I finally downloaded and installed Firefox 1.0, Mozilla’s open source web browser today, and so far it seems very good — it works pretty much the same as Internet Explorer, but has various useful security and usability features built-in, such as pop-up blocking, default disabling of ActiveX controls, tabbed browsing, RSS support and Google search right from the main button bar. It’s also a compact application — the installer is only 4.7 MB, and automatically imports existing favourites from IE — and genuinely seems faster than IE too.

It’s probably 5 years since I finally gave up on Netscape because of increasingly irritating incompatibilities and general bugginess, and reluctantly switched to Microsoft’s bloated Internet Explorer; perhaps Firefox will finally replace IE as my default browser?

I have one question that deosn’t seem to be answered in the FAQ’s… Why is a web browser named after a Russian fighter plane in a dodgy cold war movie from the 1980’s starring Clint Eastwood?