INTERNET EXPLORER /MOZILLA FIREFOX

 INTERNET EXPLORER
History of Internet Explorer 

Versions of Internet Explorer browse

Internet Explorer features and security settings

Internet Explorer was the second-most widely used web browser on desktop operating systems, with 29.6% of the market, compared to 50.9% for the Google Chrome browser, according to NetMarketShare. IE was the most popular browser from 1999, when it overtook Netscape Navigator, until 2012, when Chrome took the lead. Other competitors include Mozilla Firefox, an open source browser developed using the code from Netscape Navigator, and Apple's Safari.

Microsoft based the original version of Internet Explorer on technology licensed from Spyglass, developer of the pioneering Mosaic browser, and released it for Windows 95 in August 1995. Version 2, released that November, added support for secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption and cookies, and Version 3 followed in August 1996 with Java and cascading style sheets (CSS) -- all important technologies that are still in use today.

In 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Microsoft for antitrust violations, accusing the company of, among other things, stifling web browser competition by bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. In 2001, the two sides reached a settlement that did not require Microsoft to unbundle IE from the operating system.

All told, Internet Explorer has gone through 11 versions and many patches in responses to targeted attacks on flaws in the programming of the application since its initial release. IE 11, released in 2013, is the last version of the web browser. Microsoft Edge replaced IE as the default browser in Windows with the release of Windows 10 in 2015. IE still ships with Windows 10, however, and it is also available as a download from Microsoft's website.

In the past, IE was also available for Unix and Apple's Mac OS X operating system. Microsoft has discontinued those versions as well.

The Internet Explorer interface includes an address bar, menu bar, favorites bar and status bar. Each can be enabled or disabled individually via the View menu. In addition, Internet Explorer's View menu includes options to change the encoding, view the page source, adjust the text size and adjust the page zoom. Other View menu options include Go To, Stop and Refresh. The items that appear on Internet Explorer's View menu (and its other menus) vary depending on the browser version.

Mozilla Firefox (or simply Firefox) is a free and open-source web browser developed by 

the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. Firefox is available 

for Windows, macOS and Linux operating systems, with 

its Firefox for Android available 

for Android (formerly Firefox for mobile, it also ran on the 

discontinued Firefox OS); where 

all of these versions use the Gecko layout engine to render web pages, which implements 

current and anticipated web standards.An additional version, Firefox for iOS, was 

released in late 2015, but this version doesn't use Gecko due to Apple's restrictions limiting 

third-party web browsers to the WebKit-based layout engine built into iOS.

Firefox was created in 2002, under the name "Phoenix" by the Mozilla community members 

who wanted a standalone browser rather than the Mozilla Application Suite bundle. Even 

during its beta phase, Firefox proved to be popular with its testers and was praised for its 

speed, security, and add-ons compared to Microsoft's then-dominant Internet Explorer 6. 

Firefox was released in November 2004, and was highly successful with 60 million 

downloads within nine months, which was the first time that Internet Explorer's dominance 

was challenged. Firefox is considered the spiritual successor of Netscape Navigator, 

as the Mozilla community was created by Netscape in 1998 before their acquisition by AOL.

Firefox usage grew to a peak of 32% at the end of 2009,  temporarily making version 3.5 

the world's most popular browser.  Usage then declined in competition with Google 

Chrome:  As of January 2016, Firefox has between 9% and 16% of worldwide usage as 

a "desktop" browser, making it the second most popular web browser.  Firefox 

is still the most popular desktop browser in Cuba, Eritrea, and Germany, with 

85.93%,  79.39%, and 37.01%, of the market share, respectively. It is also the most 

popular desktop browser in many other African countries.  According to Mozilla, as of 

December 2014 there were half a billion Firefox users around the world.  With Internet 

Explorer declining, Firefox reached second place in February 2016 as a desktop browser