First of all, why am I writing this? Well, for one thing to show that open source software can be excellent, just as good and better than commercial alternatives. The problem is there aren't that many open source programs that can measure up to the top class commercial stuff, but this is to show they do exist.
Mozilla vs Internet Explorer
Why switch?
Because Mozilla is a very well suited alternative, convenient for IE converts and superior in certain fields, it's just better quality. The key point here is convenience, other browsers, like Opera, are competitive but switching to them means giving up some of the things you are used to in IE. And once you learn to know something, few people want to switch. That is where Mozilla comes in. I have used IE for many years myself, since version 4 and I've seen other browsers emerge and even though I thought they were better I didn't switch because I was comfortable in the environment of IE, it felt like home. Now I've used Mozilla for 6 months and the transition was completely painless.
Price
Moz: Free.
IE: By paying for Windows, you already paid for IE.
Rendering
Equal, both browsers render pages quickly and without mistakes, pages usually look exactly the same in both.
Moz: 3
IE: 3
Compatibility
Using Mozilla, you will come across one page in 100 that doesn't render correctly. Why is that? Because Mozilla follows web standards agreed upon, IE doesn't. Before we had the world wide web, ie. the protocol that gives us web pages, someone had to invent it. And because different parties usually have different views and interests, the standard procedure is to call a consortium and hammer out the details, finally publish that agreement as a standard. Mozilla follows that standard to the letter, for anyone building web pages, his pages will look 100% correct as long as he goes by the rules (the standard). That isn't necessarily true for IE, in fact some pages will not display correctly in Mozilla because they have been constructed to look correct in IE. So the fault is clearly with IE but Mozilla bears the consequence of that.
Moz: 2
IE: 3
Speed
It's simple, IE is faster than Mozilla. The reason is very simple as well, IE is built right into Windows (we'll look at some consequences of this later). IE uses parts of Windows to operate. It is also quite impossible to remove IE from a Windows version any later than 2000. Mozilla, on the other hand, is completely independent, and thus is a little slower. On my computer, however, I don't see a difference.
Moz: 2
IE: 3
Security
What do you mean security, it's a web browser, there are no security concerns, are there? Wrong. With the advancement of the internet, new technologies are used to display web pages all the time. When you browse a web page, your computer downloads countless files and opens them in order to display them on the page. These files could very well include viruses or other harmful stuff. Because IE is built directly into Windows, in many cases the vulnerabilities of Windows directly influence IE. If you look for announcements on security holes in Windows, you will see a lot of them are related to IE. In fact, there have been web pages built so that all you have to do is connect to the page and it will install a virus on your computer. [As I digress, here's a little note on viruses.. they come in all shapes and sizes, not every virus will delete everything on your computer, some of them will lurk in the background and do various other things (like slow down your computer). The lesson is, just because your computer seems to work as it should, it doesn't mean you are virus free, always use an up to date virus scanner.] Mozilla, as a standalone program, is a lot less vulnerable because it doesn't "plug into" Windows.
Moz: 3
IE: 0
Pop ups
Here's where you get your money back (figuratively speaking). Does IE have any kind of pop up killer functions? No, not by a long shot. If you want to get rid of the pop ups you have to install 3rd party software which is usually buggy and doesn't work very well, plus it's another program running on your computer needlessly. Mozilla has a built in function to block pop up windows, it will even ask you if you want to turn it on the first time it encounters a pop up. It also gives an option not to block all popups, just the ones you don't want. So if you click on a link and that triggers a popup, it will pop up because you clicked, but it will not pop up by itself. Now you can surf soccerage.com and juventus.com without dealing with the painful popups.
Moz: 3
IE: 0
Bookmarks
You could say it's a matter of preference, but I definitely prefer Mozilla's bookmark system. First of all, it's stored as one file, as opposed to IE's one file for each bookmark. It's also easier to keep track of and the bookmark window shows up on the left side if you want it to.
Moz: 3
IE: 2
Features
Tabbed browsing is very handy, you keep your open pages in a single window rather than having lots of them clutter your task bar. You can also not use it if you prefer multiple windows.
The password manager will store passwords for you, to log into a forum or email account. I believe IE has some sort of feature like this as well.
Cookie manager, manage your cookies in the browser instead of trying to figure out where they are stored if you use IE.
Download manager. Mozilla's download manager starts downloading the file even before you choose the location, so that once the progress window comes up, the download is already underway.
