Could Newer Browsers Dethrone IE?

Dethrone IE ?....not in my remaining online lifetime IMO....because M$ will always maintain...."the browser that 90 percent of Web users have installed".

While MANY users are reaching for alternative browsers....the % of users that will always be clueless when it comes to securing their OS, Browser, AV....etc....will remain at a veryyyy high % level due to their lack of knowledge BUT....the % number of knowledgeable users IS increasing compared to the level of just a few years back. Why....because of the many Forums and knowledgeable users that are willing to share their knowledge....not only here @ Wilders but other respective Forums.

 

I'm not clueless for starters.

Internet Explorer is not that bad. Its the most popular so common sense says people are going to exploit it more than a alternative browser. I guarantee you that Firefox, if it was the leading browser, would be seeing just as many problems with security issues as IE is.

 

I agree with you, but Mozilla will fix security vulnerabilites in days, not months like Microsoft. Both browsers aren't perfect though.

 

"Bad" behavior comes from having monopoly power. It would be interesting to see how Mozilla would behave if it were dominant. The only other example that I can think of is Netscape, which let itself get fat and lazy - gee, that sounds familiar

Regards - Charles

 

Or maybe..... the best browser is always the most problematic browser, and the lousiest browser is the least problematic.

 

We sure hope you do not think Microsoft has any kind of monopoly.

Merriam-Webster = monopoly 1 : exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of supply, or concerted action.

Maxthon although using the IE engine is more secure than IE because of superior programming and some say it is more secure than Firefox! Please see here for a discussion regarding the last item.

 

Probably right Brent. Anything that is popular is the most targetted or used, etc.

Call if the "tall poppy syndrome"... a lot just have to bash it, etc. because of its status. People like to cut it down to size so to speak [although IE sure is a big fella, lol]

I use FF primarlily now, because of varying features, etc. but continue to use IE occasionally when I really want Flash to run on a site. Too lazy to install on FF

Cheers, TAS

 

Nice link Q

I only installed latest Maxthon couple days ago and liked it very much.
hmmm.. shall have to do some comparisons with them personally.
Thanks.

Cheers, TAS

 

You are quite welcome, anytime!

 

It's funny how you think the security of a product depends on the size of the userbase.

As a counter example that popular does not mean unsafe, MS IIS web servers are by far hacked more than alpache servers, but the later hold a 60% market share and hence are the standard compared to MS IIS.

How do you explain that?

 

I personally continue to use Internet Explorer. I actually prefer it over Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, etc. However, I am definitely not blind to its deficiencies and vulnerabilities. I do think there is truth to the statement that IE appears somewhat worse than the alternatives since it is targeted precisely because of its 90+% marketshare. But, that certainly isn't the whole story either. The truth, as always, lies in the middle. I would suggest, even absent the hacker-targetting arguments, that IE is more insecure than alternatives primarily due to two reasons: 1) IE supports more powerful and aggressive functionality in the form of ActiveX controls which depend almost exclusively upon a digital signatures/"trusted" source security model as opposed to sand-boxing or some other restricted process paradigm; and 2) Microsoft had largely stopped active development on IE about 3-4 years ago and has only recently reconstituted an IE development team.

I think many people waste too much time arguing about browser choices right now. It seems to be the current fad to hype up alternatives over IE. That's ok. But just don't let the hysteria grow to such a point that people start believing in a false sense of security... i.e., that they begin to assume that they are impervious to attacks and vulnerabilities just because they use a certain piece of software, say FireFox. Pretty much all software has an issue somewhere, and it's usually only a matter of time before someone finds a method to exploit those issues. Always remain vigilent when it comes to security. Always continue to educate yourself, as time allows, to the current threats/vulnerabilities and the means to mitigate, correct, or patch those risks.

In practice, I think that browser vulnerability issues are a minor blip on the overall network security radar and people often act as if the simple choice of FireFox as your browser makes every other computing risk disappear. This attitude is highly misleading at best and downright dangerous and fraudulent at worst. As far as I can tell, the big attack vectors continue to remain: 1) social engineering tricks, "check out this cool screensaver" type emails, phishing emails, etc.; 2) unpatched and un-firewalled systems vulnerable to RPC/DCOM/NetBIOS worms and attacks; and 3) peer-to-peer vulnerabilities and/or the propogation of remote access trojans through such networks by naive users.

IMHO, Microsoft is getting better with regards to security issues. I'm also not so sure that I agree with the "time to issue a patch" arguments either. Microsoft has to test a lot of different version, language, and service pack combinations that competitors often don't always vet out. Could Microsoft be quicker? Yes, probably so, but I don't feel that they are as slow as they are often made out to be when you hear all of the facts surrounding a given patch release.

 

The Top Dog will always command greater visibility. Unfortunately, since IE is integrated into Windows, any IE problem could, theoretically, compromise Windows.

Maxthon/IE is probably the most compatible browser in the world today. Firefox is all about speed and customization. The Fox is more stable with my setup, but it times out too quickly when loading multiple pages at the same time. Reloading timed-out web page can be problematic, too. Still minor complaints with this beta software.

 

Internet Explorer has another edge in that it comes pre-installed.

I'm not a fan of IE,but I don't think it will be "dethroned".