Comments on: Firefox continues gains against IE
Mozilla's Firefox reported another modest gain against IE.
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I think if the survey were done on a group of sites that included News.com, TheInquirer.net, Anandtech, Tom's Hardware, even the New York Times , the percentage of Firefox users would be statistically significantly higher. Even by rating the US' most visited sites, the numbers would change. But limited sampling has always been used to skew surveys.
It's not just that I happen to be using Firefox from an IP within the US-I think I see the author's (Jim Hu) journalistic perspective showing. " Much of FireFox's success rides on it simply not being IE." What a crock! If that were the case, I'd be using Opera or Mozilla. I use it because it's better, more versatile, and more productive.
Firefox is inherently more secure than Explorer and always will be, and when security issues arise, a cadre of programmers stand ready to back up their own work. Not bad for an open source product. How many unpatched extremely critical flaws does Secunia have listed for Internet Explorer now? And for Firefox?
And BTW, don't go slamming Opera, it's also a damned good browser.
I think if the survey were done on a group of sites that included News.com, TheInquirer.net, Anandtech, Tom's Hardware, even the New York Times , the percentage of Firefox users would be statistically significantly higher. Even by rating the US' most visited sites, the numbers would change. But limited sampling has always been used to skew surveys.
It's not just that I happen to be using Firefox from an IP within the US-I think I see the author's (Jim Hu) journalistic perspective showing. " Much of FireFox's success rides on it simply not being IE." What a crock! If that were the case, I'd be using Opera or Mozilla. I use it because it's better, more versatile, and more productive.
Firefox is inherently more secure than Explorer and always will be, and when security issues arise, a cadre of programmers stand ready to back up their own work. Not bad for an open source product. How many unpatched extremely critical flaws does Secunia have listed for Internet Explorer now? And for Firefox?
And BTW, don't go slamming Opera, it's also a damned good browser.
Can News.com disclosure this numbers?
It is spelled "spelled". Spelt is to split or to break. You have no room to talk.
spelled being more prevalent in American English and the
irregular form in British English.
It is spelled "spelled". Spelt is to split or to break. You have no room to talk.
spelled being more prevalent in American English and the
irregular form in British English.
I wonder how many server logs show the browser as M$ie when it's really Firefox, Opera, Konquerer or some other...
Check the log for this post - is "In a world without walls who needs Gates?" really my browsers UserAgent??
the company that does the surveys (OTX Research)
altered their website to refuse to serve other
than MSIE on MSWindows. After I told FireFox to
lie about its age^WUserAgent string, it all
worked ferpectly.
I wonder how many server logs show the browser as M$ie when it's really Firefox, Opera, Konquerer or some other...
Check the log for this post - is "In a world without walls who needs Gates?" really my browsers UserAgent??
the company that does the surveys (OTX Research)
altered their website to refuse to serve other
than MSIE on MSWindows. After I told FireFox to
lie about its age^WUserAgent string, it all
worked ferpectly.
Microsoft fanboys will say that FF doesn't have viruses and spyware getting through because no one uses it. More BS. The main way spyware gets in is through ActiveX which FF doesn't support. That's why. FF is probably not 100% secure, but it is more secure and doesn't support gaping holes like ActiveX. Microsoft can't drop ActiveX because so many corporate customers have built software that uses it, and of course it would be admitting that the whole concept was a bad idea from a security standpoint.
I can tell you from first hand experience that I downloaded it because it wasn't IE. I continued to use it (from v.5 up) because it wasn't IE and faster than Netscape and cheaper than Opera. I can tell you I stick with it because of the tools that are built in and the secure feeling I get with it.
It is still possible to get spyware on Firefox just not as prevailent because it lacks ActiveX and VBscript, but it still has cookies that can be used for spyware.
Firefox is good enough for me. I don't care what Microsoft diehards have to say. If they choose to use IE, more power to them. I try to educate myself everyday on new and old technologies and from what I have learned Microsoft just doesn't put security first in anything. That may change someday, but even then who wants one company making controlling your computer.
Microsoft fanboys will say that FF doesn't have viruses and spyware getting through because no one uses it. More BS. The main way spyware gets in is through ActiveX which FF doesn't support. That's why. FF is probably not 100% secure, but it is more secure and doesn't support gaping holes like ActiveX. Microsoft can't drop ActiveX because so many corporate customers have built software that uses it, and of course it would be admitting that the whole concept was a bad idea from a security standpoint.
I can tell you from first hand experience that I downloaded it because it wasn't IE. I continued to use it (from v.5 up) because it wasn't IE and faster than Netscape and cheaper than Opera. I can tell you I stick with it because of the tools that are built in and the secure feeling I get with it.
It is still possible to get spyware on Firefox just not as prevailent because it lacks ActiveX and VBscript, but it still has cookies that can be used for spyware.
