SOLVED Have dumped Firefox, is IE8 any better?

[clifford_cooley]

I like what they are doing, they're not content having over 90% of the computing population, they want it all, and this is good public relations for the corporation.

It's good that they want it all. As long as they want it, they will compete.
It wouldn't be good if they actually got it. If they actually got it all, we would pay big time.

 

[Thrax]

Heaven help us if Microsoft's browser market share ever starts to go back up.

 

[catilley1092]

It's hard to definitely say that Microsoft's browser share will begin a noticeable climb, but this raw version of IE9 will create interest, perhaps enough to replace the loss of IE6. IE6 is still functional, but is no longer suitable for everyday use. Serious computer users like to explore new options, and if this version can hold it's speed, and dump ActiveX, as well as Adobe's Flash Player (which has held 64 bit IE8 back), IE may gain market share. But there's still a lot of "if's" in the picture to say that right now.

 

[Thrax]

This link is especially relevant for this thread:

TL;DR: Firefox and Safari more secure than IE8. IE8 gets cracked in 2 minutes. Chrome more secure than all of them.

As usual at Pwn2Own, the contest to see who can hack 'secure' programs and systems the fastest at the CanSecWest security conference, the big loser was Microsoft, which saw IE 8 on a fully-patched Windows 7 system get cracked in less than two minutes. That said, everyone's Web browsers were being cracked open left and right at the show ... except for Google Chrome.

While Firefox and Safari may be better than IE, these Web browsers didn't last very long either. As for Google's own Web browser, at this point, it's seemed no one's even tried to bust Chrome according to the group sponsoring the contest, the TippingPoint's ZDI (Zero Day Initiative).

 

[johncage]

firefox only fails to work because of ie8 and windows trying to interfere with its running. another ms scam

 

[Nibiru2012]

Been using FF v3.6.2 and it's working great!

 

[andsome]

Tried FF some time ago and also thunderbug or whatever it's called for e mail. Got rid of them both.

IE and Windows live mail are great.

 

[catilley1092]

firefox only fails to work because of ie8 and windows trying to interfere with its running. another ms scam

johncage, would you please explain this reasoning that you have here. IE8 and Firefox are two separate browsers, there's no scam. There are many other browsers besides FF that runs on Windows. If that were the case, all users of other browsers would be complaining of a scam. That was never my reason for dumping FF, I've already stated my reason for that. Microsoft is in a period of rapid development, and I highly doubt they have time to "scam" against browsers.

 

[johncage]

it's been my experience that whenever ie8/win7 tries to interfere with browsing, my pc crashes. as in, using firefox causes crashes because ie8 is trying to dominate it. same with other applications that require internet access.

 

[Nibiru2012]

To me this is much ado about really just an early alpha release of IE9.

Too many things will probably need to be corrected, etc.

As long as M$ continues to insist on using Active X controls, there will always be security issues.

 

[catilley1092]

I hope that Microsoft will build this browser from scratch, and do away with ActiveX. Other browsers don't have it, and although some of them doesn't have near as many followers as IE does, they are surviving without it. ActiveX, for whatever reason it was conceived, has outlived it's usefulness. It's one of the greatest security risks of IE, and Microsoft has to do better. IE9 is still too much in it's infancy to say what it's made of, what it will be, or even if it will make it. But by throwing it out to us at this young stage, there will be lots of interest in it, and somewhere, there's an underlying reason as to why so soon an infant of a browser is given to us to freely use. One thing for sure, it's fast for being so young, so fast that you can use it for anything that doesn't require more security than your AV provides. Emailing, shopping and banking with it wouldn't be wise. But web browsing, why not? You have your AV watching your back.

 

[Thrax]

Microsoft cannot afford to abandon ActiveX now. It's why so many companies continue to run Internet Explorer.

Legacy code is a blessing... And a curse.

 

[catilley1092]

Yes, I've recenty read that some companies still run Win 2K with IE6 as their browser, and refuse to budge. How pitiful! They probably spend more cash cleaning up their problems than it would take to buy a modern computer w/ Win 7 on it. But it's my thinking that some of these are simply hanging on to the past, and won't advance until the day that their computer no longer works. I have a friend like that, he actually wanted me to install 2K on his new laptop & wipe out Win 7. The best I could do for him was to install it within a VM. He actually offered me $100 in cash, but I refused, being that he's my friend. But what is it about ActiveX that's so great? I realize that IE has a large following, but is ActiveX the reason? And why, being that it is the most security risk of the browser?

 

[Nibiru2012]

I find this thread becoming amusing because it is turning into a "He said, she said." Like the anti-virus threads.

This discussion will continue on ad infinitum, ad nauseum until the aliens finally decide to make CONTACT! :hmmmm2: