Internet Explorer. Best, Worst..?
 

Hi, I have been telling people why IE is bad. And why Firefox is better.
They seem to be stuck on IE being good.

Could you all give me more techinal reasons why IE is not as good as other browsers (not just Firefox).

And also Linux vs. Windows. Because there all Windows Junkies.

IE is heavily built into the windows operating system so when a page exploits the browser it can also get access to other things on the operating system. Since other browsers arent made this way exploiting them won't be as critical to your box

The ActiveX trainwreck and poorly implemented "security zones" concept.

//Moved: This thread is more suitable in the General forum and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Also, let's not get started on standards compliancy, or lack thereof.

Just tellthem that most pop ups only work on IE due to the way they are scripited, as well as the built in pop up blocker. As stated erlier IE has many exploits. Also Mozilla, firefox, opera offer tabed browseing.

Don't even get me started on the access to the registry...which in itself is the worst piece of design in the world.

IE has been radically improved though since the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2. I like these debates but hate it when people get their facts wrong :mad:

Since SP2 has come out IE now ships with a very good (was better than Firefox at the time) popup blocker, much more restrictive access that web pages have to your computer and a ton of other things which were suprisingly good considering where they came from. Standards compliancy is still crappy if even existant and it doesn't yet have tabbed-browsing but the IE dev team has started a blog and judging from it they are planning to implement stuff that people are asking for.

Firefox is better hands-down but still, it's nice to see they are slowly starting to fix the mess that is IE ;)

SP2 for xp was great, but SP1 for 2003 broke more than it fixed in my network.

Tell them of the joys of tabbed browsing and the add ons/extensions available for Firefox - that's a big conversion point for those I evangelise to.

You know, xavier, that actually IS what converted most of my coworkers! It spread like wildfire. Of course we still use IE for a lot of things, some of our enterprise applications actually use IE for an interface...but for personal use, firefox made great strides. We don't discourage it's use on the network, which is a great first step.

More and more people (and I mean non-technical users) are beginning to see IE for what it really is: a piece of insecure, bloated and buggy software. The number of viruses some people get on their systems is unbelievable! :o

I have had people around me complain of viruses in Windows and slowly everybody realises that Windows + IE is the best way to infect a system and make the PC into nothing more useful than a huge paperweight.

Some of those systems were so far gone (in viruses, trojans, whatever) that the only way I recommended to them is to wipe out their hard disks and install other OSes. It is not always possible because people are using Windows applications for their work, then I get them to use a Firewall/Antivirus and also browsers other than IE.

IMO wether or not somethign is better becomes a subjective matter. You can argue until you are blue int he face and it won't matter. IMO let people use whatever the hell they want. If you don't like it too bad.

The tabbed browsing is the big reason I switched. I would rather have 10 tabs across the top of my window than 10 in my taskbar. :rolleyes:

But then they want to get rid of viruses too. I think that people should be made aware that Windows allows so many viruses through in spite of so many updates and patches from Microsoft.

I have spoken to many people and the single most important reason they cite for wanting an alternative to browse the web is "virus attack"!

If linux had 90% of the market virus's would be just as numorous. I don't believe in an airtight program. If you are a virus writer which is cooler to say "OMG I just affected 5% of the computing world go me" or "Sweet! I just infected 40% of the computing world"

Well true to an extent. But the OS-level security in *Nix systems is definitely superior to Windows. I think most of our Linux experts would agree.

That's why we have "root" and "normal" users for. Always log in as a "normal" user and even if there were viruses, we'd not have our whole systems crashing down like Windows does.

And I am sure I can find Window experts who disagree. My point is while you think it is secure it probably is not. Someone would ifnd a way around it.

Not this one. Even microsoft employees know it is less secure. But you have to look at it's origins. Windows was designed for desktop use, linux for serving up. 2003 goes a long way to fixing some of windows inherent problems, but nothing short of a base up rebuild is going to make it safe. And true, someone will always find a workaround, but it will be someone with a brain and not skript kiddies. It's like criminals, I don't mind the true professional criminals, it's the yahoos with no impulse control and a gun that are dangerous.

I know there are other RSS readers out there, but my family are all hooked on getting the ABC Breaking News as a live bookmark.

--Ian

You only need one reason to convince people why IE is bad: Due to Microsoft's decision to declare IE as part of the operating system (yeah, sure) it has been so heavily integrated into Windows that you pretty much cannot avoid using it. The problem with this is that IE has become the default method for accessing your local files (which presumably are safe and secure and can be opened without concern) in addition to being the default method for accessing files of dubious/unknown origin on the Internet. In other words, Microsoft has made IE the single tool to access both your PC's safe, internal files as well as potentially infected, dangerous, external files. This would be analogous to using a single knife to scrape, umm, "dirt" off your boots and then using it to cut your food at the dinner table. No thanks. -- J.W.

I think SP2 broke more than SP1. Do some googling on that on though. I know a major corp, that won't touch SP2. Now that should say something. I have tried both and don't bother with sp2 either. Just remember Windows are made to be opened.

I know Major Corporations who won't touch Linux does that say something? No. my argument right now is I don't care what OS or program you are running if it has 90% market share someone will break it and someone willl make it easy to do for others.

And wether or not something is better ends to be a subjective thign as well. Otherwise everyone would be linux by your argument. But they aren't. It really comes down to personal opinion. if someone feels IE is better you can try and argue with them until blue in the face but its a waste. Personally I avoid IE like a plague that it is. And yes Firefox has many advantages to it. But some of them could get lost as it gets more popular.

I have converted several of my friends and relatives from Windows and IE very fast...

... after they've suffered multiple virus attacks. ;)