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Firefox Really Rocks; AVID: The Barkless Dog
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By: Robin Bloor Published: 27th June 2006 Copyright © 2006 |
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StumbleUponFirefox Really Rocks
Yes it does. My complimentary comments on Firefox last week were understated. I had cause this week to spend more time with some other Firefox plug-ins. A reader (Chris) posted a recommendation for the Customize Google plugin, claiming it to be much better than than the standard Google Toolbar.
It was a cheeky recommendation because Customize Google isn't competitive with the functionality that the Google Toolbar offers. What it does is allow you to keep Google under control. You can block Google ads in various contexts and add other search engines in to your searches. If you resent Google's ads that's fine, but I couldn't help thinking that Google's ads are not particularly intrusive and, in some circumstances, when I'm looking to buy something, I often click on the ads. I'd prefer they were there. Customize Google understands this and gives you choices on which Google services (Search, Gmail, Froogle, Groups, etc.) you block ads for.
Another poster recommended the Del.icio.us bookmarks plugin. If you don't know delicious (URL Del.icio.us if you hadn't guessed) it's well worth playing with. It provides an alternative kind of search capability, giving you links to web pages/sites that other del.icio.us users have recommended. The quality of the links is surprisingly good. (I now use it regularly.)
I was amused by two other postings... Here's one from “Helena Fox”.
“Just installed the IE7 BETA—it knocks spots off Firefox for speed and usability. I am sure most enterprises would rather stick to trusted Microsoft software rather than gamble with Opensource hacks".
And another from “Boyd Schidt”.
“IE 7 Rocks. Firefox, get ready to be upstaged”.
Balanced and impartial comment, don't you think? More like the flamers that defend Linux, but with a different agenda. I remember not so long ago covering the awful Windows SP2 upgrade. I had sufficient problems with it that I abandoned it and the webmaster of IT-Analysis.com also had severe problems with it. So I told the tale on IT-Director and immediately several questionable postings of this kind appeared—implying that I, rather than SP2, was the problem and I was probably a moron. Go look if you want. The SP2 upgrade was really flawed and as time passed, many readers posted their own complaints. Over time, the list of such postings grew.
Anyway, I did a a reality check on IE 7—I took a quick look at its second beta. Functionally it bears no comparison to Firefox—there wasn't a single feature it had that wasn't present either in Firefox or through its wealth of plugins—and Firefox has so much more. IE 7 isn't crap, it's just pedestrian. Microsoft invents tabbed browsing! Give me a break.
Ultimately, it seems to me that Microsoft doesn't have its heart in the browser. The browser opens up the world of web-based services and these are gradually undermining Microsoft's precious office software monopoly. Microsoft neglected IE to the point of irresponsibility and Firefox stepped in and stole the initiative. Microsoft will have to deliver much more than IE 7 to get it back and it may never do so.
As for “Helena” and “Boyd”. Please get a life. It's got to be a miserable existence scanning the web for opportunities to be insincere about Microsoft products. “Oh yes, great and mighty emperor, it is a wonderful suit of clothes; the style, the cut, the miraculous sheen of the extraordinary cloth. Never in our lives have we seen such a browser.”
AVID: The Barkless Dog
This week AVID stands for AntiVirus in Denial. Denial, to repeat the old pun, is not just a river in Egypt, it is also the reaction of the AntiVirus industry to this blog. If you've stumbled on this blog by accident, AVID is my campaign to repeatedly expose the fact that signature-based AV technology is horribly inadequate, because it fails to protect its users from new viruses for many hours and often several days after they appear. And yet complete AV protection and more comprehensive all round security capability is available (from three companies, Bit9, Securewave and AppSense). Organizations that deploy these products don't need AV technology. Let's abandon AV.
Perhaps one might expect someone in the $3 billion plus AV industry to respond to this regular drum beat, by posting some kind of counter argument. But much to my lack-of-surprise, we have experienced (as Sherlock Holmes remarked in The Hounds of The Baskervilles), the strange phenomenon of the dog that didn't bark.
Much silence makes a mighty noise, as they say in Africa. Could it be that the AV vendors are too busy counting their undeserved revenues to care or are PR consultants strongly advising their AV customers not to engage with this turbulent analyst at all?
Here's a suggestion. There are two sorry individuals somewhere out there, who are clearly in need of a life. They know how to surf the web and peck at a keyboard and discernment is not their strong suit. Surely they would be better employed flaming AVID than exaggerating the capabilities of Microsoft's mildly improved browser. No need for them to engage in discussion. Just make postings like:
“I am sure most enterprises would rather stick to trusted AV software than gamble on technology that actually works”.
“AV rocks, AVID sucks”.
We're done here.
IT One-Liners
"After all, computers crash, people die, relationships fall apart. The best we can do is breath and reboot." - Sarah Jessica Parker
... the blue screen of life....
"Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, includ-ing the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog. - Doug Larson
... it's yet another extraordinary advance conferred on humanity by the IT industry - a truly plausible excuse for our school children: Microsoft ate my homework.
Reader Comments
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27th June 2006: 'Chris' said:
Robin, still no mention of Opera 9. You really must take a look at this worthy Firefox competitor. Gone are the days on built-in advertising and poor compatibility. The add-ons may not be on par with firefox, but given time I am sure they will be.
