Enjoy the internet more. Download Firefox.

Seeing the internet through firefox’s eyes makes seeing the internet through internet explorer a boring, archaic experience.

As a designer, I have to check all of my work in all major browsers (IE 6-8, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome) to ensure they are rendering appropriately across the board. I check for background cohesiveness, width properties, colors, and overall appeal. But I have to say that once I design a kick-butt web site using my favorite browser – firefox, I’m always less than impressed by the way my beautiful creations come to life on other browsers, especially internet explorer.

Some of the common kinks with IE 6 and 7 is the inability to view .png files without a work around script. For all of you non-web-geeks, png files enable you to have a transparent / gradient background, something you can’t get with .jpg’s and only partly with .gif’s.  These browsers don’t allow you to have shadow effects and rounded corner styling, styles that firefox has enabled for awhile now.  As far as Safari, and opera go, they are great browsers and generally do perform well with the design elements, but they aren’t nearly as popular as the big two – IE and firefox and the up and coming Chrome.  (view W3Schools browser stats)

Jaimee Designs in Firefox 3.5.7

According to an article published on February 2nd, 2010, Internet Explorer 8 has become the most popular browser in the world.  That’s good since it is a heck of a lot better with styling languages and security than it’s predecessors, but it still doesn’t do rounded corners without a workaround. Of course, rounded corners aren’t the most important element of a web page, but the lack of design support means that browser doesn’t embrace the newest styling languages. So, why bother?  You don’t have to settle with a less-than-the-best browser to surf the internet.

People, if you want a better internet experience on a PC or a Mac, you should download firefox.  It’s fast, easy, and free.  Go to www.mozilla.com/firefox/. I switched to firefox in 2007 and have never gone back.