YAFT (yet another firefox thread) - dedicated to RichardM

[Jon M]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/28/_ie_firefox/

Not much to say really, don't shoot the messenger!

[bmxbandit]

i think that sums it up for me

good to hear it's on the increase, even the peolpe who don't like it have to admt it's forced ie to adapt and improve, can only be a good thing.

Originally Posted by bmxbandit

good to hear it's on the increase, even the peolpe who don't like it have to admt it's forced ie to adapt and improve, can only be a good thing.

And why should I admit that? I'll never use FireFox, I'll stick with Avant for as long as it lasts.

[bmxbandit]

Originally Posted by Electrolyte

And why should I admit that? I'll never use FireFox, I'll stick with Avant for as long as it lasts.

a damned good browser it may be, but it hasnt taken off in anything like the same way as firefox. this is a question of economics more than anything else.

[Jon M]

avant, greenbrowser, maxathon and the like are not browsers, they are simply alternative front ends to IE and therefore subject to the same exploits/flaws of the same.

This is great news. And yet in my job I am still being approached by companies selling browser-based communications technologies that work in IE only. They usually have 'Microsoft Partner' logos proudly emblazoned on their sales material as well.

I am always delighted to tell them that I do not do business with companies that blindly re-sell M$ technology that abuses the first principles of the internet. And with FF taking an ever-increasing share of the market, I expect others will be delivering that message too. Hopefully we will soon see a cascade effect that will force these companies to start adhering to standards, which in turn will further open the possibility of more people switching to FF - or any other browser for that matter.

[punky]

Originally Posted by Chris T

This is great news. And yet in my job I am still being approached by companies selling browser-based communications technologies that work in IE only. They usually have 'Microsoft Partner' logos proudly emblazoned on their sales material as well.

There may be a way around this... Most of the IE only corporate end stuff I have seen uses ActiveX, which Mozilla supports. There is now a plugin for this, for Firefox.

ActiveX is no end of trouble though... Its the main thing that makes it so insecure.

Originally Posted by punky

There may be a way around this... Most of the IE only corporate end stuff I have seen uses ActiveX, which Mozilla supports. There is now a plugin for this, for Firefox.

ActiveX is no end of trouble though... Its the main thing that makes it so insecure.

No ActiveX for Mac though, AFAIK. It's still a restricted, proprietory technology and distinctly un-internet in spirit.

There is no way i would go back to using IE.

Its Firefox all the way for me.

[philip.j.fry]

Originally Posted by Chris T

No ActiveX for Mac though, AFAIK. It's still a restricted, proprietory technology and distinctly un-internet in spirit.

Or for any other system (discounting Crossover Office on Linux systems). Sadly, ActiveX is the thing that make it easy for people to rapidly create browser based applications which is why a lot of people are out there trying to sell their products based on it. Interestingly ActiveX is officially a platform-independant component architecture, it's just that there's only one architecture it's produced for.

[Richard M]

1 of every 10 users is a significant amount, when you consider how many 100's of million people use the net every day.

[Bifta]

Janulaitis cautioned that Firefox's reputation for security would likely be eroded as the browser becomes more widely used and hackers increase their attacks

[philip.j.fry]

True, so I'll enjoy it for a while then fickle old me will go elsewhere

I like the sig by the way, I might try that command out

[Jon M]

"Janulaitis cautioned that Firefox's reputation for security would likely be eroded as the browser becomes more widely used and hackers increase their attacks"

likely is different to definately

I think that it's an inevitibility that FF will be more under attack as time goes on.
However, I'd rather have a standards compliant swiss cheese than a bloated corporate beast swiss cheese.

No browser will be "secure" as such, at the moment though FF is the best of the bunch.

Originally Posted by s1lv3r

"Janulaitis cautioned that Firefox's reputation for security would likely be eroded as the browser becomes more widely used and hackers increase their attacks"

likely is different to definately

I think that it's an inevitibility that FF will be more under attack as time goes on.
However, I'd rather have a standards compliant swiss cheese than a bloated corporate beast swiss cheese.

No browser will be "secure" as such, at the moment though FF is the best of the bunch.

What I really want to see is security through diversity. I don't want to see 95% of the world using FF any more than I want to see that number using IE. If the world's desktops are evenly split between several browsers, then firstly the developers all have to comply with standards, instead of pushing their own mutated versions of standards, and more importantly it becomes far harder for hackers to get what they want - notoriety- because they can't affect the entire world simply by trying to exploit a weakness in one single browser, as IE allows them to do now.