Firefox vs. IE
Today I opened my (rarely used) University e-mail account and was greeted with a big sign saying:
"New IE Security Flaws -- Switch to Firefox Browser"
Interesting. I proceeded to my inbox and there, I found an e-mail from our IT & Security Department.
I will quote it:
" Jan 11 2005 -
New Security Flaws in Microsofts Internet Explorer Prompt the ACCC to Recommend Use of Mozilla Firefox
Due to recent reports of un-patched critical flaws in the Internet Explorer (IE) Web browser that is shipped with Microsoft Windows, the ACCC is urging everyone at UIC to use an alternate browser whenever possible.
As of today, Microsoft has not released patches to address these vulnerabilities. This means that any computer with IE version 6 is vulnerable.
It has been reported that exploit code is already available to hackers for at least one of the recently reported flaws in IE. This means that if you browse to a hacked Web site on purpose or are tricked into doing so, your machine may be compromised without any intervention required on your part. (i.e. you will not be asked to click on something before being infected.)
The ACCC is recommending that people install and use Mozilla Firefox in place of IE. Firefox is highly standards compliant and can be used in most situations. Unfortunately, there are some Web pages on the Internet that will not work with anything other that IE in which case you may be forced to use IE to view those Web pages,
but you should try to keep IE usage to a minimum.
Mozilla Firefox for Windows or Macs is free and can be downloaded at:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
For more information on the recent IE flaws, see the ZDNet article:
IE flaw threat hits the roof
ACCC Security
This announcement was posted by [email protected] on 01/10/2005"
Now, this is a University with 30,000 students and at least 21,000 employees. That makes for a lot of computer users. I noticed in our labs they have removed IE from the "Programs" list and put Firefox there. That's at least 1300 computers that I know of in all labs and I suppose they did the same in offices and whatnot.
This, in addition to many other articles on the net, begs the question: is Firefox beginning to be a big threat to IE and what are the implications of such an action or better yet, situation?
I know that personally, I was glad to see that e-mail and their move to Firefox as I found the computers in our office, and especially in student computer labs, to be VERY messed up with spyware and whatnot. I use our Mac labs when I need to use the computer for some reason or when I just feel like using a PowerMac G5
p.s. I hope that this thread is not viewed as old news because whilst Firefox was getting good reviews and two thumbs up from many places, it is only in recent memory that universities and institutions et al started to actually make the switch and default on Firefox instead of IE. Thank you.
"New IE Security Flaws -- Switch to Firefox Browser"
Interesting. I proceeded to my inbox and there, I found an e-mail from our IT & Security Department.
I will quote it:
" Jan 11 2005 -
New Security Flaws in Microsofts Internet Explorer Prompt the ACCC to Recommend Use of Mozilla Firefox
Due to recent reports of un-patched critical flaws in the Internet Explorer (IE) Web browser that is shipped with Microsoft Windows, the ACCC is urging everyone at UIC to use an alternate browser whenever possible.
As of today, Microsoft has not released patches to address these vulnerabilities. This means that any computer with IE version 6 is vulnerable.
It has been reported that exploit code is already available to hackers for at least one of the recently reported flaws in IE. This means that if you browse to a hacked Web site on purpose or are tricked into doing so, your machine may be compromised without any intervention required on your part. (i.e. you will not be asked to click on something before being infected.)
The ACCC is recommending that people install and use Mozilla Firefox in place of IE. Firefox is highly standards compliant and can be used in most situations. Unfortunately, there are some Web pages on the Internet that will not work with anything other that IE in which case you may be forced to use IE to view those Web pages,
but you should try to keep IE usage to a minimum.
Mozilla Firefox for Windows or Macs is free and can be downloaded at:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
For more information on the recent IE flaws, see the ZDNet article:
IE flaw threat hits the roof
ACCC Security
This announcement was posted by [email protected] on 01/10/2005"
Now, this is a University with 30,000 students and at least 21,000 employees. That makes for a lot of computer users. I noticed in our labs they have removed IE from the "Programs" list and put Firefox there. That's at least 1300 computers that I know of in all labs and I suppose they did the same in offices and whatnot.
This, in addition to many other articles on the net, begs the question: is Firefox beginning to be a big threat to IE and what are the implications of such an action or better yet, situation?
I know that personally, I was glad to see that e-mail and their move to Firefox as I found the computers in our office, and especially in student computer labs, to be VERY messed up with spyware and whatnot. I use our Mac labs when I need to use the computer for some reason or when I just feel like using a PowerMac G5
p.s. I hope that this thread is not viewed as old news because whilst Firefox was getting good reviews and two thumbs up from many places, it is only in recent memory that universities and institutions et al started to actually make the switch and default on Firefox instead of IE. Thank you.
Comments
Originally posted by Scott
Firefox is better than Safari that's for sure. It will be a cold day in hell before the windows toadies where I work tell us to stop using MS dreck.
safari and firefox are about even in my book--both have a couple things that bother me. i tend to use safari a lot more though. firefox is LIGHT YEARS ahead of IE.
Originally posted by ipodandimac
safari and firefox are about even in my book--both have a couple things that bother me. i tend to use safari a lot more though. firefox is LIGHT YEARS ahead of IE.
Safari is too slow and rainbows on me too too often. Is there a spell checker for Firefox 'cause that's all I need from it now?
Am I supposed to make a decision when (as a business IT-type guy) I've always went for M$?
I can't wait for M$ to write some code in IIS to break Firefox.
That'll teach those upstarts!
Any chance SCO might sue Firefox for some intellectual-property thingee?
From News.com
Broadband ISP Speakeasy said it will offer its subscribers a version of the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox Web browser in hopes of appealing to a more tech-savvy crowd.
You go FireFox! Kill that abomination of a browser.
Article Here
They also give us a lot of free software, virus scanner, spyware scanner, even Office at one point, which does help a bit. Then they limit the sites you can go to; mostly academic or something like Google (but if you're a smartass and search for AI in Google on click on it, it won't open
Actually, I don't believe they ever had a problem with virii and spyware but then again I always use our Mac labs when I feel like it, or when I get bored of all the PCs I have to live with there.
Oh well, long live Firefox!
Why? Spyware/virus concerns and the ability to block images (ads) from particular sites.
Firefox is also moving way beyond safari on os x to the point where safari just doesn't work for web development. It's as simple as that.
IE? What's that?
Originally posted by giant
Firefox is also moving way beyond safari on os x to the point where safari just doesn't work for web development. It's as simple as that.
I disagree. As far as formatting is concerned, they're all but identical. Sure, Safari is a bit slower, but that's not formatting, is it?
Originally posted by Placebo
I disagree. As far as formatting is concerned, they're all but identical. Sure, Safari is a bit slower, but that's not formatting, is it?
I could create a biggish list of areas where I feel FF's functionality is better:
- extensions, specifically the never-do-web-work-without-it web developer and adblock, which is much better than pithhelmet. I can even use the adblock tag on videos to grab the urls easily.
- firefox has a far, far, far more robust search function. Searching (pages, text, source, etc) in firefox is pleasant and easy while searching in safari is awkward and feels tacked on.
- rss live bookmarks built in.
- large images are resized to fit in the browser window. Safari is impossible to use on anything nasa/jpl because it lacks this feature.
- text boxes are better in every way except for the lack of spell-check. Everything from undo to actually inserting shortcut text where the cursor is instead of at the end.
- the behavior of tabs is better because it doesn't make decisions for me. It also warns when closing multiple tabs.
- choice of search engines/tools in the search window.