TechgnosisWeb Prime

Now, those of you who know me know I’m a bit of an Open Source and Linux advocate (some would say ‘zealot’). I appreciate and understand the concepts and ideas behind Open Source and Free (as in speech, not free as in beer) software. While a big part of my advocacy in this area is philosophical in motivation (I do believe society as a whole benefits in philosophical and spiritual, as well as material, ways from the creation and use of Open Source software), part of that motivation is also rooted in the technical superiority of many Open Source applications have over their closed source counterparts. And even those applications that lack some of the features of more well known commerical software, still tend to have one major advantage: they’re often completely free. And yet, despite this, people continue to use the proprietary versions of the software, and pay good money (lots of it, in some cases), to do so. To examine my point, let’s put aside the whole Linux/Windows operating system debate, and instead focus on two applications (or application suites, to be more precise) that are available on both Windows and Linux: Mozilla and OpenOffice.org.

Let me put on my asbestos pants here, since I’m sure to get flamed: Mozilla is technically superior to Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. Whereas the latest version of IE, 6.0 SP1, is going on 2 years old, the latest Mozilla release, 1.4, was just a couple months ago. By Microsoft’s own admission, the IE codebase simply can’t be patched any further, and this despite the myriad security flaws that still plague that browser. They themselves have stated that there won’t be any new browser releases or technology upgrades until their next operating system release, due around 2005. Mozilla, on the other hand, is based on the newest technologies, and has been programmed with today’s web in mind. And it’s still under open development, which means that it stays up to date constantly, evolving with the changing nature of the web, much better than IE’s frozen codebase can. IE is by design insecure, permitting malicious web site owners to install code on your machine without even having to ask permission, thanks in large part to its much vaunted integration with the operating system. Just by visiting a web site, and clicking on the wrong button, IE will gladly install into itself software that causes popup ads to appear even when you’re offline, sends all your surfing and personal information to unknown companies, even allows others to utilize your computer’s disk space and processor for their own purposes without needed to ask for your permission. Mozilla, on the other hand, provides all manner of privacy protection features, such as cookie management, web bug blocking, ad blocking, pop up blocking, and more, while making it nearly impossible for a malicious web site owner to hijack your computer through it. Beware the website that demands you use IE, often it takes advantage of one of IE’s security flaws somehow.

The comparison between Mozilla Mail and Outlook Express is also telling. While OE has long been a vector for the spread of viruses and email worms dut to its penchant for executing visual basic code embedded in email messages, Mozilla Mail completely protects you from those nasty pieces of code. Built in bayesian junk mail filtering and the ability to easily and securly encrypt and sign your email to protect your privacy when sending out confidential data are just a couple of the additional features it bring to the table, which OE lacks.

Despite this, IE still maintains an over 95% dominion over most of the web. Rather than use a completely free and superior alternative like Mozilla to block their pop up windows and filter their junk mail, people would actually rather stick with their current insecure broswer and actually *pay money* for add-on pop up blocking and junk mail filtering software. Why this is, is incomprehensible to me. I’d appreciate an explanation, if someone can offer me one that makes sense.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about OpenOffice.org vs. Microsoft Office, a case of ‘more than good enough and completely free’ vs. ‘a lot more than most people need and really expensive’.