Comments on: Internet Explorer vs. Firefox

By: amitrajit

amitrajit — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 04:08:41 +0000

I have been using FF/TB for quite some time now and it’s my default browser. I have also introduced it to my University Library where hundreds of people use it every day on both Windows and Sun-ray clients. This in turn has prompted many of them to install it in their home machines. The best thing is I have almost total control over what it can and cannot do. It’s true that many IE/ActiveX targetted sites donot work well with IE but there is an extension where from within FF you can view IE links. As it has become more popular spammers are increasingly targetting it but it still remains quite stable and far far more pleasant to work with than IE. It’s smaller footprint makes it much faster too.

By: sapient

sapient — Tue, 31 May 2005 04:35:02 +0000

I tested FF looking for an alternative to IE and found there are many things FF does not do in displaying web pages. It has issues with ASP, Java and especially CSS style sheets. Nothing worse than hitting a page where none of the style sheet information is displayed and the page is difficult to read. In today’s world of a dynamic Internet and the usage of Flash and many other add-ons, IE is the developer’s main target for delivery.

Would love an alternative to IE.

By: maclanachu

maclanachu — Mon, 30 May 2005 18:36:24 +0000

I include FF as part of the default install on all our new pcs (3-5 a month) Users use whichever they prefer. Have noticed that it perfroms better and whenever we have some problem with IE just switching to FF makes it go away. We have a company Intranet here so browsers are used a lot. increasingly use it myself but there are a few pages with Java or is it ASP that don’t quite work with it. Love the tabbed browsing.

If u really want to scrub IE out of the OS use NLite http://www.nliteos.com/ Great for striping all the crap out of ur 2k and XP builds. Don’t have to worry about patching something that isn’t there!

By: mennot

mennot — Mon, 30 May 2005 13:35:55 +0000

Firefox is definitely less insecure than IE. Even though we’ve seen a few vulnerabilities in FF lately, they were fixed at a pace that is unthinkable in the MS world. If a site is not compliant with FF, it’s usually a matter of deviating from the standards, so it is the site that is to blame. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen too often that sites deviate that much from the standards that FF cannot deal with it.

I have some concerns about FF’s future, however. Vulnerabilities often have to do with complexity and with the desire to offer ever more nice features. This is where Microsoft went wrong and FF seems to go the same way, with its plugins and add-ons. We don’t need that! Also, I believe that almost any website could perfectly do with HTML alone. ‘Active’ things that can be started by untrusted externals are always a risk.

MennoT

By: tomliotta

tomliotta — Fri, 27 May 2005 20:09:13 +0000

Minor added note… One of the biggest items with using FF effectively has been keeping current with JVMs. It seems that as soon as a new release is available from Sun, I hit sites that require new features in your JVM. Somewhat irritating, but…

With MS’s switch in how JVMs are supported by Windows, I suspect we’ll see the same issue with IE as more time goes by.

Also, since IE has been falling behind in features as well as compliance with new standards, I’m finding far fewer sites that _require_ IE. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve run across one this year.

I have no idea why anyone would switch from FF to IE any more unless guidelines for installing FF weren’t followed in the first place. In WinXP, I use FF exclusively.

By: juvencio

juvencio — Thu, 26 May 2005 08:34:49 +0000

Well, you can count me with the people slowing down the move to FF: after several months using it in both w2k and xp, I returned to ie.

By: dalejanus

dalejanus — Wed, 25 May 2005 09:08:41 +0000

While the rate of new users switching to FF is high, it will slow down. Most home users will be content to use whatever is on their computers. The microsoft monopoly will never go away.

Business users can be ‘forced’ to use whatever the company wants to use.

We have always used Netscape for browsing and email. We like tabbed browsing and pop up blocking. The users get used to an email interface and don’t want to change. We have IE, FF (and thunderbird), and netscape installed on all computers, but most use netscape 7.2 for browsing. Few use FF.

While FF is likely more secure now because of small market share, that is likely to change.

IE and windows will likely always be unsecure, and that is just so irritating. Like web sites that require IE.

The amount of effort needed to keep windows patched is high, and the fact that IE is part of windows and must be patched is irritating as well. I would rather get rid of IE completely, but I realize that will not happen. I am satisfied that my users do not use IE.

By: sobhunv

sobhunv — Wed, 25 May 2005 01:58:28 +0000

Hi All,
In fact Firefox, according to my experience, has been a secure Web Browser..But some how during the past 10 days i ve experienced some pop-ups in the site which was normally “pop-up-blocked” by FF. However I prefer FF than IExplorer..but this can make a great difference for Developers using Javascripts..since most of the codes won’t work..so be carefull with the codes that u write..especially if you want to secure Jscript Codes also..
Cheers
Sanjeev

By: jimcusson

jimcusson — Tue, 24 May 2005 11:33:54 +0000

At home I use FireFox almost exclusively and have not had any problems loading websites. As FF becomes more popular with users, so will it become more popular (as a target) for attackes. This is why “security by obscurity” is not effective :>. The real test will come when FF is a regular target. Will the Open Source folks be able to reliably patch their programs faster than the commercial programs get patched? I think we already got a taste of that last month when Fire Fox got patched before IE did.

By: secgeek

secgeek — Tue, 24 May 2005 09:26:31 +0000

To answer your first question, I have switched to Firefox at home and have advised family and friends to do likewise. I have also and continue to seek this change at work but of course, there is workplace politics involved and the jury is still out. There is an unfounded concern that some software might break if we change.

Your second question is fairly easy for me to answer. No. The reason for this answer is that no matter how prevalent Firefox becomes it will not have the tie-ins to the OS that IE has. IE is a fairly good product and it would be interesting to see a totally stand-alone version. What makes IE so dangerous is that it is part of the Microsoft Operating system and has Active-X components. Remove those and I would have to re-examine my position, but until then Firefox is always going to be the more secure choice.

Firefox will have attacks, and the Microsoft groupies will make the most of it but in the end Firefox is inherently a more secure product just because I can uninstall it.

Peace