The Transformation is Nearly Complete

Early this morning I decided to take the plunge...After using Internet Explorer for years on end, I decided to make Mozilla Firebird my default browser.

For years, I've been a die-hard IE user. I hated Netscape back in the days of the First Browser War with IE 3.0 and Netscape 3 doing battle. I just didn't like the way Netscape felt back then. It felt like it belonged on Mac or something...I don't know what it was, but I didn't like it.

IE 4.0 was, to say the least, a major event for me. What a great browser that was. It was so far ahead of Netscape that it wasn't funny.

However, since then IE really hasn't added much in the way of features. Tabs? Themes? The browser has stagnated. Microsoft says "wait for LOnghorn", but that's inexcusable (I have a feeling that we'll hear from IE again before Longhorn).

In any event, I didn't find Mozilla 1.0 very impressive. It was Netscape under a different name. It was bloated, it was slow, and I didn't need a new browser then.

When I first heard about Phoenix (aka Firebird), I was intrigued. A browser made for browsing, not an Internet suite made one hell of a lot of sense to me. So I tried it...I was impressed, but I didn't feel that it warranted replacing my beloved IE.

Now however, I feel that Firebird has reached the point where I no longer have any need for IE. It just makes so much sense. Tabs? Awesome. Themes? I can have a new look every day (Ken Lynch, you kick ass). Extensions? This just makes sense. Speed? Right up there with IE.

The open source aspect is also very cool I can download a new build every day. You can actually see progress. Bugs get fixed within days. Everyone is remarkably candid and open. If someone wants to make special builds, with extra extensions or optimizations, they can go right on ahead. What a breath of fresh air.

Speaking of fresh air, all you have to do to install Firebird is unzip a .zip file. No "install this and you'll never be able to uninstall". No "Do you also want to install RealBS Player?" This is pure no-bull browsing.