27th June 2006: 'anonymous' said:
Microsoft ate my homework - too funny, LMAO
27th June 2006: 'sixhundred' said:
No doubt IE 7 will get traction just beacuse it's a MS product but they've missed the boat. Firefox rocks not just beacuse it's a great browser but because of all the extensions. I'd be lost without some of the superb Firefox extensions. It's power is in it's extensibility.
27th June 2006: 'Kenneth' said:
I find the Adblock extension particularly good - especially on news portals!
28th June 2006: 'Eric' said:
While I don't dislike Microsoft, I don't understand that lame IE fan base. Microsoft left us, it's users in the dust for over 4 years, only giving us security updates and always taking for ever to do so leaving us in an exploitable stage. While every area of technology and the web matured, we were stalemated with Internet explorer. Sure, driving a 4 year old car is nice, but not when you can drive a new one for free. More than anything the fact that MS just last year brought back the 'IE team' makes me worried. If the only reason MS cares to innovate is to kill off competition, then if I am to stick with them in the log run, why won't they leave me hanging dry for another 4 years? I'm tired of waiting, I'm tired of promises of windows vista features and dates only to get pushed back by years, and lacking all the features they said it would have that I want (winFX, p2p, etc.). I guess I just feel duped. If a multibillion dollar company promises me something, I can only assume they will deliver like everyone else does.
28th June 2006: 'Frankie' said:
I'm a Firefox user myself and know for fact which is the better browser and what Microsoft copied, I mean "invented". But no matter how good a product is you will always find people who would stick to their products of choice and defend them in the best way they can. That is the way that life is :( Regarding AVID (this is not the first time I read of your campaign), Well truely the mentioned companies have great products but its impossible and not good for the market if everyone used the same three companies. Competition helps, just look at how the market benefits from the competition that Firefox created, one could have easily said that IE was all that one would have needed. Innovation comes through variety and competition :) (I'm sorry but I see that your two articles have contradictory arguments when in comes to variety of use in Web Browsers and standardization of use for security)! No one can read the future! If the mentioned companies offer great security for the world of today that doesn't necessarily mean that they will in the future (anything can happen to anyone). Promote variety, innovation and competitiveness and not monopoly!
28th June 2006: 'Jonathon Kent' said:
Surely Firefox extensions can compromise the security of your web browser. Seems a dangerous gamble to me.
28th June 2006: 'Teddy' said:
As Eric says - we got left behind. Perhaps some people who are forced to use Windows in their organisation resent this fact. I personally use Ubuntu Linux (based on Debian) with Firefox 1.0.5
28th June 2006: 'Philip' said:
Whilst Firefox may rock, Thunderbird and Sunbird do not. At least Microsoft offers tight integration of its Internet Explorer web browser with existing Outlook and Office software.
28th June 2006: 'Jennifer' said:
You might want to talk to the webmaster, the funny green contextual links in your article are actually picking up on the term anti-virus and displaying links to related vendors. LMAO.
28th June 2006: 'Dave C' said:
It's funny but I have never seen an article on this website about installing or upgrading Linux, it is always a dig at Windows. Had there of been such an article I am sure that the number of comments would seriously outweigh that of SP2.
Take Fedora Linux for example, one of the best known linux distributions .. or Debian .. when things do not go down the beaten path all hell breaks loose! Unlike Microsoft there is no-one to turn to, hours to into days and weeks.
Go on, I dare you to install Linux and post your experiences!
28th June 2006: 'Jim' said:
Dave C, that sounds like a challenge if ever there was one. I heartily agree that other OSes should be targeted by IT-D to give poor Microsoft a break.
Having said that I installed Ubuntu Linux the other day within 20 minutes - absolutely fantastic desktop system.
29th June 2006: 'd0nk3y' said:
Re: AVID and the rapid non-response... Perhaps it's because all the AV vendors are so busy rewriting all their wares for the impending doom... opps, I mean Vista. If it's anything like when XP came out, everyone had to upgrade all their 'protection' products because they'd no longer work in the new OS. Just a thought....
29th June 2006: 'Martin Vermeer' said:
As nobody else seems to have noticed this: you're an ANALYST. Where the heck did you get that clue?
29th June 2006: 'JHK' said:
There will always be people like Helena and Boyd. They feel uncomfortable about questioning their dear-held beliefs, so they lash out in ignorance and frustration. "... as Sherlock Holmes remarked in The Hounds of The Baskervilles" Or actually "Silver Blaze". :-)
3rd July 2006: 'anonymous' said:
Linux users - check out the SwiftFox project (Swiftfox is an optimized build of Mozilla Firefox. Swiftfox has builds for both AMD and Intel processors).... Just when you thought browsing couldn't get faster ...
17th November 2006: 'anonymous' said:
Have you seen the Microsoft version of Firefox? www.msfirefox.com
17th November 2006: 'Robin Bloor' said:
No. To be honest I no longer run Windows on any active machines. I'm all Apple. I have a Windows PC that I use to try out Windows software but I rarely use it.
By the way, FireFox 2.0 hangs sometimes on OS X, which is irritating. Probably the 2.0 OS X version is a little buggy.
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