Script control, Mozilla lets you decide what scripts on pages are allowed to do, you can turn the permissions on or off as you like, for instance hiding the status bar, resizing windows etc.
Moz: 5
IE: 1
Themes
Do you think the default Mozilla theme is ugly? Change it, the gui is skinnable. In the Preferences, click the "get more themes" link and choose the theme you want. If you go to http://www.mozdev.org/redirect/themes/, you just click install and the theme will install by itself. Is IE skinnable without any 3rd party extensions? Not last time I checked.
Moz: 3
IE: 0
Plug ins
The downside to other browsers in the past was that they didn't really support plug ins adequately. Well those days are over, you can use flash, shockwave, quicktime and various other plug ins seamlessly in Mozilla.
Moz: 3
IE: 3
Customizability
What can you customize in IE? In my experience, not much, at least without hacking the registry. Mozilla lets you customize a great deal of your browsing experience. Adding to the options in the Preferences, enter "about:config" in the address bar and you can access a long list of settings.
Moz: 3
IE: 1
Final result:
Mozilla 30
Internet Explorer 16
Not bad, huh? But that's not all, most of all Mozilla is friendly to the IE user and offers some things IE doesn't. Imagine this scenario.. you are writing a long post and when you click "submit", you get a white page with a connection error. Has this ever happened to you? So obviously you don't want to lose all the hard work, you click "back" and see a blank form, IE has erased your text. I have done this a few times and it makes me want to physically hurt someone. Do the same in Mozilla and you will find out Mozilla saved the text, it's still there.
Apart from the browser, however, Mozilla gives you a decent mail program if you're in the mood for a change, and a chat client. You can choose not to install these programs if you want to do that.
System Requirements
* Windows 95, 98, or 98SE, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
* Intel pentium class processor (233 MHz or faster recommended)
* 64 MB RAM
* 26 MB of free hard disk space
Finally, if you are thinking "I would like to try Mozilla but my computer isn't fast enough", despair not. The answer is Mozilla Firebird, a cut down version of the real Mozilla, using much of the same code (I couldn't find the system requirements for it). It's much faster and has just about everything Mozilla has.
Links
-> Mozilla
-> Why Mozilla Firebird is great
>> Download Mozilla 1.4 for Windows
>> Download Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 for Windows
Mozilla versions for Linux and MacOS X are also available.
Mozilla vs Internet Explorer
Why switch?
Because Mozilla is a very well suited alternative, convenient for IE converts and superior in certain fields, it's just better quality. The key point here is convenience, other browsers, like Opera, are competitive but switching to them means giving up some of the things you are used to in IE. And once you learn to know something, few people want to switch. That is where Mozilla comes in. I have used IE for many years myself, since version 4 and I've seen other browsers emerge and even though I thought they were better I didn't switch because I was comfortable in the environment of IE, it felt like home. Now I've used Mozilla for 6 months and the transition was completely painless.
Price
Moz: Free.
IE: By paying for Windows, you already paid for IE.
Rendering
Equal, both browsers render pages quickly and without mistakes, pages usually look exactly the same in both.
Moz: 3
IE: 3
Compatibility
Using Mozilla, you will come across one page in 100 that doesn't render correctly. Why is that? Because Mozilla follows web standards agreed upon, IE doesn't. Before we had the world wide web, ie. the protocol that gives us web pages, someone had to invent it. And because different parties usually have different views and interests, the standard procedure is to call a consortium and hammer out the details, finally publish that agreement as a standard. Mozilla follows that standard to the letter, for anyone building web pages, his pages will look 100% correct as long as he goes by the rules (the standard). That isn't necessarily true for IE, in fact some pages will not display correctly in Mozilla because they have been constructed to look correct in IE. So the fault is clearly with IE but Mozilla bears the consequence of that.
Moz: 2
IE: 3
Speed
It's simple, IE is faster than Mozilla. The reason is very simple as well, IE is built right into Windows (we'll look at some consequences of this later). IE uses parts of Windows to operate. It is also quite impossible to remove IE from a Windows version any later than 2000. Mozilla, on the other hand, is completely independent, and thus is a little slower. On my computer, however, I don't see a difference.
