Happ e-Holidays

In the spirit of the holidays, I have decided to give you, my loyal readers, a gift. Before you get too excited, I should confess that I’m cheap, and there are a lot of you, so I’ve opted to give something that is very inexpensive—in fact, it’s free. For some of you, however, this gift will change your lives: It will save you from wasted time and frustration, help you avoid embarrassing trips to the help desk in the Science Center basement—it might even improve your grades and make you wealthier and more appealing to members of the opposite sex. The gift, oh ye weary users of Microsoft Internet Explorer (Mac users who browse with Safari may continue to tune in, but your lot is not quite so dire), is Mozilla Firefox—an alternate web browser and the answer to your subconscious prayers.

It’s possible some of you have noticed signs you might be in need of a new browser. Perhaps every time you sit down in front of your computer, focused and intent on starting research for your ec paper (perhaps by conducting a game theory study on thefacebook.com), you find yourself stared in the face by a dozen pop-up windows advertising for ‘home surveillance’ cameras designed (if you trust the photos in the ads) to keep your house safe from the prying eyes and sticky fingers of scantily clad women. Or perhaps your browser has grown three or four additional “search toolbars” and your home page is packed with links to Canadian pharmacies offering inexpensive generic alternatives to Viagra.

Firefox is more or less free from these plights. For one, its relative unpopularity makes it an unattractive target for the spammers and spyware authors that write the code that breaks Internet Explorer. You might ask, however, if Firefox is unpopular now and we all take your advice, won’t it grow into a big enough target such that it stops passing under the bad guys’ radar? Fortunately the browser has quite a bit more going for it: Released by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, it is an open-source application created by people who like writing good software not for financial gain but with the goal of making the Internet a kinder, gentler place. What “open-source” means in this context is that anyone who wants to can look at the code that makes Firefox tick, a set-up which allows an enormous community of dedicated programmers to look out for bugs and security holes and generally keep things honest. Combine this key fact with clever features like an effective pop-up blocker, and you’ll find Firefox will continue to be well protected for quite some time.

I can see where these arguments might leave some of you unconvinced, however— particularly if you’re among the lucky few or meticulous elite who have managed to thus far escape the clutches of evil Internet con-artists. I could throw in a mention of Firefox’s speed (generally, it’s quite a bit faster than Internet Explorer), or of some of its advanced features—like tabbed browsing—which have revolutionized the way in which I surf the web, but I think even more compelling than these things is to point out the enormous support Firefox has already garnered in its short history. After all, at the moment it’s my word versus that of Bill Gates, and by the time he was my age he’d already founded the company that would make him the richest man in America.

But I’m not alone in my recommendation. For one, 11 million people have downloaded the browser since its release. And I may very well be the last tech columnist in the world to jump on the Firefox-praise bandwagon (I’ve been using it myself for quite some time, mind you: I’ve just not been proselytizing). Over the past three months as the browser reached maturity and was officially released to the public, noted journalists at the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and hundreds of other well regarded publications have been singing the praises of Mozilla’s master work.

It’s even starting to be noticed in the information technology (IT) private sector—and on university networks like our own. Last week IT Services at Pennsylvania State University issued an announcement imploring students to switch from Internet Explorer to a browser like Firefox—a request they made not on the basis of the comparative ease of use of the browsers or on the slick new features, but rather because of their relative security levels. Microsoft’s browser has been the object of a large number of security vulnerabilities over the past months—vulnerabilities which not only increase the risk that an individual computer can be compromised but which, as a result, also drive up traffic levels and strain computing resources on campus networks as the number of infected machines rises.

So think of Firefox as a stocking stuffer, or a present for the oft-overlooked ninth night of Hanukkah. While you’re sitting around over break with nothing to do but dream about how relaxed you’d be if Harvard adopted a reasonable academic calendar, surf over to http://www.mozilla.org in Internet Explorer and download Firefox on me (isn’t my generosity laudable?): It may well be the last page you visit in Explorer. And if you like it, note that it makes a nice cheap gift to give to your friends, and one they’ll never stop thanking you for.

Matthew A. Gline ’06 is a physics concentrator in Quincy House. His column appears on alternate Mondays.