Firefox takes on Microsoft

Web analysts say the proportion of surfers using Microsoft`s Internet Explorer (IE) has dropped to below 90%, reports BBC News.

Net traffic monitor, OneStat.com, has reported that the open source browser Firefox 1.0, released on 9 November, seems to be drawing users away from IE with more than five million downloads claimed by Mozilla.

While IE`s market share has dropped 5% since May to 88.9%, Mozilla browsers - including Firefox - have grown by 5% and now have 7.4% share of the market.

Microsoft has introduced a pilot programme that offers to verify whether consumers` software is legitimate and replace fake versions with authentic goods, reports PC World.

The project has been launched in the UK and is aimed at tracking down counterfeit versions of Windows XP that come preinstalled on new PCs sold by systems integrators. Microsoft is hoping to glean information on counterfeiters and their techniques for creating high quality fakes of Windows XP.

The UK government has announced hi-tech plans for identity cards using biometric technology.

Computerworld says new legislation proposes a system of ID cards that would carry biometric identifiers in an embedded chip and be linked to a national database to be created by 2010.

Secretary of state for the Home Department, David Blunkett, who proposed the new system last year, says the government is working to make the ID cards compulsory for everyone living in the UK by 2011 or 2012.

He says the national database will hold personal information for each person carrying the ID card, such as name, address and biometric information including fingerprints and facial and iris scans.

Computer Associates International is to have its CA World user conference next year after all, but later than originally planned, says CEO-elect John Swainson.

Computerworld reports Swainson said in a telephone interview he originally supported the decision to postpone CA World until 2006, which customers learned about on Monday, the same day Swainson was unanimously chosen by the CA board as the company`s next CEO.

However, Swainson now says he realises that some customers who had been planning for the spring 2005 show were concerned about losing momentum for new initiatives, including making the Ingres database available under an open source licence.