Comments on: IE flaw may boost rival browsers

Security researchers suggest that using Microsoft alternatives is one way to surf the Web worry-free.

IE is "the one"

as much as I am not a big fan of monopoly, but I have to admit that IE rules!

On my laptop, I have Opera 7.50, Netscape 7.1, and IE 6. Most companies write codes directly for IE. If you have Outlook Web Access, the choice of browser is clear: IE. If you have Bank of America account, the choice is clear: IE. Ironically, even if you use hotmail or yahoo mail, in order to take advantage of all features, you have to use IE.

Even with as many flaws as it has, Microsoft products are becoming mature and stable. I remember working and installing windows 3.11, NT 3.x, 4.0, etc... always had to reboot and gave (all of us) blue screen of death and so on. But Win2000 did and still does an amazing job. In our company where I am responsible for IT infrastructure, we didn't even see the need to upgrade to win2003.

Having said that, most of our web-based applications are IE friendly. Even those apps from a Unix background have an IE ready front-end.

Personally, I don't see, at least in the near future, people migrating from IE ot Opera or Netscape.

I must add that I love Opera's interface and it's tabulated paging... but it just doesn't work the same IE does with tables and dhtml and javascripts and java.

well, that's all.

the IE misnomer

it is true that many web dev teams write specifically for IE. why this has occured is debatable but probably due to a lack of IE dev for 3+ years and the need to find creative workarounds for the deluge of issues IE has with XML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.

I have used Mozilla for over 2 years now and the latest release of FireFox 0.9 -- only 4.7MB on Win32 -- is the best thing that could happen to a web developer. Not only does it force us to use W3C standards, but it comes with excellent debugging facilities as opposed to the dizzying "Error occured on page" msgs with the occasional impotent Windows Script Debugger...

Anyway, just thought I would speak up for the little guy! By the way, I use every feature on BofA.com with greater confidence through Mozilla firefox.

more info:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

cross platform CMS that works in mozilla:
http://www.enthusiastinc.com

[olePigeon]

Writing codes directly for Ineternet Explorer?

If HTML is so universal, if XML is so extensible, then why would
anyone have to write custom code JUST for Internet Explorer?

Well, because Microsoft implements proprietary technology that
only works with Explorer, doesn't support certain standards
correctly, or, it quite simply renders the code WRONG and
people have to code around the faults in the render engine.
Since explorer is the most widely used browser, that often leads
to companies writing two entirely different webpages: one that
works with Explorer, and another that works with absolutely
everything else.

Explorer is not the dominant browser because it's good, it's the
dominant browser because Microsoft illegally used its dominant
position in the market place to kill off all other competition.
Having to write custom code (not because you want to or
because you think the browser is great) just so you can support
the "number one" browser on the market is stupid.

People need to wake up and move away from Explorer, indeed,
Windows all together. There are so many better products out
there from all sorts of great vendors if they're given a chance.

[Stupendoussteve]

Standards?

That's because IE and pages coded for it don't adhere to standards (yes, there are some things the others don't supply - but not in 95% of the pages).

IE is much better with SP2 though, until someone figures out how to bypass the security.

[jamie.p.walsh]

Ummmm, wasn't JavaScript the vulnerability??

I agree that ActiveX is not secure, but the exploit was with Javascript technology. That was highly undermentioned in this article. I also agree with Pat's statement regarding the way alternative browsers handle the most common elements of the most popular web pages - DHTML, JavaScript, and TABLES!!! I realize that this is due to IEs popularity and IEs methods for handling these elements dictates how most developers code, but until there's consistency in that area people will continue to use IE.

I also have to say that Norton Internet Security does a great job alerting users to the presence of ActiveX and Javascripts (when set up properly). It also gives you the option to allow this per website. I think that if you're connecting to the internet, I highly suggest this product or similar ones such as ZoneAlarm Pro.

As for the monoculture discussion, I love how open source advocates think that their products are so superior. I don't feel that at all. They're great if you want to sacrifice the full functionality of their propietary counterparts. Secondly, it is easy to claim security when you're not the big target. If these products had equal or better market share, they would be exploited just the same as Microsoft's.

superior?

well, i try not to enter tech religious wars but had one correction here. I suppose many people might look at one software app as 'better' than the other for various reasons but ultimately it is all in progress. software is never done -- it is always developing.

this is the big win with open source (OS) software. imagine if any Microsoft partner could release a patch for the latest trojan? we would have had it within hours, not weeks...

there is a large team available for this purpose on many fronts with OS software nowadays and this is good for joe customer like me. :D

http://osdl.org/about_osdl/members/
http://www.jboss.com
http://www.mysql.com
http://www.openoffice.org/
http://www.opengroupware.org/

thx.

jc

[olePigeon]

No, it's Internet Explorer.

It's not JavaScript, but how Microsoft implemented the
technology into Internet Explorer. The flaw does not effect any
other browser regardless if they're using JavaScript.

Which is probably why I use a Mac to avoid all those problems.

[Jahntassa]

Netscape > IE > FireFox

I used to swear off IE until IE 4.0, when Netscape started getting bloated. IE has been great, and i've used it until Firebird 0.8 was released, and renamed FireFox. Now FireFox 0.9 is out, and it's great! Tabbed windows, easy to use extensions, Flash/Shockwave/Java support. Livejournal tie-ins, and themes, plus the pop-up blocking which is unsurpassed, and it's ease of use... I can't say enough about it! It's small, streamlined, and Mozilla.org even provides instructions on how to load Firefox onto a USB drive so you can bring your browser with you wherever you go! You can't beat that!

I've had a few security run-ins with IE, and so far, nothing with Firefox. I can't give up IE, because certain companies only support that, but overall... Firefox is awesome, I can't deny the truth that it's time to switch!

Note: Oddly enough, there must be something wrong with news.com that I can't post this with Firefox, and need to use IE!

[Jonathan]

No problems with FireFox here....

Odd....no problems here.