Microsoft on Mozilla Firefox

[impetus]

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+says+Fire ... 48719.html

"Steve Vamos, Microsoft Australia's managing director, agreed, saying he does not believe IE's market share is under attack following the recent high-profile debut of the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser.

Vamos said that although he has heard other people mention the competitive threat posed by Firefox, he doesn't see it as a problem.
...

Vamos, who admitted he has never used Firefox, said there is a lot of hype surrounding the open-source movement and that if Microsoft's customers wanted new features, they would have told the company about it. "

^ you gotta be frickin kidding me - this idiot is a managing director for MS?

[weeperofsouls]

it isnt a threat. yet. but at this rate, in a few years it just might be. 2.48% more internet users now using firefox might not seem like a lot, but its not a handful of people.

[impetus]

matters not to me which is more popular, I'm referring to the belief that Firefox and IE are essentially the same. And the MS managers commenting - sheesh. If that's the kind of person running the place, GAH!

[weeperofsouls]

sounds like that idiot in the xbox division that said he didnt like the mario games because he couldnt grasp the gameplay. microsoft sure can pick em.

[Firthy2002]

Firefox will become more of a threat if MS don't give IE the overhaul it drastically needs.

[Stormwatch]

Well, what did you expect them to do... admit their browser's share is bound to go downhill because it is crap, and, as there are so many pieces of malware exploiting IE's holes, people are finally getting a clue and looking into more secure alternatives?

[navi]

Awww i thought you were talking about some ahem Windows on FireFox action

http://img109.exs.cx/img109/4952/WindowsxFireFox.jpg

[hearld500]

I hope firefox doesn't get as popular as IE. The popularity has caused all the security problems. Same with macs, if they were poplular, they would have all kinds of viruses, spyware, and other problems.

[weeperofsouls]

part of the problem with IE is that its a part of the OS, which in terms of security isnt a good thing. also microsoft sometimes drags their feet in releacing security patches.

[Stormwatch]

I hope firefox doesn't get as popular as IE. The popularity has caused all the security problems. Same with macs, if they were poplular, they would have all kinds of viruses, spyware, and other problems.

Nope... as I've heard, Apache is the most popular server software, but Microsoft IIS is hacked much more frequently. Firefox, Apache, MacOS X, and other products are designed with security in mind. Microsoft just doesn't seem to care about it too much.

By the way 1 - the firefox is not actually a fox, but a red panda.

By the way 2 - can some moderator edit navi's post to change that image into a link? It's a nice pic, sure, but it's huge, and it's messing with the page's width!

[mariobro]

Used to be, Internet Explorer worked better because of its tight integration with Windows...

But now, it's pretty much an open race.

My personal favorite is Opera. All of the features of Firefox, with a really cool interface. A kickass download manager, email client, and a tab system that actually works.

It's not free, but you get what you pay for. I'd say it's a must for 56kers. It's the fastest out there.

[Egotistical EvilN]

What's wrong with Firefox's tabs? :-/

And shouldn't Firefox be better because of all the plugins? I have a google toolbar, something that stops flash ads from playing, I can disable annoying ads (Punch the monkey! Shoot the gangster! Free IPOD!) and the only thing I don't like is not being able to copy a photo. Aside from that, I love firefox.

[Skynet]

My personal favorite is Opera. All of the features of Firefox, with a really cool interface. A kickass download manager, email client, and a tab system that actually works.

It's not free, but you get what you pay for. I'd say it's a must for 56kers. It's the fastest out there.

I gotta agree with EvilN, firefox doesn't have bad tabbings. Atleast it didnt seem like it to me

I have firefox and opera installed, but right now am on IE. But only for DCE. Does mozilla actually work with DCE and the 'quote selected' button? Both Mozilla and Firefox don't work with it

[Egotistical EvilN]

Try it in opera. It doesn't work for me either.

[weeperofsouls]

i find most browsers have their own specific uses. in opera, i love how you can save all tabs exactly as they were when you shut down. firefox is good for everyday use, and IE for sites that wont take anything but IE for some retarded reason.

