The seething dork in all of us

I have too much free time on my hands.  I knew this already, but it's really been driven home this morning, since I've been checking the Mozilla homepage, oh, once every 15 minutes to see if Firefox 3 has been posted.  That's right.  I'm apparently dying to try out the new browser.  Now, before you start laughing (or, if you've already begun, please try to wipe the tears of mirth from your eyes), just know that one of the features of the new browser has been nicknamed The Awesome Bar.  Who's laughing now?

I realize that most people don't zealously debate the merits of different web browsers, but if you're stuck in the Internet Explorer crowd, you should at least give Firefox a try, particularly if you own or work on an older machine.  Firefox tends to be zippier and more memory efficient than IE7, and early reviews of Firefox 3 (yes, I actually read reviews of web browsers) suggest that the third installment is a large improvement over Firefox 2.  Also, while I'm not a security expert, there seems to be consensus that Firefox fares better on this front than Internet Explorer.  How much of this is derived from better coding, and how much is attributable to security through obscurity isn't clear to me, but I'll listen to the experts on this one.

If you want to give Firefox a shot, you can download it at the Mozilla homepage.  But, I recommend holding off until version 3 is posted sometime today.  Also, as an interesting socio-political aside, Mozilla is trying to set a download record today, and to drum up buzz, they created a download pledge page here.  The interactive map presents an interesting snapshot of what parts of the world have more pressing concerns than downloading a web browser on the first day it's available.  In particular, check out the disparity between North and South Korea, the relatively microscopic numbers for China and India, and the total dearth of pledges from Africa.