Mozilla Firefox 1.0.4

Firefox is built with speed in mind, and does away with many of the components of its big sister, Mozilla. Therefore, all you get is a browser, download manager and a DOM inspector (for developers).

This results in a tiny download and a very fast application (both starting up and rendering pages).

Tabbed browsing and a pop-up stopper are, of course, included as standard. The latter can also foil other irritations such as scrolling status bar messages and 'spoofed' (false) URLs in the address bar that IE is prone to.

Features include improved privacy, which prevents websites installing applications on your PC without your knowledge (you need to authorise a site first). Privacy is also improved with the addition of a master password for protecting all saved passwords.

Live Bookmarks lets you bookmark RSS feeds and display the article headlines in the bookmarks panel - click one to be taken to the article.

Numerous extensions are available to add extra functionality to the browser, including a great Calendar and a powerful set of web developer tools.