[Tech^salvager]

I don't like FF that much, infact I find it to feel slow and bloated. My list of browsers goes like this

1.)Maxthon
2.)Advant
3.)IE

[BlackAura]

I hope firefox doesn't get as popular as IE. The popularity has caused all the security problems. Same with macs, if they were poplular, they would have all kinds of viruses, spyware, and other problems.

That's a bit of a fallacy. A lot of the problems with IE were caused by design flaws (such as the entire concept of "Security Zones", ActiveX controls, broken implementations of virtually everything, trying to be too clever for it's own good) which Firefox doesn't have. The rest are caused by the fact that IE was developed for features (yes, as pitiful as it seems now) first, not security. Firefox strictly wasn't designed to be highly secure either, but at least it isn't completely insecure by design. It also has sane default settings, which IE hasn't had until (arguably) IE 6 SP2.

For example, with the default settings, you can not install any browser component (extensions, themes) from any website except update.mozilla.com. Even if a malicious component does get installed, it can't do any damage to anything but Firefox, it can't harvest email addresses, it can't send emails, it can't hook itself into the OS so deeply that it can't be removed...

I have firefox and opera installed, but right now am on IE. But only for DCE. Does mozilla actually work with DCE and the 'quote selected' button? Both Mozilla and Firefox don't work with it Sad

Have a look at the Javascript for the Quote Selected button:

Code: Select all

        function quoteSelection() {

                theSelection = false;
                theSelection = document.selection.createRange().text; // Get text selection

                if (theSelection) {
                        // Add tags around selection
                        emoticon( '[quote]\n' + theSelection + '\n[/quote]\n');
                        document.post.message.focus();
                        theSelection = '';
                        return;
                }else{
                        alert('Select a text anywhere on a page and try again');
                }
        }

Some moron wrote the thing so that it will only ever work in IE, because it's using the IE-specific DOM rather than the WC3 DOM. There is no reason to do that, because the W3C standard DOM (supported by Mozilla, Opera, Konqueror, Safari, and even IE6) can do the job just as well. If you like, include the IE-specific code so it'll work on IE 5 as well, but only use it if the W3C DOM is missing...

Some people really don't know what they're doing.

[bizzle]

I don't like FF that much, infact I find it to feel slow and bloated. My list of browsers goes like this

1.)Maxthon
2.)Advant
3.)IE

I'm pretty sure those first two are just wrappers for IE, so they are vulnerable to the same exploits. Firefox, bloated? ROFL

[Tech^salvager]

I'm pretty sure those first two are just wrappers for IE, so they are vulnerable to the same exploits. Firefox, bloated? ROFL

Yeah both the first ones do. Also Maxthon is able to use the gecko engine to. Yeah bloated like I said.

[hearld500]

I hope firefox doesn't get as popular as IE. The popularity has caused all the security problems. Same with macs, if they were poplular, they would have all kinds of viruses, spyware, and other problems.

That's a bit of a fallacy. A lot of the problems with IE were caused by design flaws (such as the entire concept of "Security Zones", ActiveX controls, broken implementations of virtually everything, trying to be too clever for it's own good) which Firefox doesn't have. The rest are caused by the fact that IE was developed for features (yes, as pitiful as it seems now) first, not security. Firefox strictly wasn't designed to be highly secure either, but at least it isn't completely insecure by design. It also has sane default settings, which IE hasn't had until (arguably) IE 6 SP2.

For example, with the default settings, you can not install any browser component (extensions, themes) from any website except update.mozilla.com. Even if a malicious component does get installed, it can't do any damage to anything but Firefox, it can't harvest email addresses, it can't send emails, it can't hook itself into the OS so deeply that it can't be removed...

Oh I know that it has a ton of flaws. Howerver, the main reason so many were found was the popularity. Since most people use that, the attakers first choice would to be make software to run with the most likely browser a victem is going to be using.