ActiveMac - The Most Activated mac Resource

ActiveMac

User Controls

New User

Edit/View My Profile

ActiveMac

Articles

Forums

Links

News

News Search

Reviews

News Centers

Windows/Microsoft

DVD

ActiveHardware

Xbox

MaINTosh

News Search

ANet Chats

The Lobby

Special Events Room

Developer's Lounge

XBox Chat

FAQ's

Windows 98/98 SE

Windows 2000

Windows Me

Windows "Whistler" XP

Windows CE

Internet Explorer 6

Internet Explorer 5

Xbox

DirectX

DVD's

TopTechTips

Registry Tips

Windows 95/98

Windows 2000

Internet Explorer 4

Internet Explorer 5

Windows NT Tips

Program Tips

Easter Eggs

Hardware

DVD

Latest Reviews

Applications

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Norton SystemWorks 2002

Hardware

Intel Personal Audio Player 3000

Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer

Site News/Info

About This Site

Affiliates

ANet Forums

Default Home Page

Link To Us

Links

Member Pages

Site Search

Awards

Credits
�1997/2004, Active Network. All Rights Reserved.
Layout & Design by Designer Dream. Content written by the Active Network team. Please click here for full terms of use and restrictions or read our Privacy Statement.

RIP Internet Explorer?

Time: 16:11 EST/21:11 GMT | News Source: IDG | Posted By: Robert Stein

It's hard to imagine that anyone would continue to use Internet Explorer faced as it is with such massive security issues. If it were a car rather than a browser, it would have been scrapped. But despite very good reasons for moving browsers, people still aren't. Why? There are a multitude of reasons but by far the simplest is that average Joe doesn't know what the hell browser security issues are, or even that the browser is just a piece of software used for accessing the Internet. Thanks to Microsoft's spectacular decision (causing it to fall foul of competition law) to bundle Explorer with Windows, people don't know anything of any other browser. To many people, Explorer is the Internet.

Write Comment
Return to News

Displaying 1 through 25 of 316
Last | Next

The time now is 3:34:58 PM ET.
Any comment problems? E-mail us

#1 By 5948 (65.216.38.194) at 7/16/2004 4:16:56 PM

Another unknown trying to get attention again...

#2 By 3339 (64.160.58.135) at 7/16/2004 4:39:53 PM

Maybe people should learn to read... The story is very even-handed, and the final conclusion/answer to the question is:

"RIP Explorer? Nope, it's here to stay all right."

#3 By 2960 (68.101.39.180) at 7/16/2004 4:58:23 PM

Well, I think it's pretty well on track.

Just because it doesn't say what you want to hear, doesn't mean it isn't right.

IE is Browser Swiss Cheese. It really is.

TL

#4 By 135 (209.180.28.6) at 7/16/2004 5:43:23 PM

Given all the recent security flaws which have been found in Mozilla, it is hard to believe that anybody would still be recommending it to users.

#5 By 21203 (4.5.32.137) at 7/16/2004 5:51:42 PM

Funny.

I wonder if IE simply autoupdated itself regardless of your choice, whether this would even be an issue? Probably not.

I wonder if people had this feature turned on, whether they would really care about vulnerabilities? Probably not.

It's called autoupdate. It's a windows feature. Fortunately for most, XP-SP2 will almost insist you use it.

Don't claim that any other product is better... the "nightly build" of Firefox has oodles of issues in and of itself, and it's autoupdate process isn't exactly smooth either. But hey, it's beta..

Wait til a 1.0 Firefox has reported security issues. I'll be checking Bugzilla ... will you? By then it'll be a "mission-critical capable browser".

#6 By 931 (67.33.100.188) at 7/16/2004 8:31:30 PM

You all might want to wait untill IE's market share has dropped below say .. 80% before you start calling it dead... pathetic far as I last knew it still stood at about 90+% of the market. You cannot say product is dead when it's in that position.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22105117&tid=13692
"Internet Explorer has had more than 95% of the browser share for the past two years, and until early June, had owned about 95.7% of the market. Within the last month, however, Internet Explorer's share of the U.S. browser market fell from 95.48% on June 4 to 94.16% on July 9. "

...will IE lose some more market share.. sure it will you cannot basicly halt product development for a year+ and not expect to lose a few %'s of the market. MS ain't stupid which is why last month they re-constituted the IE development team and pull the a pm from the longhorn team back to his roots to head up the ie team.

Firefox is a pretty good browser, it will win back some market share from microsoft, but magicly killing off I.E. it will not. No browser will ever be without flaws, Mozilla's had them, opera's had them, and IE has certainly had them. Course MS has hundreds of millions of consumers and applications to worry about when doing updates.. Mozilla for the most part..does not.

The next thing you all will bitch about is how annoying all the security features in xp-sp2 are.. yet have moaned about the very same lack of those features for years..

So predictable.

#7 By 21203 (4.5.32.137) at 7/16/2004 8:57:57 PM

#10 -- Regarding the "same day" patch, IE can and will patch things in hours if necessary. The problem is that Firefox is not mission-critical ready and not supported (if you need a quote from their website, you can find it yourself -- that's what Mozilla says about their software).

So any same-day patch is just as viable as getting the new beta-of-the-day.

