You call it propaganda, I called it brilliant marketing.(I dunno know much about your claim however) One man’s hatred of wal-mart is another man’s blessing. But wait! 20% of the marketshare doesn’t count for anything. The restart of the browser war doesn’t count for anything. That fact that M$ can no longer rest on its laurel is a good thing doesn’t count for anything.
I used Mozilla Firefox even before it was called Firefox, before it was even cool to use it. I am a satisifed user, thank you very much. If you want to keep using that old clunky web browser, more power to you!
I am no Mozilla apologist. I know M$ really did win the browser war, mostly in part of netscape’s incompetent management.
Well you can already download any Microsoft OS on the internet for anyone to copy- for free using torrent sites and other methods. I wonder what’ll happen if it becomes even more mainstream to download software/movies/etc.
LOL, I’ve used IE since v3.0 back in 1996 and have never been infected with malware, though I have cleaned many systems. By far most infections were caused due to people failing to apply security updates, granted Windows Update did not come out until Windows 98 was released in 1998 but Malware did not start to become a problem until 1999-2000. Microsoft dealt with the problem by making Windows Updates automatic in 2000 on Windows ME and Windows 2000, however this feature was not available to Windows 98 users and their stubborn refusal to get rid of the obsolete Windows 98 until Windows XP came out led to many infections. They were also frequently told by computer illiterates online to disable automatic updates. By no coincidence the ones who disabled automatic updates showed the largest disdain for Microsost and subsequently were frequently infected due to their own ignorance. I have had no such problems with Internet Explorer.
I use IE 7, Opera and Firefox (so I know what I am talking about). If you want to be the most secure you would be using Opera.
I would use Opera, if it had the add-on system that Fx does. Especially StumbleUpon, Greasemonkey, CustomizeGoogle, NoScript, and Adblock Plus (or equivalents). But the whole built-in email client, BitTorrent client, IRC client, and RSS reader appeals to my minimalist sense of aesthetics [:)]
I have dealth with thousands of end users, have attended many trade shows, including many by Microsoft, without question the average end user is using or started to use Firefox based on internet urban legends about IE. Things like better security, speed and “web standards” (irrelevant to end users) but sold as better page compatibility - all myths.
Firefox Security is a Myth:
Reality - Firefox is anything but Secure. Since Firefox was released, users have been exposed to over 400 security vulnerabilities and counting. You only need one vulnerability to be insecure.
CVE lists over 400 security vulnerabilities in Firefox. - CVE
Secunia lists 136 security vulnerabilities in Firefox 0.x, 28% are rated Highly Critical. - Secunia
Secunia lists 209 security vulnerabilities in Firefox 1.x, 36% are rated Highly Critical. - Secunia
Secunia lists 154 security vulnerabilities in Firefox 2.x, 52% are rated Highly Critical. - Secunia
Secunia lists 46 security vulnerabilities in Firefox 3.x, 78% are rated Highly Critical. - Secunia
Firefox’s speed is a Myth:
Reality - Internet Explorer 6 is clearly faster than Firefox 1 and 2 in 5 out of 7 measures of performance and is significantly faster from a cold start. - Browser Speed Comparisons
I am not surprised you attempt to make an argument from a web developer’s position, which is valid to you - except it is irrelevant to an end user’s position. All the end user care about is if a page works. And more pages are compatible with IE than Firefox. This is why end users were dishonestly drawn into a developer war with Microsoft being sold lies that Firefox was more “compatible” with web pages, when it was really about developers wanting more web standards out of IE. The end user was better served with page compatibility with IE.
IE 7 (released in 2006) is hardly inferior as it included the main features missing by default in IE 6 that Firefox had (by default) - Tabs and Integrated Search. It also added a much needed anti-phishing filter.
You see IE6 already had pop-up blocking in 2004, tabbed browsing via the MSN Toolbar and extension support since 1997:
Internet Explorer 6 supports Tabbed Browsing when used with the MSN Toolbar extension in Windows XP. - Source
Internet Explorer has supported extensions since 1997 in Internet Explorer 4.0 known as Add-Ons.
