More Firefox for consumers: Roger Schultz commented the other day that MSIE was lots faster. He's so right, but not for the reasons he thinks. Firefox is an overhyped "solution" to the various problems on the web. It's main claim to fame, and this is a biggie, is the tabbed browsing feature built into both Firefox and Mozilla. But there are a ton of things that would be nice to have within a browser program. Firefox pretends to solve this by allowing users to download "extensions" to make browsing easier. When downloaded and placed within the Firefox browser, these extensions act like added weight on a race horse, they slow Firefox. If you add too many---as I did on Tuesday---Firefox can take up to thirty seconds to load a site.

Bottom line: Schultz hit it on the head when he said it's a lot like Apple. Lots of gimmicky features that look nice but are basically useless to all but a few of us. I say again, Firefox is not ready for prime time; it's an incomplete browser; very unstable; and if not for tabbed browsing (a sensational and addictive part of the browser that is also available on the reliable Mozilla) nobody in their right mind would risk using it.

If you really want tabbed browsing, try Mozilla first. BTW Thunderbird, the email part of things Mozlla, is seriously flawed too. I disconnected it and went back to Outlook Express.