Actually, the software defect count for FF is measured at 611 - many of which house multiple defects. How many of these present vulnerabilities is not published - to give the foundation time to address them? The count, following extensive machine testing, has been hotly debated, but it is the same machine testing that is used to evaluate many thousands of well known applications and it is well respected.
It is highly likely that FF has many more vulnerabilities than are reported as found - I say that given the probability that it has been looked at less and over a shorter period of time.
None of that matters, however... it and its developers still represent an amazing accomplishment. It did re-energize browser development across the board.
I remember so very well, when IE 4.0 first came out - its features won over many Netscape users - long before IE was bundled and shipped inside Win98 - truth be told, IE 4.0 is what creamed Netscape. Microsoft, working for both web developers and users, simply made a great step forward in browser development. Firefox did the same thing in 2004 and drove it forward. Microsoft has countered with a great browser - fast, more secure and with the features most users say they want [just not myself ;) who needs tabs.... is my position].
Anyway, it is just silly to beat up on any of these browsers - especially FF, which as I said, seems to have driven more attention to what people wanted and needed and helped push new development in IE. The cool part is that FF's devs did it with so little support as compared to IE's resources - that's why they deserve so much respect.
That does not mean that FF's devs should shy away from machine tests, or bad news with test results - I suspect they do not, really, and they just keep working - as evidenced by the legacy code review they are performing to remove a lot of dormant old code.
All this also in no way suggests that Microsoft should open any of their code - what for? They are a commercial software company and like any company, it is their property.
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