Internet has evolved from a collection of simple HTML pages into a complex version which are manipulating huge databases every day. It has become an integral part of our daily life that we can spend a day or two without food but we cannot actually survive without checking our emails.
The one most important tool to navigate through this web is a web browser.
A web browser is a typical software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. The browsers navigate through the web by following links and opening the addresses called URLs. There are many browsers available in the market like Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, Epiphany and etc.
Mozilla Firefox was initially a sub-project of Mozilla Suite. Later, the suite was discontinued and Firefox became an individual entity. It is an open source project licensed under a tri license GPL/LGPL/MPL. As on date, it enjoys 19% of market share in the usage of web browsers world wide and stands in the second place only after Microsoft Internet Explorer. Though Internet Explorer is an inferior browser compared to Firefox, it holds the first place, thanks to its free integration into almost all Windows operating systems.
Firefox supports tabbed browsing, spell checker, find, bookmarking of web pages, and an integrated search system that uses the user's desired search engine. A huge number of third party add-ons are also readily available as the source code of the browser itself is open to everyone. Also, Firefox has an option to turn-off JavaScript if required. This is very helpful for the developer community. It also features a popup blocker which blocks the unwanted and annoying popups on web pages.
Firefox can run on Windows, Mac, Linux, and other Unix based operating systems. This way a Firefox user is never unprepared in the times of migration from one operating system to the other. By default most popular Linux flavours like Ubuntu, Red Hat, Suse come with Firefox. This way, it becomes very meaningful to browse the Internet with Firefox.
What is the point in using an opensource software without customising it according to our needs? Firefox is fully customisable according to individual preferences and this is unthinkable in Microsoft realm. Using about:config page, even a layman can change the browser behaviours according to his requirements. I promise you all, another article about customising Firefox as it is a different ball game all together.
Internet Explorer has also many features which are in Firefox. But, Firefox features tabbed browsing since its initial days and these are initial days of the same feature in Internet Explorer. The same case is with integrated search engines. Mozilla Firefox may not win the argument in a debate about the best browser around, but it is leaving no option for others except getting better to stay in the competition. It won the hearts of millions and serving billions by standing in a healthy opposition's shoes.
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