Firefox

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Ever since Internet Explorer 7.0 came out, I’ve been a huge fan of Firefox! Of course, those of you who actually know me, know that I have a long history with Microsoft products, and I’ve been accused of being biased… though, as much as it’s possible to be objective, I genuinely think I do give a fair chance to a wide variety of technologies.

Granted, I just used Internet Explorer for most of my life on the web, but really that was more about the fact that I prefer to keep my core technology stack simple: stick with a single vendor as much as possible, to remove the inevitable conflicts and hassles that arise from too many cooks in the pot, so to speak.

Anyway, I’m digressing from my intended point, here. After IE 7 was released, I really tried to use it as my primary browser. I tried really, really hard to ignore the huge number of annoyances… as a software developer, I also prefer to keep my operating system configured the way most of my users will have it, so I learned to live with the new User Account Control (UAC) features of Windows Vista, that forever ask you if you’d like to grant permission to do this or that. Well, the combination of UAC and the obsessively over-strict security features of IE 7 just made my day-to-day life on the web unbearable!

So, I downloaded Firefox and started using that. Now, I can keep all of my open sites in a single browser instance, regardless of the “security zone”. There is a practically infinite number of extensions and add-ons that let me conform the browser to “my way” of doing things. The only reason I ever launch Internet Explorer, these days, is to log into my company’s web-based VPN that is also obsessively over-strict, and won’t work right with Firefox!

Since about Beta 4, I’ve been running Firefox 3. It’s been great, albeit missing a few add-ons. Well, it does crash quite a bit… but, I’m rather used to that, having spent the last ten years or so, using nothing but Internet Explorer!

Like anyone else who loves Firefox, as I have grown to, I am really looking forward to the final release of Firefox 3.0, but the Firefox team has been pretty quiet about the exact date they anticipate releasing. They’re requesting pledges from people to download their copy of Firefox 3 on the very day it releases, so they can set a world record for the highest number of downloads in a single day! Yet, they still won’t say just what day that will be…

Well, it seems they might have let the release date known to some key partners, perhaps, because I discovered this website tonight (thanks to Danny on Lockergnome for pointing it out):

Is June 27th the right date? I don’t know, but it gives us something to count down to, at least!