Readers respond to Firefox column

Computerworld - Michael Gartenberg's Jan. 24 column Business Must Be Cautious With Firefox generated the most reader mail that we've seen in a while. Here's some of what readers had to say.

Central premise undermined

With regard to your article "Business Must Be Cautious With Firefox," I need only point out one URL. It appears that Firefox can run ActiveX code with the help of the linked plug-in, which can be found readily by typing in "ActiveX plug-in" into Google, and hitting "I'm Feeling Lucky". This must undermine the article's central premise.

As ActiveX can be turned off when it isn't needed, or even run subject to security policy, this has to be an improvement upon the situation as it stands with Internet Explorer.

-- Tim Wesson

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Just wait for the new Netscape version

As a business, we've started encouraging the use of Firefox and couldn't be happier. Of course, our users still have IE to use for the few applications we have that require it. There's no reason to be "cautious" about Firefox, since users can use Firefox for the majority of their surfing and fire up IE when using a (poorly written) application that requires it. (I say "poorly written" because as a developer, I know there are many other cross-platform, cross-browser technologies available that can do whatever ActiveX does. ... ActiveX is a crutch for many programmers. Personally I think it makes bad business sense to lock out many potential users. For example, we're a school district, and many of our teachers can't use some of our business productivity Web apps because they were made Windows/IE-centric.) But I digress. ...

When I purchased my first DVD player, I still had a library of VHS tapes, including many home movies. Still, I didn't "think twice about making the switch" because the newfangled DVD player lacked the ability to run VHS tapes. My solution? Keep the VCR and use both, as needed. Over time, the use of the VCR dwindled as I made certain any new movies I purchased or rented were in DVD format, and I eventually transferred my home movies to DVD. I still have the VCR, though, in case I need it in a pinch.

I'm curious to hear the arguments when the new version of Netscape comes out. I've used the beta version and can say that it is very promising. It has the ability to selectively use IE's rendering engine (whatever version you have installed on your machine) or the Gecko/Firefox engine. You can decide which engine to