I used to be a login-name at the GetFirefox website.
I read many testimonials of people who had introduced others to Firefox, but I never thought that I could be one of those people. I tried. Whenever someone complained to me about ‘the big, bad, corrupting Internetz’, I would dutifully tell them that there were other browsers. And that one of those other browsers allowed them to block pop-ups and advertisements, and that their logo was a cute little red panda… Many people shrug this off as “too much hassle” or “aaargh, there is even more Internetz!?” I can’t blame them, really…

Two weeks ago I was working in the local public library (I’m not a librarian. I just like to take my laptop and work there instead of at home, because it is nice and quiet, and doesn’t have toddlers around intend on harming themselves -no ones that I am responsible for anyway- ). I was grumbling about he fact that this library does not have WiFi yet, so the only way I could access the Internet was via their computers. They are old, mouldy things, which is fine for Internet, but not so great when they have IE6.0 installed. As was proven when I noticed a couple of teenagers walking past a computer. They giggled and then remained to wander around that computer while alternately looking disgusted and giggling. Either it was my teacher-sense tingling or it was the realisation that twelve-year-old boys don’t usually giggle (they grin, or laugh, or chuckle, but they don’t giggle), but I decided to take a look.

Oh gods! I wish I hadn’t! Until that day I had managed to stay clear of this, but because of descriptions I’d gotten I knew immediately that I was looking at a certain infamous Internet video involving two women and… well… I have an image now in my head that I wish could be erased, but ‘what has been seen, cannot be unseen‘…

Anyway, I shoved the boys out of the way and tried to close the window, but it wouldn’t. I then did the only thing I could, minimised the window and went to get a librarian. She too had no idea what to do. She just stood there frantically trying to close the window and rebooting the computer, but each time it just came up again. In the meantime, I had withdrawn to a safe little haven that is my own laptop and was watching (in amusement, I admit) how the librarian was drawing more and more attention to herself -and more importantly- to whatever was there on the screen.

The highlight must have been the 75+ year old woman exclaiming in frank amazement: “I didn’t think that people would do that sort of thing!”

Finally, the librarian called support and somehow the tragedy was ended.

Not much later, while I was at another computer accessing the Internet (nothing spectacular, just a poetry-site), a woman came up to me and pointed at one of the ads in the sidebar: a scantily dressed animated lady.
“Irritating, isn’t it? Those moving ads? Can’t get away from them really.”
I told her that hadn’t noticed that there was so much advertisement on the Internet until I was forced to use Internet Explorer.
“Really? There are other ways?” she asked.
“Well, yes,” I said, and then I told her that Internet Explorer was just one programme to access the Internet.
“So, there are other programmes to view websites?” she asked.
“You could try Firefox, or Safari,” I told her. “They do the same thing, really.”
“What do you use? ” she asked.
“Firefox,” I told her and wrote down the link on a piece of paper.

On Tuesday I was at the library again. I locked gazes with a woman I recognised from somewhere but couldn’t immediately place. She came up to me and laid her hand on my arm.
“You recommended Firefox?” It wasn’t really a question and I nodded, suddenly remembering the woman from the library two weeks before.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am, and my husband is simply ecstatic. Thank you!” she exclaimed enthusiastically.

*preens*