Making the leap to Firefox

Well folks, I've discovered the joy of that "third option" again.

More than a decade ago I made the full-blown leap to the Libertarian Party, America's largest and longest-running third party in recent history. Before that, I was a disillusioned Reagan Republican, pissed off at the party's turn towards the hardcore right, and at folks like Rush Limbaugh who were telling people there were no such things as moderates.

This past week, I took another "third option". This time with browsers.

Specifically, I've started using Mozilla's Firefox browser. Okay, so Firefox isn't fresh from the box, but I do have to give the folks at Mozilla credit for coming up with a kick-ass free program!

Key pluses here are the themes and the ability to customize the browser how you see fit. The built-in pop-up blocker works wonders, as does the built-in search field which you can also customize to work with several specialty searches. Of course there's the biggest plus, which is the fact that it does not work with ActiveX controls, which has been the source of many a spyware or virus download. As a matter of fact, it doesn't even work with Microsoft's Java VM program (if you're so lucky to still have on your system).

So people, if you don't like Internet Explorer, you DO have a choice! I've seen it, I've worked with it, and it's a pretty good alternative to IE.

By the way, Mozilla also came up with a FREE e-mail program that is supposed to be on par with Eudora or Outlook. It's something for you folks to consider, especially given some of the rumors I heard about what Microsoft would like to do with Outlook and Outlook Express in the future.