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sra

Jay1b wrote:

Firefox has serious unresolved security issues. Microsoft ones are generally fixed within 24 hours of becoming found.

*This is what i do for a living, so any Microsoft Haters out there, please dont argue. :P

I don't think even Microsoft suggest that they are faster at patching than Firefox.

They point out that they have to test things out with toolbars etc while Firefox just rolls on and lets the extension makers catch up

gorilla

I have switched from firefox to Netscape. It is a bit slower starting up but I haven't had any spyware in a week (checking with adaware / spybot etc) encompasses many of the advantages of firefox such as tabbed browsing. I haven't tried Opera yet but I think I will give it a go next.
With regard to IE, I never really had a problem with it, I only switched because I wanted to see what I could get for free and how that would compare to IE. Let's be honest IE isn't that bad a product it's just open to so much abuse from MS haters. But IE fans, you have to admit that IE is outdated and can you afford to wait for the next generation?

Chippy_Minton

MSE_Martin wrote:

Browsers are the software used to view the Net. 90% of people use Microsoft's Internet Explorer, yet Mozilla's Firefox is commonly regarded as beating it hands down & a free 'British' English version is available.

It's worth a look (you don't have to get rid of your old browser) as amongst other things it allows free live updates to sites such as MoneySavingExpert!).

Download/Read more about Firefox (the download is top right)

Read about RSS live bookmarks for MoneySavingExpert.com

You won't want to get rid of your old browser (i.e. Internet Explorer) because some sites don't work properly with Firefox.

Firefox's 'Live Bookmarks' feature is OK as a simple introduction to RSS headlines, but I think it's better to use a dedicated RSS news reader like the free RssReader which shows proper live scrolling headlines.

Paul_Varjak

I seem to be finding more sites that don't work properly with Firefox. With some sites the display is corrupted - graphics over text, text over graphics, missing text, missing graphics, address lookup failures etc etc.

My stockbroker used to use ActiveX, forcing me into using IE. But, even now ActiveX is no longer used, there are still enough other problems forcing me to use IE.

I am not sure if there are truly more critical faults with IE than with Firefox. IE may still the favourite for hackers simply because it is a more popular browser amongst surfers. Should Firefox overtake IE in the popularity stakes I would bet that further critical faults will be found with Firefox. I suspect that even fewer faults are found with Opera becase it is less popular than Firefox!

The moral would appear to be, get the leat popular browser that YOU actually like!

Debt_Free_Chick

Rex_Mundi wrote:

According to vulnerability monitoring service Secunia, 19 out of an estimated 80 security advisories for IE 6.x currently remain "unpatched" compared to four from a total of 15 Firefox 1.x advisories. Secunia says warnings for IE range into the category "highly critical" while outstanding Firefox alerts are "less critical".

Is this Microsoft's problem? Or is it the case that the user either doesn't update or doesn't know about updating?

I use IE ... never had a virus, trojan or any compromise breach. But then I've nailed my security settings down ... which is perfectly acheivable with IE.

Also, I avoid downloading unnecessary applications which simply clutter my hard drive. No point in having yet another browser ... especially if I have to switch between two of them. It's like taking your bicycle in the back of your car so you can use the cycle lanes, when they're free

Rex_Mundi

Is this Microsoft's problem? Or is it the case that the user either doesn't update or doesn't know about updating?

The report from Secunia is talking about patches that haven't been issued from the manufacturer. It's not about how often people update. What this means is there are 19 vulnerabilities that are known about with IE, and MS have not issued a fix for.

Debt_Free_Chick

Rex_Mundi wrote:

The report from Secunia is talking about patches that haven't been issued from the manufacturer. It's not about how often people update. What this means is there are 19 vulnerabilities that are known about with IE, and MS have not issued a fix for.

Ah ... very interesting. Thanks

Sorry - I should have followed the links. It's ssssooo annoying when people don't bother to follow very relevant links!

Jay1b

Rex_Mundi wrote:

WOW. I'm amazed that there are still people out there that think this way. The above advice is not only wrong. It is dangerous advice.

There are still security problems with IE that have not been patched despite MS knowing about them for over 12 months.

According to vulnerability monitoring service Secunia, 19 out of an estimated 80 security advisories for IE 6.x currently remain "unpatched" compared to four from a total of 15 Firefox 1.x advisories. Secunia says warnings for IE range into the category "highly critical" while outstanding Firefox alerts are "less critical".

The US and UK governements now advise people NOT to use IE to surf the web. A lot of top security companies also give out this advice. The way that IE works leaves it open to far more serious security flaws than Firefox (ActiveX still seems to be the biggest security hole)

Before I used Firefox as my default browser (I used IE). Every time I scanned for spyware I would find anywhere between 2 and 10 bits of it on my system several times a week. Since switching fully, I have not found any spyware on my system for nearly 3 months. This is a direct result of using Firefox.

I don't know how anyone can honestly say that IE is more secure than Firefox. It's good to constantly question whether products we use are kept up to date, but it would be nice to see some evidence to back up these claims that IE is more secure than Firefox. To make claims without any evidence to back them up could cause people to worry unneccesarily.

lol. Working as a systems developer i have to keep upto date on this.

A fully patched IE system is currently more secure then a Firefox system.
Most Microsoft security flaws are found by Microsoft, they patch them and release the patches... some idiot then look at these patches and write code to take advantage of the security holes fixed in them, before the average dumb user has a chance (can be bothered) to install the updates. If you've had problems with IE in the past its probably your own fault....

I use Firefox, Opera and IE. I prefer IE, except that it doesnt have a tabbed interface - so i usually use a combination of Firefox and IE. - Opera seems too slow to me.

Mr_Skint_2

Jay1b wrote:

lol. Working as a systems developer i have to keep upto date on this.

A fully patched IE system is currently more secure then a Firefox system.
Most Microsoft security flaws are found by Microsoft, they patch them and release the patches... some idiot then look at these patches and write code to take advantage of the security holes fixed in them, before the average dumb user has a chance (can be bothered) to install the updates. If you've had problems with IE in the past its probably your own fault....

I use Firefox, Opera and IE. I prefer IE, except that it doesnt have a tabbed interface - so i usually use a combination of Firefox and IE. - Opera seems too slow to me.

This is my preference as well as I think a lot of it is Microsoft Bashing.

Take a look here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=837772#post837772

smcicr

Interesting debate this. I used to use IE but switched to FF a while back. Yes there are pages that FF won't display properly so it's not a 100% switch (I use the IE view extension to just have the page load in IE instead) but those pages for me are fewer and fewer now (maybe I just go to sites that work?). The crux of it for me is not the security vulnerabilities (common sense, up to date AV and a good firewall correctly set up should be a pre-requisite for web use nowadays unfortunately) but the function and that's where the extensions come back into it, well extensions and tabbed browsing - how can you not love tabbed browsing .

I'm appalled by the level of advertising on so many sites / pages - this gets hammered home every time i have to switch into IE because in FF i have 'Adblock'. I can clean every site i use (just once) and from there on in i get no ads on that site - for me that's an important factor. Add to that the 'Bugmenot' extension which allows me to login to a lot of sites that require registration - newspapers for example - where i just want to read one article and not go through the whole registration hassle. Image tools allow control and manipulation of images on sites, context based search options, built in translators / definitions and so on and so on - that's what sells FF to me, the functionality and the configurability of that functionality.