Backup software, no not that kind

No doubt the phrase "backup software" brings to mind software for copying files or hard disk sectors. But there is another kind of backup software, software to use instead of other software.

Take Firefox for example. Even Windows users married to Internet Explorer should have Firefox installed. So too, Mac users happy with Safari. Why? Some day, something will go wrong with a website. Perhaps the website is at fault, perhaps the computer, perhaps the browser. A great debugging option is to try the same operation using a different web browser. It's easier to replace a flat tire than repair it.

Since Firefox is free, even someone who doesn't like it should nonetheless have it installed as a backup web browser. Windows users that use Firefox, such as myself, always have Internet Explorer to fall back on. I've had to resort to IE on occasion to print web pages that Firefox could not render correctly.

Currently, the Adobe Acrobat Reader is vulnerable to unpatched security bugs. Thus, anyone interested in Defensive Computing should be using another application for viewing PDF files. For many, the Foxit Reader is that alternative application. My last posting was about a quirk in the Foxit Reader, something that came to light after converting to it to avoid the Adobe Reader.

Excel too, has a critical security bug that bad guys are using to install malware, a bug that will not be fixed this coming Patch Tuesday. What to do?

Use another spreadsheet. Perhaps an online spreadsheet, such as Zoho Sheet or Google Spreadsheets, or an off-line one such as Calc, included with Open Office.

The same concept applies to email.

If you regularly use webmail, then have an email client to fall back on. I prefer Thunderbird. The recent Gmail outage, for example, only affected webmail users. Anyone using the alternate POP3 interface was fine. Yahoo email users have to pay for a POP3 interface but Gmail offers it for free.

If you regularly use an email client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc.), then familiarize yourself with the webmail interface offered by your email provider and be sure to carry the userid/password around with you at all times.

Think of it like driving on a two lane road rather than a single lane.

There are portable versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office and the Foxit Reader.