Maxthon was a popular option for IE6 users who wanted tabs and other features now found in IE7, IE7 thus has made Maxthon largely irrelevant. The security is the same on either browser since the underlying engine is exposed to the same vulnerabilities. IE7 includes the same Pop-up blocking added in IE6 with Windows XP SP2, the Information Bar for all security changes and downloads, the new Anti-phishing filter, Windows Updates being Automatic and the Windows Firewall both improved IE’s security. Lastly the freely available WIndows Defender (default installed in VIsta) makes IE very secure.
Lies are brilliant marketing? Really? Mozilla Foundation President Mitchell Baker clearly stated that Firefox was more secure because they were not integrated into the OS, which is a lie and a myth:
Reality - “The issue of not being part of the Operating System is an interesting one though that is frequently the subject of misunderstanding. IE is part of the Windows Operating System so that parts of the OS and other applications can rely on the functionality and APIs being present. IE in turn relies on Operating System functionality to do it’s job. To be clear there are no Operating System APIs that IE uses that are not documented on MSDN as part of the platform SDK and available to other browsers and any other software that runs on Windows. The security of any browser is irrelevant to if it is part of the operating system. If we are to debate security of browsers then let’s bring in relevant arguments and accurate details about different possible attacks rather than rely on the irrational fear that because IE is part of the operating system it must be exposing OS functionality to the web. This is not the case as any software has access to the same set of OS APIs and can therefore expose the same set of OS functionality as IE.” - Source
Market share is irrelevant to any of my arguments, so is the “browser wars”. Apple released Safari and Google Chrome with no such propaganda against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
IE7 is an old clunky web browser? Have you even used it? IE7 is an elegant and much improved version of Internet Explorer that adds many features by default and improved security, IE8 (coming soon) will continue that trend.
True liberty is the freedom to use whatever you wish, which is your choice, none of this has anything to do with any of my points. There are many valid reasons to use Firefox, some have mentioned the extensions they prefer. My point is not about the valid but the invalid (Myths).
By marketing, I meant their grassroot effort and ability to generate massive amount of publicity around their product. I wasn’t referring to what you considered lies.(I don’t have technical expertise to refute or confirm it anyway. I am just a lowly dumb game programming hobbyist.)
I used IE7, at school. As far as I am concerned from my limited experience, IE7 is not a compelling replacement for Firefox plus the fact that I used Linux at home. So it is still an old clunky browser to me and I missed my “Awesome bar”.
I knew Opera is probably a far superior browser. I don’t use it because it was never compelling to me to switch(feature overload) and I don’t trust proprietary software much. I took a liking toward Chrome’s prono mode and neat technical feature. However Chrome isn’t availiable for Linux.
If I am not mistaken, I believe that a port of Chromium, the open-source project behind Chrome, has been made for Linux. I’m also pretty sure that Chrome will run in Wine.
Yeah, agreed. I just use Wine for games, and for the very few programs for Windows that are superior to Linux alternatives (WinSCP and uTorrent, pretty much).
IE7 is compelling for the average user, since there is no reason for them to get Firefox if IE7 is already installed. I find it disingenuous for Linux, Open-Source advocates and Mac users to be making recommendation for Windows users based on their non-experience with Windows or in the case of Web Developers their personal priorities unrelated to the end user they are making the recommendation to.
I agree. One of the reasons I dislike Microsoft (and other commercial) software is that it is full of nagware and adware. For example, my laptop came with Office Works trial edition. I think I can use it twenty-five times before punching in the Product Key (which I don’t have and have to pay for). Naturally, documents open with Office Works by default, ensuring that I use up my twenty-five turns as quickly as possible.
I think that commercial security software is also a kind of nagware. When my Nortion security suite expired, I didn’t feel like shelling out the money for a renewal. So I turned on the built-in Vista firewall, but Norton keeps popping up, giving me thinly-disguised product advertisements. “Alert! Norton service has expired. Your computer is vulnerable to hackers.” “Alert! You must check for updates.” “Alert! You are using the Windows firewall, which is not recommended. Norton recommends using the Norton firewall.”
StumbleUpon works on Opera, and Opera can load and run javascript from a specified directory and has a URL blocking feature (although there’s no NoScript or CustomizeGoogle). The only reason I don’t use it more is because it lacks a find-as-you-type feature.
I’m probably going to end up getting rid of Firefox and switching to Chrome though, the standard tab system is really quite broken.