Comments on: 6 Reasons Why Mozilla Firefox Is Safe Compared To Internet Explorer

By: Tech Guy

Tech Guy — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:21:39 +0000

FF is faster and secure than IE. Microsoft always keep releasing patches and fixes but IE keeps crashing. Even IE8 does this. I heard IE9 is coming out.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:11:33 +0000

I am quite sure that Firefox is both more secure, and better, then IE.

However, I’m not totally convinced that Firefox is definitively better then Safari.

The lack of Add-ons in Safari are also a lack of Add-on compatibility issues. While Firefox tries to detect these issues, it doesn’t always succeed.

By: anthony

anthony — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:05:02 +0000

Give microsoft credit…for still not being up to par with their browser or OS after 20 years….
WAIT they do do major improvements, pretty icons, new splash screens, daily updates that are “critical”. Never time to do it right but always time to fix it….

Improvement is always good, but some ‘improvements’ do nothing but create more headaches. Is IE8 only 100% W3 compliant or do they still use their own brands of implementation (MS Java remember that and the law suits).

I have to use IE at work…the online app was designed for IE instead of being designed for browsers.

By: Mony

Mony — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:27:35 +0000

Very true. People fail to use a different browser, because they are too lazy to try a new one and hence IE always tops the user list even though it is the most vulnerable browser.

By: Shanna

Shanna — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:04:52 +0000

I saw a great comment in a tech article once that read, “Friends don’t let friends surf with IE.” I quote it all the time when trying to convince my users to make the switch from IE to Firefox.

By: Ashutosh Mishra

Ashutosh Mishra — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:50:51 +0000

You’ve got valid points there, but I don’t think Firefox is THAT safer than IE 7/8 at the end of the day. The browser competition has got so intense these days that most browsers simply don’t differ that much in these “background” issues like safety, web standards, and stuff.
I use Firefox because I like it’s features, and extensiblity, and the open source code, not because it’s safer than IE or Chrome or Opera. I wouldn’t give a damn about it’s security if it hadn’t all those features it has got today.

By: hr services

hr services — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:42:54 +0000

the open standard does not make much sense for a normal user…. all the other features are good

By: venkat

venkat — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:40:38 +0000

Everything rightly said IE’s active X always vulnerable to install malware and Firefox does release security patches very quickly.

By: Ashok Soni

Ashok Soni — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:51:51 +0000

I do believe the same. Once I used firefox long ago, I never went back to IE.. not only because of it’s security features but with a lot of other features too.. I am fond of it’s addons..

By: Flamebait

Flamebait — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:23:03 +0000

1) Absolutely. Good Reason.

2) Yes, having lots of people look at the source is good. However, open source is inherently less secure in one regard: it is easier to analyze the source to find exploits. This allows more intentional and surgical complex exploits whereas close source exploits are more closed related to hitting the application with a keyboard like an angry monkey until something happens.

That being said, it is much easier for an open source community to be responsive to vulnerabilities as they are discovered.

The security of an open source project is directly dependent on the community of users. It is unequivocally WRONG to say that a project is more secure just because it is open source. That is, of course, unless you can quantitatively show that the community in question is better able to detect, repair, and distribute fixes more readily than their closed source brethren.

Read: http://secunia.com/gfx/Secunia2008Report.pdf

3) Granted.

However, ActiveX applets can be signed as well. I wish that Firefox allowed the extensions to interact with the filesystem. ActiveX is a selling point, for me as a developer.

4) If you are that worried about script exploits, you can turn off the same things in IE.

In general, as a developer, I hate NoScript. At a minimal level, most sites track visits and usage patterns (e.g. where users come from for SEO purposes, etc). Disabling that ability can seriously mess with the data.

5) That reason is a painfully illogical. It is saying: “You should try it! It’s safe as long as there are not too many people using it!”

They are betting security on the fact that they are unsuccessful in attracting more people.

I hate this “reason” more than any others, because it just does not make sense. It is often used to try to lure people to Apple/Linux. The fact that people accept it shows that they are not thinking more than two moves ahead (to sayâ€¦ “Wait, what happens when the majority of people accept this reason and start using X product?”).

6) Yes. This is true, but stupid and wrong if you look into it at all.

IE performed the same (IE & FFX blocked 80% of phishing sites) or better (FFX: 27%, IE: 81% of “socially engineered malware sites”) in an independent trial of browser protection.

http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/08/25/1418210/IE-Should-Use-Googles-Malware-List?from=rss

——————

The real problem is: the universe will always build a better idiot. People will always find a way to unintentionally compromise their own security.

If you want to be “safe” on the internet, there are two parts:
1) Keep your software (browser and antivirus) up to date.
2) “Don’t be stupid” â€¦. paypal.awlekfjwef.tk is NOT the real PayPal site.

â€¦That being said, I have a giant Firefox banner in my bedroom and have been using it since it was called “Phoenix.”