deals that are "to good to be true". Shop around, ask friends, and take your time. Quite often the mega deals large retailers put on are marked as refurbished . Depending on the store this can mean anything from the entire unit has been repaired (i.e. laptops) to some or all of the parts inside the case were repaired.

3. Do not purchase a computer that comes with a copy of Windows installed without making sure you actually paid for the operating system. Often small retailers will sell you a system that comes with Windows XP, but not give you the installation CD. This is illegal and you can report this behavior to Microsoft. A copy of XP Home can be found online for as little as $100 CAD.

4. Anti-virus/Anti-spyware. Today an unprotected PC can be infected in less time than it takes to boil water. Invest in a good anti-virus(AV) program and keep it up to date. There are a number of good programs to choose from and even a free one . In addition to AV protection it is a good idea to install a anti-spyware (AS) program as well. Lavasoft's Ad-Aware is free and I recommend its use. It will root out the ad- and spy-ware on your PC that you get from surfing the web.

5. Use an alternate browser and email client. Internet Explorer 6 and Outlook Express have long been the target of virus writers and hackers. The Mozilla Foundation's Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client and more secure than IE6 and Outlook Express and are quite easy to use. Although the main draw for me to Firefox are the extensions that have been developed to extend Firefox. Opera is highly regarded by those who use it and the new Internet Explorer 7 has been improved but it still lacks in web standards.

There you go, my top 5 tips for a new or prospective computer owner.