It's payback time

With Tuesday's long-anticipated release of the new Web browser, Mozilla Firefox 1.0, now is the perfect time to tell you why you should ditch Internet Explorer. But it's not my job to tell you about Firefox's cool features. Just talk to the first nerd you see and ask him about "Firefox," "extensions" and "tabbed browsing." The nerd should be able to hook you up.\nMy job is to argue that using a new browser is a matter of good Internet citizenship. You see, everything that sucks about the Web exists only because you've been using a crappy browser. It's all your fault.\nThe World Wide Web is the only mass medium that truly belongs to the masses. Anyone can publish him or herself on a Web site inexpensively. This is our turf, and we have to defend it ourselves.\nEveryone's familiar with the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." With Internet Explorer, the slogan should read: "If everyone uses it even when it's broke, don't fix it." According to www.WebSideStory.com, almost 93 percent of Web-browsing Americans use Internet Explorer.\nUnfortunately, its support for HTML and CSS -- the computer languages of which the Web is made -- hasn't seen any major updates since 2001. That's right. Your browser supports an obsolete version of the entire World Wide Web. That means Web designers are prevented from creating some fresh, innovative sites for you to use because Internet Explorer can't view them properly.\nBut there is even worse news from the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team. This agency, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has stated that Internet Explorer's bugs are such a threat to our security, one possible solution would be to use another browser.\nWhat does this mean? It means that when you use Internet Explorer, the terrorists win.\nWell, OK, not really. It means that, for example, a malicious Web page author could potentially install a virus on your computer through Internet Explorer that could steal your credit card information, delete your files or use your computer as a weapon in an organized attack along with thousands of other computers, targeting anything from Yahoo! and Microsoft to IU or even the Central Intelligence Agency.\nThese pop-up ads and viruses exist only because so many people have been vulnerable to them. For those who write viruses, Internet Explorer is a great delivery platform because everyone has it and it has more security bugs than its competitors. Kind of like how sex is a great way to transmit diseases because virtually everybody does it.\nHowever, when you have sex, you use protection not only because you want to keep yourself free of sexually transmitted infections, but you don't want to spread anything to future partners either. So, think of getting a new browser as a free condom for your Web-surfing "activities." It doesn't only keep you safer, it keeps others safer too.\nThe same thing applies to those pop-up ads that everyone hates so much. If everyone had a pop-up blocker a few years ago when the feature was common in non-Microsoft browsers, these nuisances wouldn't have corrupted the Web in the first place.\nSeven years ago, when Internet Explorer 4.0 was released, it allowed the Web to move to exciting new places as a new medium. But now the new kid is an old hack, and the Web can't move on until you switch to something new. To learn more, visit www.browsehappy.com.\nIn order to let Web designers create those bold new Web sites, tell purveyors of pop-up ads that they're not welcome and rob virus-writers of the thrill of victory, all you need to do is use a Web browser that doesn't suck. It's simply a matter of citizenship.