Posted on 04/20/2005 11:52:18 AM PDT by r5boston
As security bugs swarm around the Firefox browser, volunteer marketers want to shore up the open-source project's security message.
With Monday's reports of the Mozilla Foundation's patches for significant new security holes that could let attackers install malicious code or steal personal data, Firefox partisans are finally acknowledging that the core sales pitch for their browser may be vulnerable.
"The versions of Firefox up to version 1.0.3 have had terrible security risks," wrote one participant for the volunteer Firefox promotion, Spread Firefox. "I think these security risks have undermined the promise of Firefox as a more secure browser."
While Firefox offers popular features like tabbed browsing that Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser doesn't have (third-party IE-based browsers do offer them), it has managed to take IE down a few notches in market share--primarily based on perceptions that Firefox is safer than IE.
As Firefox approaches the 50 million download mark, some participants have begun contemplating celebrations of that milestone. But others have begun to fret that security concerns are weakening what many see as the browser's primary raison d'etre.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.com ...
Ping
I wont be using it, I just spent two days getting my computer de wormed. It got in using firefox.1.03
ActiveX is still the biggest problem that MSIE has.
Most of the problems cited have been found by Moz developers and fixed, as opposed to MS who refused to take action on many bugs, until the bugs were made public by those who found them.
I will stay with Moz. It is still more secure.
"Swarm"?
Those aren't bugs in IE; they're features!
All that in 4 days, whew, a whirlwind
What was the name of the worm you caught? Don't know? If you don't know, how is it that you are certain that it came in via Firefox? Are you saying you were polluted up with Spyware or actually caught a worm? What site did you visit that caused this infection?
Firefox allows less malware to get onto my PC compared to IE, hands down.
I have both installed on my home PC but my wife still uses IE, even though I showed her how much better FireFox is. One of these days, though.
or, if my fingers typed what my brain were telling it to, "one of these days we'll make the switch for good."
I've converted my family and in-laws to Firefox. So far, no stupid IE support calls. :)
all the senior citizens at my church who have internet access, have come to me for help because they've fried their systems beyond recognition thanks to spyware, malware, etc. One lady had 1,748 items turn up in an ad-aware scan. in addition to an AVG scan that had 27 viruses. If they keep bringing their systems to me, I think I will begin installing firefox on their machines and setting it as the default browser.
I can't beleive the thing even booted.
Be sure to go to Holymoly for free downloads to solve and prevent troubles.
I run Win98SE with Mozilla,AdWare,SpyBot,SpywareBlaster,AntiVir and I've set the cookies to ask for clearance. Works like a charm.
fix=fixed
Rather than just taking it away from her, transition her.
What I did when I got resistance to an outright changeover was to hand her the use of "GreenBrowser". It is a tabbed browsing interface that overlays MSIE. It really is quite nice. It will get her used to the tabbed browsing interface while leaving all of her favorites etc, in place. One of the nice things is that it does not have to be installed and runs from a single executable file.
Then after a while, switch to Firefox. I told my wife that there were valid security reasons for doing so. She had to agree after I showed her the difference by running spyware scans after browsing sessions with both browsers.
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.