Moz: 2
IE: 3
Security
What do you mean security, it's a web browser, there are no security concerns, are there? Wrong. With the advancement of the internet, new technologies are used to display web pages all the time. When you browse a web page, your computer downloads countless files and opens them in order to display them on the page. These files could very well include viruses or other harmful stuff. Because IE is built directly into Windows, in many cases the vulnerabilities of Windows directly influence IE. If you look for announcements on security holes in Windows, you will see a lot of them are related to IE. In fact, there have been web pages built so that all you have to do is connect to the page and it will install a virus on your computer. [As I digress, here's a little note on viruses.. they come in all shapes and sizes, not every virus will delete everything on your computer, some of them will lurk in the background and do various other things (like slow down your computer). The lesson is, just because your computer seems to work as it should, it doesn't mean you are virus free, always use an up to date virus scanner.] Mozilla, as a standalone program, is a lot less vulnerable because it doesn't "plug into" Windows.
Moz: 3
IE: 0
Pop ups
Here's where you get your money back (figuratively speaking). Does IE have any kind of pop up killer functions? No, not by a long shot. If you want to get rid of the pop ups you have to install 3rd party software which is usually buggy and doesn't work very well, plus it's another program running on your computer needlessly. Mozilla has a built in function to block pop up windows, it will even ask you if you want to turn it on the first time it encounters a pop up. It also gives an option not to block all popups, just the ones you don't want. So if you click on a link and that triggers a popup, it will pop up because you clicked, but it will not pop up by itself. Now you can surf soccerage.com and juventus.com without dealing with the painful popups.
Moz: 3
IE: 0
Bookmarks
You could say it's a matter of preference, but I definitely prefer Mozilla's bookmark system. First of all, it's stored as one file, as opposed to IE's one file for each bookmark. It's also easier to keep track of and the bookmark window shows up on the left side if you want it to.
Moz: 3
IE: 2
Features
Tabbed browsing is very handy, you keep your open pages in a single window rather than having lots of them clutter your task bar. You can also not use it if you prefer multiple windows.
The password manager will store passwords for you, to log into a forum or email account. I believe IE has some sort of feature like this as well.
Cookie manager, manage your cookies in the browser instead of trying to figure out where they are stored if you use IE.
Download manager. Mozilla's download manager starts downloading the file even before you choose the location, so that once the progress window comes up, the download is already underway.
Script control, Mozilla lets you decide what scripts on pages are allowed to do, you can turn the permissions on or off as you like, for instance hiding the status bar, resizing windows etc.
Moz: 5
IE: 1
Themes
Do you think the default Mozilla theme is ugly? Change it, the gui is skinnable. In the Preferences, click the "get more themes" link and choose the theme you want. If you go to http://www.mozdev.org/redirect/themes/, you just click install and the theme will install by itself. Is IE skinnable without any 3rd party extensions? Not last time I checked.
Moz: 3
IE: 0
Plug ins
The downside to other browsers in the past was that they didn't really support plug ins adequately. Well those days are over, you can use flash, shockwave, quicktime and various other plug ins seamlessly in Mozilla.
Moz: 3
IE: 3
Customizability
What can you customize in IE? In my experience, not much, at least without hacking the registry. Mozilla lets you customize a great deal of your browsing experience. Adding to the options in the Preferences, enter "about:config" in the address bar and you can access a long list of settings.
Moz: 3
IE: 1
Final result:
Mozilla 30
Internet Explorer 16
Not bad, huh? But that's not all, most of all Mozilla is friendly to the IE user and offers some things IE doesn't. Imagine this scenario.. you are writing a long post and when you click "submit", you get a white page with a connection error. Has this ever happened to you? So obviously you don't want to lose all the hard work, you click "back" and see a blank form, IE has erased your text. I have done this a few times and it makes me want to physically hurt someone. Do the same in Mozilla and you will find out Mozilla saved the text, it's still there.
Apart from the browser, however, Mozilla gives you a decent mail program if you're in the mood for a change, and a chat client. You can choose not to install these programs if you want to do that.
System Requirements
* Windows 95, 98, or 98SE, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
* Intel pentium class processor (233 MHz or faster recommended)
* 64 MB RAM
* 26 MB of free hard disk space
Finally, if you are thinking "I would like to try Mozilla but my computer isn't fast enough", despair not. The answer is Mozilla Firebird, a cut down version of the real Mozilla, using much of the same code (I couldn't find the system requirements for it). It's much faster and has just about everything Mozilla has.
Links
-> Mozilla
-> Why Mozilla Firebird is great
>> Download Mozilla 1.4 for Windows
>> Download Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 for Windows
Mozilla versions for Linux and MacOS X are also available.
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Welcome anyway 
