Firefox Or Internet Explorer? by Haze

TALK STORY

Firefox Or Internet Explorer?

POSTED BY: HAZE
UPDATED: Saturday, February 25, 2006 10:03
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VIEWED: 12543
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Tuesday, February 7, 2006 9:48 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Haze:
Alright, let me ask the question here. Is Firefox actually more secure than IE?

Uhh... IE is a Microsoft product. Probably not! If I could; I would make my machine into a linix box.

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Tuesday, February 7, 2006 10:48 AM

MIKELESQ

Quote:
And there's another one that's cool. Crap, what is it. Starts with an M. Maxthon, or something like that. I'd use it before IE.

Actually, when you're using Maxthon (as well as some other browsers like AOL's AOLExplorer), you actually are using IE6, with features like tabbed browsing added in. The good: they work with sites that only work with IE. The bad: there are the same vulnerabilities.

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Tuesday, February 7, 2006 11:45 AM

DC4BS

Simple answer is I won't use IE becaue it's connected WAY too intimately with the OS...

When mozilla/firefox crashes, it drops to desktop.

When IE crashes, I LOSE the desktop. Sometimes it restarts OK, sometimes gotta reboot.

Sorry, I simply will not use IE other than for windows update given any choice whatsoever.

I'm stuck with IE on my PC at work so I'm typing this on a Sun workstation running Mozilla 1.6 for Solaris...

They can't stop the signal!

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dc4bs

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Tuesday, February 7, 2006 12:01 PM

GLUEMAN

Firefox

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Friday, February 10, 2006 12:24 PM

HAZE

Here one for you.

Anyone got any views on internet explorer 7?

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Who do you suppose is in there?

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Saturday, February 11, 2006 7:19 AM

HAZE

Interesting thing happened. I tried to download Opera. Not only would it not install but 20Gs of free space have disappeared from my hard drive.

Worrying.

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Who do you suppose is in there?

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Monday, February 13, 2006 2:52 PM

RUXTON

HAZE,

Years ago my friend Mike Rivero ("whatreallyhappened.com") suggested Firefox and one or two other browsers. I tried Firefox and found it to be extremely easy to use, and I have had none of the issues some of the techies argued about above. Tabbing is mighty handy. Best of all, Firefox has nothing to do with Microsoft's vast array of CRAP, and does not lock up every time I look at it crosswise.

I still use Windows 98SE, which for my photo and music work (Photoshop, Goldwave, Transcribe!, etc.)I have found to be extremely stable, and easier to use than Linux. I have as close to zero plugins as possible, no "Flash," no automatic anything, especially including software updates, and in short, prefer to tell the computer what to do -- never the reverse. Have had close to zero computer problems since I went to Firefox. Hope this helps.

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Monday, February 13, 2006 4:07 PM

SIGMANUNKI

Wow, this thread is still going!

@Citizen:

Nice job deflecting the troll

To others, Citizen knows his stuff here. If you're at all interested in reasons for this or that regarding this topic, his posts are a great summary.

Quote:
Originally posted by Haze:

Alright, let me ask the question here. Is Firefox actually more secure than IE?

This is from memory, so the a day might have been two (stories are in the /. archives for those who care to look them up). But, as we shall see, the difference is meaningless.

A little while ago, FF has a security vulnerability in it. It took about a day (maybe less) to have a work around that plugged the hole. Another day or so and there was a patch avalible.

Compare this with the M$ model. You wait until the monthly update, regardless of if the vulnerability was found on the 2nd of the month. Very rarely does M$ deviate from this schedule. And you get the patch if they patched it. Which isn't very likely given there track record.

The only real time window (unless its been known in the black hat circles beforehand) that the browser is vulnerable to attack is between vulnerability found and patch/work-around release and applied. Thus, IMO, having a patch made, asap is crucial. M$ doesn't do this, FF does.

Does more need to be said?

@Guenver:
It could also be that the shop just wants a homogenous enviornment. They might be using scare tactics to keep it that way.

But as Citizen says, there could be many other reasons for it.

----
"We're in a giant car heading into a brick wall at 100 miles/hr and everybody's arguing about where they want to sit."
-David Suzuki

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Monday, February 13, 2006 9:41 PM

RUXTON

Sigmanunki, I'll second your endorsement of the good Citizen. He really does know his stuff.

Also, as you have, I've found some corporate types very unsure of letting someone mess with the status quo of software in use, especially when the person who wants to change things might actully know more about computers than the most highly placed computer-dunce in charge of things. They generally don't want to let go of any power, much less admit to any sort of ignorance. So if they believe Microsoft is good, that's what you'll have to work with.

Once, in an office full of computers run by a power-hungry Mom/Pop executive structure, as a newcomer (with years of computer experience behind me) I was forced to use an archaic and inefficient word-processing program (XYWrite?) that was closer to hypertext than normal writing. We had to insert the para insets or keys for italics manually, and so on. I naturally didn't put up with that and worked around it with Word, and the top management didn't catch on for a long time that I didn't know (refused to learn) their pet piece of crap. That company went out of business and was sold, largely because of computer ignorance at the top. Yet all along, as they were dying, they refused to listen. So as Sigmanunki put it, scare tactics often are used to keep a "homogeneous environment," even if it's to your detriment.

Use Firefox.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2006 9:29 AM

HAZE

I got to say I am now a complete Firefly covert. I haven’t opened internet explorer in over a week. Adblock alone is reason enough for the switch!

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Saturday, February 25, 2006 10:03 AM

HAZE

I thought I would give some observations about spyware on the 4 major browsers since I have now had a chance to use them all.

I currently Have pest patrol installed on my PC which alerts me as soon as spy ware is detected and automatically deletes the offending cookie.

Internet explorer and Maxthon both started picking up spy and adware almost as soon as I started browsing with them.

Opera has only picked up two spyware cookies and that seems to have been fixed by tightening up its cookie controls

Firefox has not picked up a single one.

This advantage may be short lived as Firefox becomes more popular but at the moment its pretty dang cool.

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