I have been using Firefox since its first release in late 2004.

I was fed up with Internet Explorer (i.e. the Blue E) as it was clunky. I never liked how it handled bookmarks (or favourites, in IE-speak). There wasn’t much I could customise or extend. Most of all, it’s just plain unsafe. The number of security issues that arise from the combination of Windows and IE is astounding. I have no hard data on this, but I reckon that switching to an alternative browser is a major step to safer browsing.

Firefox is a joy to use. It has tabbed browsing. No more opening multiple windows. This really helps as I rarely browse with just one window open. Firefox has extensions, which I use a lot to tailor the browser to my needs (perhaps a blog post on this another time).

It’s not perfect though. Like other users, I’ve noticed that Firefox 2 (about to be defunct), hogs RAM. And it just gets worse over time. Thankfully, Firefox 3 doesn’t seem to suffer from this problem. I’ve been using it on my MacBook, and it is really fast and responsive.

I hope Firefox 3 solves another issue. It’s okay to visit a site using Java (such as some internet banking sites) but visiting another site which uses Java later on in the same session (lets say I go to a government e-service site which uses SingPass) results in Java not working. It’s a bit of a pain as I have to quit Firefox to get the Java engine to close, then restart Firefox.

Whatever the case, Firefox is a better browser overall. If you haven’t gotten rid of that Microsoft junk that passes for a browser (tell me you love IE 7′s upside down interface and I’ll be speechless), help set a world record tomorrow – Wednesday, July 18, 1am to Thursday, July 19, 1am according to Otterman – by downloading and trying Firefox 3.

You won’t look back.