Internet Explorer vs Mozilla Firefox.

[Wizzo]

On the latest tech news related to browsing software made by two distinct companies, there is a fight going on between Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, to see which one is the best in terms of security.

In one side we got a “not so good” argument from the Microsoft folks, bragging about the low number of vulnerability fixes, when comparing to the ones made by Mozilla to Firefox products. Some numbers to clarify the idea: 75 high severity issues for Firefox, while IE has 54; 100 on the medium category in Firefox, and 28 in IE.

As you can see, the numbers are much better to the Microsoft product, but what is the real meaning of these numbers when rating the security issues? Mike Shaver, from Mozilla, answers the question in a simple sentence:

Just because dentists fix more teeth in America doesn’t mean our teeth are worse than in Africa.

Conclusion: those numbers don’t mean much?

[Alianora La Canta]

I love that! Plus I see a major advantage when using Firefox over Explorer that it doesn't lock up my computer every five minutes (though I understand that some people have the opposite experience - that Explorer is more reliable for them than Firefox). Plus Firefox is easier to customise and respects correct XHTML standards better than Explorer. On the other hand, Explorer has more money and paid professionals invested in it, along with being better-integrated into Windows.

[cosworth151]

One thing that Firefox has going for it is that it is a small target for hackers. Because it has 90% to 95% of the market, hackers can hit far more computers by hitting IE.

Speaking of Firefox, they have an Elio de Angelis, Team Essex Lotus theme for it. Go to their add-ons sections, then to themes, then sports. It's on the first page.

[rmassart]

I've been a Firefox convert for about 4 years now (since before the official release). It's been great up until about 2 months ago. It is now crashing on me at least once a day. It's getting to the point that I am thinking of going back to IE7 - which is a big improvement on IE6 in my opinion.

[raindancer]

I do  not like to use MS products if I can avoid it, but it is difficult. As long as we are running any version of Windows, we are bound to experience some difficulties with Firefox, opera and some other browsers.
But if you look at the security flaws in IE and Firefox, Firefox comes out on top although I could be prejudiced as I am a open source supporter.

[cosworth151]

I saw a t-shirt today. It had a Microsoft dialogue box on it:

We are Microsoft
Resistance is futile
You will be assimilated!

[Alianora La Canta]

I'm gradually getting un-assimilated (I stopped using Explorer towards the start of the year, stopped using Office in early 2005 and stopped using Paint except in very unusual circumstances a few months back). So I have no idea where Microsoft get that idea from.

[rmassart]

What I find interesting is that the world seems to be so keen to get away from depending on Microsoft (which is obviously a good idea) that they don't realise how much they now depend on Google. They practically own the Mozilla foundation and therefore Firefox for a start... They produce free web apps funded by dodgy advertising revenues and thereby skew the competition in much the same way that Microsoft did by pusing IE on everyone for "free". 

Problem is there is no search engine that is better than Google....

[Alianora La Canta]

I got so fed up with the low quality of Google's searches that I stopped using it back in early 2004. I now rely on Yahoo!, Ask.com and Altavista. The only Google service I use (apart from Mozilla Foundation's Firefox) is YouTube.

[rmassart]

I got so fed up with the low quality of Google's searches that I stopped using it back in early 2004.

That's interesting because I usually find Google are better than others, although Yahoo does very well. Maybe I need to try Yahoo again.

I prefer Yahoo Mail to Google Mail anyday. But from an SME point of view (I work for a 6 person company who's main business is websites) avoiding Google is almost impossible. They offer lots of free tools (Google Analytics, eMail using your own domain name, Site specific search etc) which you have to pay for in most other companies. What do they get in return? Index all the email, all your site visitors and all your site search queries for later use. I'm sure Google know more about me than I do. In fact I reckon Google knows more about what I am going to do next than I do!

[raindancer]

I agree with Ali here and the Alogorithm that Google uses is getting better everyday. actually I have been involved in funding of a Search Engine development company out of Berkely and its pretty good. The new search approach is being Bio Mimtic and the foremost exponent of this type of search is a search engine called Seeqpod. www.seeqpod.com
Just check this out. This apart there are domain specific search engines which are gaining in popularity for the precise reason of turning up relevant search results. Google is on a much shorter lifecycle than Microsoft in my opinion. Try out Staroffice, open office and you will find a much hassle free experience.
In case you want to use the Mercedes Benz of Pc's just buy Apple.