Yesterday, Firefox 1.0 was officially released. All of the fellow geeks who read this probably either a) already know this because they downloaded it first thing yesterday morning or b) didn’t have a clue becuase their favorite alternative OS downloaded it for them. Either way, they probably use Firefox or some other browser besides Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Those of you out there who wouldn’t consider yourselves geeks, all 3 of you, may be asking right now what the heck this ‘Firefox’ thing is and why are all the geeks using it. Read on, and I’ll try to explain what Firefox is, why I use it instead of IE, and also tell you a little about why you should consider giving it a try.

Firefox, originally called Firebird as an allusion to the mythical Phoenix, is what came out of the death of the really bad Netscape Browser after Microsoft managed to win the browser war a few years ago. Some of you may have tried Netscape at the time and, just as I did, and you probably found that the browser was slow, clunky, and not very stable. It had problems with java and javascript, and it was generally a poor product. Let me assure you, Firefox is magnitudes better than Netscape ever was.

The browser that rose out of the ashes of Netscape took on a new purpose: to be as lightweight and configurable as possible, and to throw out the ‘fluff’ that was the Netscape Browser (and is IE still today) and focus on speed and usability. So, the folks at Mozilla built a browser that was suited for surfing the web, and not much else. Extra functionality is provided through hundreds of third party extensions that are free and installed quickly and easily from within the browser. Thus, if the user wants extra bells and whistles, she can have them. If the user just wants to surf the web, that’s fine too, no extras needed. This approach lets the user decide how little or how much she wants. Internet Explorer has the option of third party plugins too—but most of these come in the form of annoying link bars that embed themselves into the browser and slow down both your web surfing experience and your computer.

Many, many times I’ve helped friends out with ‘computer problems’ that turn out to be nothing more than a horde of programs that have installed themselves onto the friend’s computer. Most of these programs come in through trick pop-ups that convince the user to install programs that turn out to be ad-generators, pop-up creators, or spyware. These programs cause your computer to slow down because they take up system resources, slow your internet connection down (especially dial-up) by downloading pop-ups or sending your browsing habits back to their own servers, and generally invade on your browsing privacy.

Because it is not an integral part of the computer’s operating system, Firefox is generally more secure than IE. Firefox has a built-in pop-up blocker (and did long before Microsoft ‘fixed’ IE6 using service pack 2). There is even a firefox plug-in called ad-block that allows you to block ad-banners. Imagine browsing your favorite sites without seeing another annoying pop-up or ad image. And the beauty of ad-block is that since ads from many different sites are served by the same servers, blocking the ads on cnn.com will block ads on many other sites as well.

The critics will tell you that some web pages don’t display correctly in Firefox. While this is very true, some pages have a problem with Firefox, it is usually because either the page was designed without any regards to web standards or because the page is coded in such a way that it will only serve content to IE browsers. There is a plug-in to Firefox that provides an easy out for this problem. With Open Link Target in IE, you can right click on any link in Firefox and choose an option of the same name to open that link in IE. However, as handy as this is, I only need to use it once or twice a week. The vast majority of web pages display just fine in Firefox.

Of course, Firefox has security vulnerabilities and bugs—just about every program in existance does—but the folks at Mozilla take security very seriously and release updates when necessary. Because Firefox is an ongoing project and is continuously under development, most vulnerabilites and bugs are worked out quickly.

And, last but definitely not least, the #1 best reason to switch to Firefox … TABS! Instead of opening a new window to look at more than one site at at time, just hit Ctrl-T and Firefox will open up a new tab—another pane within the same window with a different web page in it. If you middle-click your mouse (or click down on the scroll-wheel without turning it) on a link, Firefox will open that link in a new tab instead of opening it in the current one. The biggest advantage of this? Especially if you have a slower connection, you can open up multiple links at the same time and allow them to load. Say you’re reading the front page story on CNN, and you see one of the headlines that you’d like to read. Instead of clicking on the link and waiting for the page to load, just middle-click on the link instead, and keep reading. You’ll get a little moving circle in the new tab that just opened that will tell you when your new page has loaded. In the meantime, keep reading the current page. Repeat as necessary and open as many tabs as you like.

Anyway, whether I’ve convinced you or not, take a few moments to download firefox and give it a try. After you have, check out the extension room and look through all of the options that you have to upgrade and add flexibility.