Firefox and Thunderbird are Open Source products that are made available by the Mozilla Foundation. Open Source development lets anyone who wants to to examine the source code, or if they wish, to modify it. There are a number of advantages to Open Source development, including the fact that many people look at the code every day, which results in better responsiveness as bugs are uncovered. This dynamic development community is able to provide continual feedback to make the product better, paving the way for a better browsing and e-mail experience for everyone.

We met with Marcia Knous and John Hedtke, authors of Firefox and Thunderbird Garage and here's what we talked about.

Q: Unlike other alternatives to IE such as Opera and Mozilla, Firefox seems to have really caught the public's attention and is even being considered as a viable replacement for IE by many companies. Why?

Firefox has become so incredibly popular because it is the right product at the right time. With virus and spyware attacks of increasing concern to the average computer user, people and companies are looking for an Internet browser that's not a gateway for malicious software. Besides great security, Firefox has a very polished and usable interface and a long list of powerful features that make it the browser of choice for 250,000 new users every day.

Q: How hard is to convert to Firefox from IE or another browser?

When I first heard about Firefox, I figured I'd try it out but I also remembered how difficult it was to convert from Netscape Navigator to IE. Much to my surprise, installation and conversion is seamless. Firefox imports settings, favorites, and preferences from IE. The keystroke commands are almost identical, so I didn't need to learn new keyboard habits to do everything I used to do in IE. No muss, no fuss.

Q: Firefox is described in news and magazine reports as a more secure browser than IE. Is this true and, if so, how?

Yes. The U.S. government's Computer Emergency Readiness Team's (US-CERT) warnings at www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878 say there are "a number of significant vulnerabilities" with IE. It recommends using a browser other than IE.

Firefox takes a pessimistic view of vulnerability. Firefox attempts to create a firewall around the browser, remote content, and other applications that might be available on the PC. In every case where potentially dangerous actions can happen, Firefox attempts to warn the users about the risk. Furthermore, since Firefox doesn't support VBScript, ActiveX, and the Security Zone architecture used by IE, Firefox doesn't let Web sites install software automatically, providing some immediate security advantages to using Firefox rather than IE.

One other thing about Firefox that makes it more secure than IE is that it's Open Source. Security holes and code bugs can be addressed immediately by developers all over the world. Some 880 developers submitted code for the first major release of Firefox and thousands of people tested it. Rather than have the code locked away and not maintained, people are looking at it all the time for potential revisions and improvements.

Q: How does Firefox fight spyware?

Firefox prevents spyware from being installed in several ways. First, Firefox doesn't let programs including spyware or adware to be installed automatically. Anything that's installed through Firefox must be done with your explicit permission. Second, Firefox doesn't support VBScript and ActiveX, technologies that are frequently used to exploit security holes in IE. And finally, Firefox gives you complete control over Web cookies.

Q: What are some of the features that differentiate Firefox from other browsers?

Probably the best features in Firefox are tabbed browsing, which lets me open a new "tab" on-the-fly in Firefox so I can start another line of inquiry, RSS support for live news feeds, and effective built-in pop-up blocking. Firefox also has built-in search engine support, "Smart Keywords," which give you customizable shortcuts to the Web sites of your choice, a powerful and effective tool for bookmark management, extensions and themes, and many other great features.

Q: What are RSS news feeds and how can a user set up RSS news feeds in Firefox?

RSS (short for Really Simple Syndication) lets Web sites summarize information into a news feed containing a list of links to individual items. These links can be viewed as bookmarks in Firefox. It's all automatic. After you set up an RSS bookmark (known as a live bookmark) by clicking on an icon and supplying a bookmark name, Firefox takes care of everything.

What makes RSS so appealing is that it helps reduce the problem of information overload. Information is summarized and organized conveniently. You can check the headlines and other information updates without having to actually go to each Web site or listserv to check if the information's been updated. Furthermore, you can just glance at the list of bookmarks and see what you want to look at without reading all the new articles. You're making the computer do most of the work for you collecting information - and it's darned well about time it did!

Any information that you can break into discrete items can be syndicated using RSS. RSS is great for people who want to see the latest news, but there are many other applications including:

• "What's new?" information on a Web site that sees frequent updates
• Blog news, headlines, and updates
• New product reviews of a million different kinds
• Event calendars
• Job openings
• Revision history for a document or a product

I think Firefox is an excellent browser for both business and personal use. The primary thing that both classes of users are interested in is security. Several recent studies show that 75%-80% of users are concerned about Internet security, and for good reason. They have spyware, virus, or other security problems. They want a browser that's secure, that doesn't allow Web sites to load spyware and viruses on your computer, and that doesn't provide an open door to your data. Firefox doesn't support VBScript and ActiveX, which are frequently used to exploit the security holes in IE. Firefox also gives you complete control over Web cookies. And, because Firefox isn't an integral part of Windows, viruses and Trojan horses don't gain automatic access to many parts of Windows on Windows computers.