Internet Browser Wars. August 7th 2004.

Source: Secunia.

ooh, and I use firefox on a daily basis?!! That will create big problems if they don't fix the leaks. Then again: Firefox has a developmental tab on it, unlike the finished version of IE SP2, which I find out to have no problems.


source: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/releases/

Every browser has its good and bad sides but in our opinion we can definitely tell (i hate to say this) that Microsoft Internet Explorer is the best browser available right now. We had to make so many changes on our website to make it look the same as in IE for Firefox and Opera that it was just killing our daily update time.

Firefox and Opera have things a little different, make them check more for errors (small ones like forgetting a alt="name" tag) and then displaying the site in the wrong way. We even had to put a margin from the left on top of the stylesheet to make our site work better in Opera.

Concerning security.. I currently do not think IE is less secure then Firefox or Opera. We have been doing some tests but like all things, it is up to the user what he or she accepts or not to install on his/hers pc. In the end, IE is still the most flexible browser currently available for the PC.

For all German User is here the German Link for Firefox 1.0.

http://ftp.scarlet.be/pub/mozilla.org/fire...Setup%201.0.exe

I don't know. I have a different experience. I had a lot of problems with spyware and viruses entering my computer when I was still using IE. Ever since I switched to Firefox this problems are almost completely gone.

I also have much more confidence in Firefox when it comes to fixing security holes. Usually when I find out about a security hole in Firefox it is already fixed or the fix is provided in a day or two. That is not the case with IE, where we wait for fixes for months or ve don't even get the fix.

And if you had to fix the page too look right in Firefox or Opera or any other standards compliant browser then it could only be because the site was not written properly and you used some nonstandard tags. In my experience as web developer I had more problems of fixing pages to work in IE as it is so bad at supporting the new standards or even correctly displaying the older web standards. It is starting to hurt advancement of web pages and interoperability among all browsers.

And I can't even see how IE could be more flexible then Opera or Firefox. They both have much more modern features like tabs and RSS szpport and things like that. And you can even add extensions in Firefox which make it even better. And there are a loooot of those extensions. And they are also advancing and developing faster then IE.

IE is just geting archaic. The same thing is happening to it as it was with Netscape 4 when IE 4 came out.

Moved the topic to Freeware software.

Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox. They can add anything from a toolbar button to a completely new feature. They allow the browser to be customized to fit the personal needs of each user if they need addtional features, while keeping Firefox small to download .

Here is a list of extensions for Firefox users.

Firefox extensions

JLP > First of all thats the same as when you say that there are more virusses and spyware for Windows then for Linux.

You cannot compare IE and Firefox in this case. Trust me, as soon as more people are going to use Firefox, also for that browser more and more spyware will be available, its all a matter of time!

Our site was written properly but Firefox uses the stylesheet in another way... we had te move some parts to another part of the css file and we had to built a margin from the left into our stylesheet. This was a bug within Firefox and Opera but has now been fixed finally. Also the way it handles forms and other integrated sitestuff is totally different. We checked our site with W3C and the css was 100% compliant but firefox and opera looked like hell. It is fixed now, so no bother for that anymore.

Security holes within IE are bigger because 95% of the internet users USES IE and NOT Firefox or Opera. Again as soon as more people will use Firefox and Opera, Spyware and security holes will also come more and more for those browsers. This is exactly the same as with Linux and Windows... You think about it!

I agree more with JPL. Being more popular doesn't mean there are more security holes in softwares. You can Google for some papers on this theme and most have come to the same conclusion. Or you can just take Apache for example of this. It is by far the most popular and used HTTP server and getting even more popular but still it has one of the lowest number of security bugs. Sure there is no app that has no security (or general) bugs. And the more complex the software gets there will be a higher chance to have bugs. But luckily some peoples do a much better job at planing more secure software and fixing existing bugs much quicker then others. And people at Linux, Apache and Firefox are very good.

Oh and BTW IE usage has droped below 90% in the last qouple of months (as counted by Onestat). And Firefox/Mozilla browser share has risen from about 2% to 8%. So it looks like people are finaly starting to learn about modern fast and secure browsers.

Our stats from all visitors

MSIE: 69.43 %
Mozilla and Netscape: 17.80 %
Opera: 4.314 %
The rest: xxxxx %

And indeed FireFox conquer the world soon!!

Tsiolkovsky :: I still dont agree on your thoughts. Although more people will use Firefox, I still do not think it will take over the use of Internet Explorer. Not now and not in the future....

Reason? Microsoft is behind IE and they KNOW what to do. If they will see a really big difference they will come up with a newer version of IE or something else. Its all a matter of time in this case. We just have to wait and see Microsoft conquer again! Remember, Microsoft has the biggest budget.... just look at the Xbox as an example.

Also, that IE dropped a bit doesnt concern Microsoft at all. Its good to see people switch sometimes and then... in the end come back to what they used to be working with. It's the same as with Linux, they can make it as good as they want, in the end most people will still use Windows and this is the case since 1985!

One big disadvantage from Microsoft, BAD SUPPORT, SLOW IN UPDATES/PATCHES!!

I would recommend Firefox for the sole reason that it is not integrated in the operating system. Internet Explorer is the portal for many security risks in the windows operating system. People should create their websites according to the standards developed by the w3 consortium since then they would work on other browsers like Opera of Firefox. Don't be fooled by a pot of gold

I have to agree with what you said in all your posts. I use Maxthon which is a sell for IE and its great. I've used Firefox and there were a few things that bugged me and I had a couple major problems with it.

1) I don't like the way they use tabs. You have to download a progam just so you can open links in another tab without either right clicking and telling Firefox to open link in another tab or using the thir mouse button. I always have at least 5 tabs open (one of them being TC Magazine) and I have Maxthon open favorites in another tab and searches in another tab, you can't do that with Firefox.

2) I found Firefox slower than IE. It just seemed to not only open slower, but also render pages slower than IE.

3) Since 1.0 after opening Firefox then trying to close it, it doesn't close and I end up having to go through tast manager. Then I went to open a favorite in IE and my favorites were deleted. Lucky I have them backed up or I would have lost every single one.

I sometimes use Opera and its an ok browser, still not as fast as IE, but has some good options.

Every browser, ever Os, has its flaws. I think MS is going in the right direction by making it so you can pick what part of the Os you want to use and leave the rest. This way if you want a file server, you just use the file server portion, if you want a web server you just use the web server portion. This will make it nice as scaleable and easier to update and fix bugs.

I'm not saying I'm 100% Microsoft. If Linux gets easier to use (not just installing and using, but also uninstalling and driver updating everyting) and gaming developers start making more games for it or atleast make the emulation better, I would consider updating. If Googles web browser which is going ot use Firefox is good I might switch. If AOL's browser is good (which if I read right it'll let you switch between Firefox and IE) I'll consider switching. But for now everytime I try another browser I always seem to come back to my Maxthon with IE.

I cant believe someone was dumb enough to make this topic. Firefox is an open source browser, people can easily fix the so called 'security holes' within hours of their discovery. IE never really gets updates.

when its the truth it should be posted