LOOK NO FURTHER FOR A PURE WEB BROWSER

One of the most popular Web browsers is Mozilla. Not only is it an amazing browser, but its open source nature also makes it extremely appealing. This allows other programs to make use of Mozilla components, which has led to projects such as Komodo (a PHP/Python/Perl IDE that uses the Mozilla framework) and Galeon (another Linux browser).

However, a drawback of Mozilla is that it contains the proverbial "kitchen sink"--it's not just a browser, but also an e-mail and news client, HTML authoring program, IRC client, and more. All of this adds extra overhead to Mozilla and makes it a monstrous program.

For those who just want a browser without the extras, Galeon has been the best choice to date, as it uses the same Gecko rendering engine as Mozilla. But now there's a more pure, browser-only subset of Mozilla called Mozilla Firebird.

Essentially, Mozilla Firebird is Mozilla with all the nonbrowser items removed, and it's optimized for speed and designed in a way to be cross-platform. Mozilla Firebird, which is still in the beta stage, is currently available for Linux, Windows, and OS/2. Expect support for other platforms in the future.

If you're looking for a browser that looks and feels like Mozilla but surpasses it in performance, look no further than Mozilla Firebird. The latest release is called Phoenix 0.5, but legal issues prevented it from continuing with the "Phoenix" name. Look for Mozilla Firebird 0.6 on the near horizon from the Mozilla Web site.

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firebird/