According to Information Week (July 25, 2005), Firefox is facing a release delay. The article mentions that the Mozilla foundation has delayed the release of the next major version of Firefox until September. The current version of Firefox is 1.0.6
Firefox is a major alternative to Internet Explorer, the default web browser for Microsoft Windows, and to Safari, the default web browser of Apple's Macintosh line. Firefox is the default web broswer for RedHat/Fedora Linux (and it may be the default elsewhere -- your author has not installed many other forms of linux to know for sure).
I personally enjoy using firefox due to it's speed, the ability to block pop-up windows (although some other browsers can now do this too). I also enjoy working with the configuration options that allow me to choose where to store downloads, how much cache size I want to work with, and the common configuration interfaces across platforms. I like being able to configure the web browser easily, and have it stay functional.
Some people have argued that Firefox will be a clean environment that is hack-proof and free of all trouble. That is not the case; I don't think there is any software package out there that is completely hack-proof, including a soda machine (fake money!). Firefox can still bring down a virus, can still be spoofed, but in my opinion, the risks are a lot smaller here than in Internet Explorer.
If you would like more information concerning Firefox, take a look at their website: http://www.mozilla.org If you would like to read more comments on comparing IE to Firefox, along with other Firefox news and information, visit http://www.mozillazine.org/
Thank you for reading my article. I'd like to thank Information Week for bringing this to my attention.