Posted on 10/19/2009 1:15:38 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
A war has been raging between different web browsers for a long time now. The two main combatants in the battle are Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Firefox from Mozilla. Microsoft is still in the lead in marketshare with IE, but Firefox is grabbing up a large portion of the market for itself.
Firefox hit the one billion download mark in August and has 32% of the browser market while IE holds about 60% of the market.
Mozilla and Microsoft are working together on a security flaw in some Microsoft add-ons that affects Firefox users. Mozilla reports that it has blocked two Microsoft add-ons installed silently for computers running the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. The add-ons that Mozilla is blocking are the .NET Framework Assistant and Windows
Presentation Foundation component because of a vulnerability that the add-ons allow for Firefox.
Mozilla VP of engineering Mike Shaver wrote in a blog post, "Because of the difficulties some users have had entirely removing the add-on, and because of the severity of the risk it represents if not disabled, we contacted Microsoft today to indicate that we were looking to disable the extension and plug-in for all users via our blocklisting mechanism. Microsoft agreed with the plan, and we put the blocklist entry live immediately.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailytech.com ...
“Mozilla Blocks Add-ons from Microsoft Because of Vulernability”
Heh... eye ron ic... ;’)
When I use a browser on a Wintel machine, and have a choice, I’ll take Firefox every single time. :’) The machine I use at work allowed me to install iTunes the other day, and my coworker couldn’t do the same with the file I’d downloaded; I’m now tempted to install Firefox as well.
Firefox is used by about 52% of visitors to my web site (aimed at amateur radio / electronics) and IE about 45% according to last week’s statistics.
Jack
What’s the benefit of Mozilla? I just don’t see it. I have to routinely fix a pc I don’t own and Mozilla drives me batty with a whole slew of broken plugins. I want to wipe out the whole thing.
I use IE, and I’m quite happy with how it’s progressed over the years. No stability issues.
MS put the add-on in a security update to the .net framework.
I uninstalled it when I found out about it. MS didn’t make it easy to get rid of.
Firefox is safer, in that it is not exposed to nearly as many exploits as IE. It also has been in advance of IE in terms of introducing useful features, such as tabbed browsing, although IE now has some of Firefox’s features.
I’ve not had a problem with Firefox plug-ins, and I’ve used it since version 1.5 or so. I also use Thunderbird as my E-mail program and find it superior to Outlook, let alone Outlook Express.
Jack
I detested Firefox and it’s monthy re-installs, but I haven’t tried it in years. Mozilla did the right thing here.
I haven’t gotton any warnings and I use FF 99% of the time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.