Firefox is good enough for me. I don't care what Microsoft diehards have to say. If they choose to use IE, more power to them. I try to educate myself everyday on new and old technologies and from what I have learned Microsoft just doesn't put security first in anything. That may change someday, but even then who wants one company making controlling your computer.
My own web sites (asiapac.com.au in Australia and its mirror notestracker.com in the USA) have had IE tracking for some months at 98.5 per cent (97.8% for IE 6.X, and now only 0.7% for IE 5.X), whereas a year or two ago IE was around only 90% or so. Firefox is showing as 0.8% and all the others are negligible, at 0.1% or 0.2% each. Sure, my two sites get a tiny fraction of the visits of the biggies, but the browser shares have been consistent and growing in IE's favor without FF making the inroads that several surveys indicate.
Yes, I do use FF, but for certain actions where it works more efficiently for me and not for everything. I particularly like FF for its tabbed browsing (via Tabbrowser extensions), and one or two other things, like its almost infinitely variable text size. But as we all know, a considerable proportion of Web sites ? or at least certain parts of the sites ? only work properly under IE. Therefore I find it hard to justify considering that FF as a universal best-and-only browser choice (just as you need more than one screwdriver and spanner for tinkering with the old jalopy).
I agree with parts of the other feedback responses, but not everything.
I regularly use two different free "front ends" for IE, namely Avant Browser and Enigma Browser. Yes, I know there are others (if they're not free, I avoid them)! We all have preferred tools. Avant Browser has tabbing, mouse gestures, Pop-up blocking, Ad blocking, and other useful features, so these days I find myself using it most. But I switch over to Enigma Browser for Internet banking and the like, because for some reason it handles their pop-up windows more cleanly. And occasionally I still use even plain old IE, for various sorts of program testing and other special situations -- or, of course, when it?s the only browser installed on a system.
So I find myself swapping between browsers a fair bit -- and the Firefox extensions "View this page in Firefox" [for IE] and "View This Page in IE" [for FF] are amongst the first that I install to facilitate this.
I've seen the occasional report that some development circles inside Microsoft are itching to release tabbed browsing and some of the other missing essentials, but that the "powers that be" have suppressed this. Who knows if/when IE will have an interim upgrade of its feature set ... one can only hope.
My own web sites (asiapac.com.au in Australia and its mirror notestracker.com in the USA) have had IE tracking for some months at 98.5 per cent (97.8% for IE 6.X, and now only 0.7% for IE 5.X), whereas a year or two ago IE was around only 90% or so. Firefox is showing as 0.8% and all the others are negligible, at 0.1% or 0.2% each. Sure, my two sites get a tiny fraction of the visits of the biggies, but the browser shares have been consistent and growing in IE's favor without FF making the inroads that several surveys indicate.
Yes, I do use FF, but for certain actions where it works more efficiently for me and not for everything. I particularly like FF for its tabbed browsing (via Tabbrowser extensions), and one or two other things, like its almost infinitely variable text size. But as we all know, a considerable proportion of Web sites ? or at least certain parts of the sites ? only work properly under IE. Therefore I find it hard to justify considering that FF as a universal best-and-only browser choice (just as you need more than one screwdriver and spanner for tinkering with the old jalopy).
I agree with parts of the other feedback responses, but not everything.
I regularly use two different free "front ends" for IE, namely Avant Browser and Enigma Browser. Yes, I know there are others (if they're not free, I avoid them)! We all have preferred tools. Avant Browser has tabbing, mouse gestures, Pop-up blocking, Ad blocking, and other useful features, so these days I find myself using it most. But I switch over to Enigma Browser for Internet banking and the like, because for some reason it handles their pop-up windows more cleanly. And occasionally I still use even plain old IE, for various sorts of program testing and other special situations -- or, of course, when it?s the only browser installed on a system.
So I find myself swapping between browsers a fair bit -- and the Firefox extensions "View this page in Firefox" [for IE] and "View This Page in IE" [for FF] are amongst the first that I install to facilitate this.
I've seen the occasional report that some development circles inside Microsoft are itching to release tabbed browsing and some of the other missing essentials, but that the "powers that be" have suppressed this. Who knows if/when IE will have an interim upgrade of its feature set ... one can only hope.
IE, like a lot of Microsoft products, is falling behind the competition. I now look at Microsoft as the vendor of last resort. Not only do their products lack innovation, but they hog system resources like crazy.
Keith
www.techcando.com
- Wish I Didn't Have To Use IE At All
- by Stating January 24, 2005 11:46 AM PST
- I have been using Firefox for a month now and vastly prefer it to IE. If it were not for sites that use ActiveX, like Launch.com (hint, hint), I would not use IE at all.
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (40 Comments)IE, like a lot of Microsoft products, is falling behind the competition. I now look at Microsoft as the vendor of last resort. Not only do their products lack innovation, but they hog system resources like crazy.
Keith
www.techcando.com