don't click on the blue e!: Switching to Firefox

By John Virata

Last winter my PC became infected with a popup that just wouldn't go away. The various popup killers that I had installed on the computer failed to stop the annoyance or even locate it once it embedded itself onto my PC's hard drive. After a few weeks of dealing with this insidious bug, I went nuclear on the hard drive and reformatted it just to get rid of that popup machine. After this I went searching for a better way to browse the Web, and I found it in Firefox.

Because Microsoft's Windows operating system is still the dominant operating system on the desktop and because Microsoft's Internet Explorer ships with virtually every copy of Windows, programmers of ill repute have targeted IE for years, causing all sorts of mayhem on the PCs that are connected to the Internet. While other browsers have made a stab at the default market leader, Firefox has gained some traction in the alternative browser universe because it doesn't have security holes that are always being plugged in Internet Explorer. Don't click on the blue e!: Switching to Firefox by Scott Granneman is a 267 page, five chapter book that helps those who want to make the switch to Firefox. Among other things, the book details how to install and configure this open source browser. Within the scope of this review, we'll take a look at some of the chapters in the book and the various topics that Granneman covers.

Chapter 1
Granneman discusses the problems that plague Internet Explorer in this first chapter. Granneman opens the chapter with a note about the Department of Homeland Security advising web users to choose a browser other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, due in part to security breaches at several banks, stores, auctions sites and other e-commerce venues caused by a security hole in Microsoft's web server software. When coupled with Internet Explorer, bad guys could install all types of nefarious code onto unsuspecting computers which could in turn compromise security. The security report advised users to use a web browser other than IE.

 Granneman then offers a brief history of the Internet and the World Wide Web, and how scientist Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web to enable scientists to share their data without having to worry about word processors or operating systems. What follows is a short history of some of the browser technology that came about during the early years of the Web, and story on how Berners-Lee convinced CERN, or European Organization of Nuclear Research to release the technology into the public domain. Granneman then discusses Microsoft's entry to the browser wars with Internet Explorer with the release of Windows 95 in August 1995. Also discussed were Microsoft's licensing tactics, effectively giving IE placement on every desktop that shipped with Windows 95, as well as IE's stagnation once it achieved market dominance, and IE's approach to security, or lack thereof.

Chapter 2 Installing and Configuring Firefox
Firefox is available at mozilla.org as a free 4.8MB download (you can also order a CD for $5.95 from mozillastore.com), and Granneman also points out in this chapter that there are actually three version of Firefox available; stable, beta and nightly. The Stable version is the official version that is released several times a year, while the beta is just that, beta software, and the nightly is even more unstable than the beta. he points out that if you want the most stable version, stick with the released version. Within this chapter, Granneman details how to install Firefox, set up your shortcuts, import your settings from other browsers, and configure your options, such as color settings, font size, privacy settings,  web features such as enabling java and javaScript. Next is a chapter on customizing your Firefox toolbar, including tips on how to add, move or remove icons on the Firefox toolbar, including using separators to separate the different icons on the toolbar. Also discussed in this chapter is the importance of profiles and how to create a profile. When you first launch Firefox, by default, and also known as default, Firefox crates a profile for you, which according to the author, is a folder on your hard drive that contains information pertaining to your bookmarks, settings, cookies, history, and other information. Granneman gives instructions on how to create a new profile, in the event that others use Firefox under a different login. Also discussed is directions on how to backup your profile once you've created it the way you want it.

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Chapter 3 discusses some of the features that are in Firefox. Granneman opens up the chapter with a discussion of both the navigation toolbar, location bar, and the bookmark toolbar. Brief descriptions are given of each of the bars, along with how to set them up to your liking. he then covers the standard interface features found in most software applications, such as the standard file and view pulldown menus. Brief descriptions of what's under the pulldowns are given. The author also discusses such browser terms as what a cache is, as well as page info descriptions and contextual menus. The use of Tabs, what I think is one of the coolest features to Firefox, next to its security, is covered in depth. Tabs, for those who are still using IE, enables you to view different web pages or web sites, without having to open a new window. When you create a new tab, it appears below the toolbar in a tabbed format. So you can view multiple web pages or stories just by clicking one of the tabs. Other topics discussed in the chapter include Sidebars such as bookmarks sidebars and history sidebars and Managers such as bookmark managers and download managers.

Chapter 4 Killer Firefox add-ons
one of the great features of the Web is its ability to showcase media, be it digital video, audio, still images, or Flash movies. With the help of plug-ins, your browsing experience can be more interactive. Chapter 4 offers tips on how to add multimedia plug-ins to Firefox, so you can view QuickTime, Real, and Windows Media Player content, as well as the Adobe Acrobat reader client and Sun Microsystems' Java Virtual Machine. One plug-in that Granneman warns against installing is the ActiveX controls from Microsoft. This plug-in is one of the features that contribute to the lack of security in IE. Also covered in this chapter is a section on troubleshooting the various plug-ins that you've installed in Firefox, as well as working with the different themes available, how to install them, change them and the like. A significant portion of the chapter is the use of extensions and how they add features to Firefox. Granneman points the reader to two repositories on the Web that cover Firefox extensions pretty exclusively; A Guide to Firefox Extensions on the Flexbeta site, and Mozdev: the Extension Room, at mozdev.org. These two sites give some pretty specific and detailed discussions of the extensions available for Firefox.

Chapter 5 Advanced Firefox appeals to those who want to exploit some of the advanced features to the browser, including searching, Smart keywords, and Live Bookmarks. one cool aspect of this chapter is Granneman's discussion of IE View, which essentially enables you to view content created with Internet Explorer in mind from within Firefox. Another section of the chapter discusses Flash. I understand that Flash is just a tool that in some cases helps users get a better web experience, but some Web designers take the view that Flash is the be all, end all tool for the Internet, that the "majority" of web sites will be Flash based in the near future. Well, for myself and a lot of others who use the Web daily, Flash, when used in a wasteful way, can be a big drag on the whole Web experience. Granneman discusses in this chapter how you can block Flash with Flashblock (www.flashblock.mozdev.org) extension for Firefox.

And finally, Granneman goes off topic a bit and discusses the attributes to some of the other browsers that are available to users, including Camino, Safari, Opera. He discusses the background of each browser, what cool features each has, and what can use some work.

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Conclusion
I've been using Firefox for about six months and really didn't know the power of the browser until I read this book. I mainly like the capability to use Tabs to view web pages, and its popup killer, and had no clue with regard to the other features. I have always been aware of the lack of security built into the Windows operating system as well as Internet Explorer but was unaware of some of the arm twisting that Microsoft has built into its products, such as the inability to avail of the Windows Update tool unless you use IE, and the assertion by Granneman that Internet Explorer 7 will only be available to those who upgrade to Longhorn, the next version of the Windows operating system. Firefox is a great, relatively secure browser, and I like using it. It does take a while to break the habit of not clicking on that Blue E on the desktop. For those who are considering switching to Firefox, Scott Granneman's don't click on the blue e is a must read.

don't click on the blue e!
by Scott Granneman
First Edition April 2005
ISBN: 0-596-00939-9
288 pages, $19.95 US, $27.95 CA, £12.95 UK