Internet Explorer Sucks

Crypto-gram ^ | 01-15-2006 | Bruce Schneier

[zeugma]

Internet Explorer Sucks

This study is from August, but I missed it. The researchers tracked three browsers (MSIE, Firefox, Opera) in 2004 and counted which days they were "known unsafe." Their definition of "known unsafe": a remotely exploitable security vulnerability had been publicly announced and no patch was yet available.

MSIE was 98% unsafe. There were only 7 days in 2004 without an unpatched publicly disclosed security hole.

Firefox was 15% unsafe. There were 56 days with an unpatched publicly disclosed security hole. 30 of those days were a Mac hole that only affected Mac users. Windows Firefox was 7% unsafe.

Opera was 17% unsafe: 65 days. That number is accidentally a little better than it should be, as two of the unpatched periods happened to overlap.

This underestimates the risk, because it doesn't count vulnerabilities known to the bad guys but not publicly disclosed (and it's foolish to think that such things don't exist). So the "98% unsafe" figure for MSIE is generous, and the situation might be even worse.

<http://bcheck.scanit.be/bcheck/page.php?name=STATS2004>

[zeugma]

This ought to get the flames flying. I haven't taken a close look at the methodology used here, and it may well be flawed, but it is an interesting bit nonetheless. Y'all might want to check out the rest of the Crypto-Gram as well, it's always got some interesting stuff in it.

[pcottraux]

I agree. I use FireFox. It rocks! My internet surfing pleasure has gone up 100%.

[Andy from Beaverton]

Mac's Safari is safe about 100% of the time. Bring on the hate mail. I hate my pc too!

[pctech]

Internet Explorer sucks?

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CLUE?????

[The KG9 Kid]

I use Firefox too. It really is the best, and I didn't switch for 'I hate Microsoft' reasons.

Firefox removes a lot of baloney that Internet Explorer forced on users, all security issues aside. I sure am glad that I switched.

[hiredhand]

[indcons]

Opera is a GREAT browser....have been using it for 7 yrs. now and have had no reason to complain.

[Cacique]

Ping

[Izzy Dunne]

Did you hear that Microsoft is going into the vacuum-cleaner manufacturing business?

Steve Ballmer said that it's time to make a product that DOESN'T suck.

[Always Right]

Netscape was the best browser. IE screwed everything up by adding features that opened up computers to viruses. Computer programs that just do the basic functions are the best. But programmers need to stay in busy so they are always adding stuff to programs that just make the bulkier, harder to use and buggy.

[31R1O]

What I like about it is that it is so customizable. Different skins, plug-ins and it seems more stable than IE.

[TChad]

Interesting piece, but it only covers the year 2004.

[lesser_satan]

Tabbed browsing is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[carlr]

I use both Opera and Firefox.I think Opera has better features but on my crappy dial up it has problems loading pictures.
While a picture is loading if you scroll down the page it loses the whole picture and has to start over when you scroll back.

Is there a fix to this?

[r9etb]

Yyyyaaaaawwwwwnnnnnnnn..... I suppose I could get all upset about this sort of stuff too, except I have a life.

[TomGuy]

30 of those days were a Mac hole that only affected Mac users.

I thought the Mac {snicker} users were immune from these things. The way they tout Mac's. Maybe they mean Big Mac's.

[operation clinton cleanup]

To make Firefox even BETTER... try this:

http://forevergeek.com/open_source/make_firefox_faster.php

[bcsco]

I've used Firefox for the last year and will never go back. The only regret I have is that it takes longer for it to come up but, of course, IE is loaded along with Windows so, Duh!

Firefox, ZoneAlarm, AVG, Ad-Aware, SpyBot; don't go online without 'em! Now if I can only get my PC to feed the dog...

[softwarecreator]

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CLUE?

He said "Internet Explorer sucks" so apparently he doesn't have one.

[operation clinton cleanup]

see post #17