Morgan Freeman should be in every movie. And I don’t mean in a Hitchcockian way, where you glimpse his face for a few seconds as he saunters through the background. No, I mean Morgan should star in every movie. He’s better than any other actor, he’s versatile, can ground the movie in reality, and has screen presence and charisma so many others don’t. The final analysis? When you see Morgan Freeman, settle down for a good time.
This is what I would do if I had control. I see many movies, but so few of them are good. It would be nice if I could direct my own movie experiences.
When surfing the Web, you may not realize your experience is filtered through the eyes of your Web browser, usually Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. It controls how Web pages appear and gives you tools for interacting with those pages. Microsoft’s armlock on the industry means Internet Explorer is everywhere. Dig a little deeper and use the Morgan Freeman of Web browsers: Mozilla Firefox.
There are many reasons to pick Firefox over Internet Explorer.
Tools and functionality
Firefox has better popup and ad blocking tools. Page searches are faster and easier. Learning and using it is easier than Internet Explorer. Updates are processed faster and without as much interruption.
Extensions
Firefox comes with hundreds of free modifications and add-ons called “Extensions”, like the ability to display local weather, modify eBay bids, or translate Web pages. New Extensions are created and updated constantly, and Firefox gives you a simple interface to manage all of them.
Security
Firefox holds its own in real world, nitty-gritty work. It also stands apart from Windows, like all good browsers should: Internet Explorer’s close integration with Windows is one reason for its many security problems. Being an independent, powerful solo performer like Firefox is rare but desired.
Tabbed Browsing
Firefox has a feature called “tabbed browsing”, allowing you to open many Web pages at once, and the ability to display them all easily. This allows for faster and simpler Web browsing.
Are there any weakness? Some websites, often bank or money related sites, require Internet Explorer and are not compatible with other browsers. This will change as other browsers continue to nibble away at Internet Explorer’s user base, and Firefox is arguably the best of the bunch. As for Morgan Freeman, I’m sure he has limitations, but I haven’t seen them yet.
Firefox can be downloaded for free at http://getfirefox.com.
Readers Respond
Richard also has a suggestion:
As a Firefox user, I applaud your column. However, you left out one important fact about Web pages that open only in IE: There’s a handy Firefox extension called ‘IE View’ that adds “Open in IE” to the right-click context menu.