Tim Anderson

The Mozilla Corporation has released the first beta of Firefox 2.0, supposedly a major new release of the most popular alternative to Internet Explorer.

The full release is set for August, but users may be disappointed by the extent of the changes from version 1.5. Cosmetically it is nearly identical, and the Places feature, a new system for managing bookmarks and browser history, has been withdrawn.

Firefox 2.0 is not completely lacking in new features. Among the highlights is built-in spellchecking, which means you can check the spelling in your blog entry or on any online form, complete with right-click corrections. Other features include a phishing site detector, which checks sites against a list maintained by Google. Even so, the extent of the changes is underwhelming.

That does not mean it is a weak product. The user experience offered by Firefox is unquestionably superior to Microsoft’s ancient IE 6.0. And even IE 7.0, also currently in beta, has little to tempt a Firefox user. In addition, Firefox is a browser platform rather than just a browser, with a rich array of extensions that compensate for any missing features.

So why does IE remain popular? Figures released last week by web analytics company OneStat give Firefox a 13 percent share of the web browser market – growing but still a long way behind IE, which has 83 percent.

There are several reasons for the gap, one of which is manageability. Like it or not, IE is a Windows component, and it is easy to customise and patch through centralised tools.

Another issue is that while you can add Firefox to Windows, you cannot fully remove IE. Many applications both from Microsoft and from third parties use it as a component, and for this role it remains better suited than Gecko, the embeddable layout engine in Firefox. Since IE is already installed, the argument goes, there is little incentive to add a third-party alternative.

A third factor is that although IE-only sites are no longer common, some compatibility issues remain. An example is Microsoft’s click-once deployment – a means of installing .Net desktop applications via a link in a web page. This works in IE, but not in Firefox. Issues like these encourage firms to stick with Microsoft’s browser.

This inertia is short-sighted. The industry needs Firefox, which has already been a catalyst for innovation. It has also provoked Microsoft to deliver badly-needed updates in IE7, which means improved compliance with web standards and the prospect of more capable web applications.

Firefox version 2.0 is a disappointing upgrade, but it remains a must-have application.

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