Firefox 1.0 is so far the best alternative to IE of all the browsers. (Click on image to expand.)

There are a couple of additional large issues that require a few words. IE 6 is the de facto standard for enterprise Web applications. Most content management systems, for example, require it. And that includes the one used by CMP Media and TechWeb. Firefox performs most but not all functions in that content management system. And there are many other enterprise software types that will be tripped up by the use of Firefox.

One of things that can trip up enterprise Web apps in Firefox (and other browsers) is that Sun's Java Runtime Environment isn't installed automatically. It's pretty easy to download and install the latest version of this software from Sun Microsystem's Java site. I recommend a manual or "offline" installation, which means that you download the Java installer first and then run it locally.

There are also many Web sites out there that require the use of ActiveX controls, something that Firefox doesn't support. Microsoft's Windows Update and ClearType sites are good examples. Neither will work with Firefox. So you're not going to be able to get rid of IE entirely. Hopefully those obstacles will change with time.

But that said, Firefox 1.0 is so far the best alternative to IE of all the browsers I've ever tested. Opera and the previous generation of Mozilla are very close, but Firefox offers the best page-loading compatibility and overall ease of use.

Another major advantage of this product is that Firefox is multi-platform and can be installed on multiple versions of Windows (it was tested on Windows XP for this review), Mac OS X, and Linux/Unix.

Long-term reliability of operation is an open question with Firefox. In my testing, I've had very little trouble with the program. I've only had one issue, and I'm not certain it was a problem with Firefox. Other people have reported issues to me, such as slow performance (compared to IE) and crashing when multiple browser instances are open. Nothing I have been able to replicate, but since the browser is so new, potential issues like this bear watching.

There's a pipelining trick provided by Mozilla as an "experimental" feature that reportedly speeds up page-load performance. For more tips like this one, see the Mozilla Firefox Support area's Tip's and Tricks page. If you have a yen to customize Firefox, this is the place to start.

I think it's likely that Microsoft will, at last, upgrade Internet Explorer in some serious way. But the software giant has also said it will no longer release versions of Internet Explorer separate from the operating system — which means it would have to issue another service pack release of Windows XP (I don't see this happening, other than patch roll-ups) or deliver the upgraded browser in Windows Longhorn, which isn't due out until late 2006. Microsoft is capable of updating Internet Explorer online via Windows Update, but it's unlikely to attempt larger feature improvements, such as tabbed browsing, with that method. By the time Microsoft accomplishes any meaningful update to IE, we'll be into some future version of Firefox, which is actually slated for its 1.1 release in the relatively near future.

When you get right down to it, I'm not going back to Internet Explorer 6.0. Mozilla just put paid to seven years of Microsoft browser hegemony on my desktop. How about yours?

Scot Finnie is Editor, the Pipelines and TechWeb, as well as the author of Scot's Newsletter and previously an editor with Windows Magazine, ZDNet, and PC/Computing. He has been writing about Windows and other operating systems for two decades.