The Mozilla Foundation is celebrating the arrival of Firefox 3 with a worldwide party — and an attempt to set a new world record for the most downloads ever of a single software program. OK, so that’s silly and extremely geekish, but what the heck? Why not kick up a fuss?
Especially because Firefox 3 is the best Web browser I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been using the Web since before there were Web browsers.
As far as I’m concerned, Firefox has been setting the standard for Web browsers since it first appeared in 2004. At the time, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer ruled the Web, and it did a lousy job. But unless you were savvy enough to try alternatives such as Opera — or were still hoping that Netscape would get its act together — you were stuck with IE.