Hardly any reason to rush off and say they're "so quick" to fix something. There's no regression testing, no compatability testing, nothing. It was just one guy excluding some code. Big whoopity doo.

Also, you may need to learn this little tidbit of knowledge: If you can receive a file, you can get a virus. Last I checked, Firefox allows you to download files.

#8 By 21203 (4.5.32.137) at 7/16/2004 9:05:10 PM

Additionally -- bear in mind that ultimately everyone wins. I could care less if Firefox was 51% of the market. The bottom line will be that there are web standards that everyone should/must adhere to, and if Firefox can do it, so can IE. If IE won't do it (which might be the case) an addon can do it. MyIE2 (now Maxthon) for example...

The point is that everyone has now moved the browser arguments to features and security where the previous arguments had usually been around standards. Well, anyone can do features. You honestly think IE can't do the features of Firefox? Hm. Maxthon is doing them already, using the IE engine (and also the gecko engne! whoda thought... that's kinda cool)

This post was edited by mram on Friday, July 16, 2004 at 21:13.

#9 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 7/17/2004 12:40:49 AM

Seven (7). That is the number among 2.5 million people that came to our networks this week to do real work in real applications of every variety, who also used a browser other than IE 5.0 or above. 91% used corporate systems where solid administrators configure user browsers within very safe and responsible limits.

As much as the public networks are for entertainment and education, they are used far more for work - from what we see.

Twelve (12) That is the number of sites we re-coded to work better with Opera/Safari, or Mozilla/Firefox. Side by side, despite pixel for pixel readiness, pages in browsers other than IE do not look as good [subjective assessment].

Zero (0) That's the number of companies that paid fees to my company for development and services in the past 5 years that expressed a desired use of browsers other than IE as their preference.

It is about choice and people make those choices each day. For decades they have chosen Micrsoft products. When asked what platforms we support, we say, whatever you would like.
We maintain them all and support development in all. Consistently, the teams running .Net smoke all others in earnings and frankly, spirit - they seem happier and much less bitter. The .Net teams seem to get off watching customers do great work with good applications.
The J2EE group spends a lot of time turning to the .NET group to get around one limitation after another - be it active archives, backup solutions, SMTP relays, redirections, VPN's - you name it. IE is only one part and a good part and certainly can be supported and secured. A few helper documents, a few videos - mix on some GPO, and Voil'a - safe surfing. If anyone really assessed any other browser or platform is better, present a business case, support it with research, sell the management team and then implement it and take responsibility for it.
For me, I have bills to pay, and people to care for and I would not place even a small bet on alternatives that cost more, take more time and are not nearly as well supported. Welcome to life on the African Plain where animals are eaten and animals hunt. It is just the way it is - it's just business.

#10 By 143 (68.74.56.161) at 7/17/2004 2:09:44 AM

(#10) "pd. sinces I use Firefox I dont need an Antivirus"

The day I don't use a virus scan is the day before I format... >:-))

#11 By 11888 (64.230.75.245) at 7/17/2004 2:15:05 AM

I don't know why I keep coming back here. It's like watching a train wreck.

This post was edited by MrRoper on Saturday, July 17, 2004 at 02:16.

#12 By 21203 (4.5.32.137) at 7/17/2004 3:35:55 AM

Fair enough.

You might claim that the Slate author was recommending Firefox, but he does not expressly state it.

And the recommendation to "not use IE" from the US-CERT was based upon a vulnerability that already didn't exist in SP2. Since the US-CERT cannot recommend an upgrade to a beta client, they clearly were showing the only viable recommendations.

Not to mention that they did issue patches... I don't see what the big deal is.

Honestly, just wait 2 weeks. See how well SP2 fares. Damn near everything in the last 3 months (that I've seen) has been "this isn't a vulnerability on SP2". Seriously.

#13 By 18227 (68.98.156.77) at 7/17/2004 7:39:45 AM

So are there any real-world examples of people or companies who've had their financial data compromised, identities stolen or computers taken over as a result of these "security vulnerabilities" in IE? People who have, for example, visited a "malformed Web page" and had their computer hijacked? People who've visited a Web site that put a keystroke logger on their machine and the next day their bank account has been emptied?

If it's as bad as some of these people are saying, there must be thousands of these poor souls, or at least hundreds. So a few dozen names must have made their way into the news.

So what are the names, dates, places. Can we come up with 10 examples? Five? One?

#14 By 24193 (64.123.119.115) at 7/17/2004 3:01:54 PM

I think that the reason why so many people are still using IE is comparable to the reasons why people can't quit smoking, drinking or practicing a religion. Some habits become thoroughly ingrained and people see no valid reason to give them up. Admittedly, I still keep IE around, but only to access WindowsUpdate. I also have MYIE2 (now called Maxthon) installed, Opera and Mozilla Firefox. I rotate for when one of them pisses me off.

I probably wouldn't keep IE or an IE compatible on the system at all if not for two things...(a)WindowsUpdate and (b) the college courses I'm taking require an IE compatible browser (hence Maxthon).

#15 By 2960 (156.80.64.137) at 7/19/2004 10:20:33 AM

Blue,

Ok, so what's the score now.... About 2 (Mozilla) to around 500 (IE) ?

TL

#16 By 4240821 (213.139.195.162) at 10/26/2023 12:03:23 PM