The Mozilla Firefox version 1.0, will be released Nov. 9, marking a milestone in the development of this Internet browser.
At the Office of Information Technology computing cluster in Perkins Library, junior Alexandra Oliveira was among the many students browsing the Internet. Unlike the majority of students, she was not seeing any pop-up advertisements because she was using Mozilla Firefox, a free alternative browser to Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Oliveira will no longer have to use a preview release version of Firefox after Nov. 9, when the Mozilla “open source project” releases Firefox version 1.0, marking a milestone in the development of this Internet browser.
“Firefox lets you browse the web more efficiently and more quickly for a better browsing experience,” said Ben Goodger, lead engineer of Firefox.
Preview releases of Firefox have been available to the public since the start of the project in Sept. 2002. The Mozilla project is supported by the Mozilla Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation.
Firefox can be downloaded at http://www.getfirefox.com and installation takes only a few minutes. “The transition to Firefox is painless,” Goodger said. “Firefox grabs all of your favorites and passwords from Internet Explorer.”
Currently, Firefox preview release version 0.93 is available in all OIT computing clusters.
“We felt it was important to provide at least two browsers in order to give users a chance to explore different functionality and make a choice based on their own preferences,” said Sarah Roberts, information technology analyst for Academic Technology Services at OIT.
On Apple Mac OS X computers in Duke clusters, Internet Explorer is not even available as an option.
“OIT took the step of installing Firefox when it became apparent that Internet Explorer for Mac, a tool no longer developed by Microsoft and nearing the end of its support cycle, would not be a reliable choice to have on OIT lab Macintosh computers running OS X,” Roberts said.
Firefox supports many integrated features, which are unique among Internet browsers. Among these include tabbed browsing, which allows the display of multiple search results in the same window, an integrated search bar, a pop-up blocker and extensions that make it easy to add additional features to Firefox—features that Goodger noted as important for college students.
“When you’re in college, you get lots and lots of research projects. It really does help to have a tool that works with you,” said Goodger. “Search functions in Firefox does that and saves you time for other things.”
Firefox is also not as vulnerable to spyware, which is often written to attack only the Internet Explorer browser.
With all its strengths, Firefox does have its weaknesses. Some websites are not compatible with Firefox because they are currently optimized for display in the most popular browser, Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Technicians for the University’s libraries showed a more lukewarm response to Firefox. “We have no plans to roll it out immediately, but we are evaluating Firefox as a browser to be included in new equipment,” said Edward Gomes, senior manager of information technology for the Duke library system.
“We’re looking at all different browsers, including the latest version of Internet Explorer in Windows XP Service Pack 2. For the type of use we have on our public use workstations right now, [Firefox] is not a significant improvement,” Gomes said.
Gomes also noted that several of his colleagues find Firefox still a worthwhile project. “Most people in my department use it,” he said. “It is very convenient and well-designed application.”
The mission of the Mozilla project is to preserve choice and innovation on the Internet. The Mozilla project was formed in March 1998 when Netscape Corporation, now part of AOL Time Warner, released the source code to Netscape Communicator to the public.
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