Photos: Top 10 alternatives to Internet Explorer

Firefox is not so much an alternative to IE, rather it's the only serious competition Microsoft has.

The open source browser, first introduced in 2004, now has around 20 per cent of the browser market and its maker, Mozilla, has recently released both a new desktop and mobile browser - Firefox 3.0 and Fennec respectively.

Firefox 3.0 packs in a number of handy one-click tricks - including instant bookmarking, which comes by clicking on the star icon at the end of the address bar, and one-click security information, by clicking on the 'favicon' before the URL (shown here).

Customisation is also one of Firefox's strong points, thanks to its large and active developer community, with all manner of add-ons including parental control suites, security programs and sidebars to be had. If you don't like the look of Firefox, you can also dress it up with new themes - there are hundreds available, allowing you to make your browser look like anything from a spaceship to an Xbox.

Photo credit: silicon.com