Major problems with IE!

[dr_jo]

As one of these "joe user" people, I'd just like to say that I hate tabbed browsing. I'd much much rather have multiple windows open on the task bar. I know that Firefox doesn't force you to use them, but it seems to be the main selling point that people put forward.
As girlfriend to a Firefox convert/cult member, I get a fair amount of pressure to switch to it. But so far I can't see what I would stand to gain from it.
And I would still have to use IE for some of the sites I visit regularly.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Tabbed browsing is the most hideous thing ever. Ban it please.

IE may not be the most secure browser, but there is no piece of software that is totally secure. There is always a way around it. People lay into MS constantly about security issues in their browsers etc. when there's more people in the world doing their best to crack their code and get around it than there is in charge of that code. Basic probability tells us that it will be broken, repeatedly.

I've never had a problem with IE, been using it since before IE4, and never come across any of these 'security' risks to ever become a problem. There have been periods of excessive use, and normal joe bloggs usage these days. It does the job absolutely fine. In fact, I've never heard of a real person's computer security breached due to an IE exploit. I've never heard anyone on the net complain that they have been a victim of it.

If you're going to lay into MS products due to their security issues, please focus on the real problems: like their hideous Outlook.

At the end of the day, other browsers *may* be more secure, but it's very very unlikely. If one were to become the market leader in web browsers, you'd see all of the exploits you're seeing now for IE. Until other browsers can offer legitimate bonuses for using their browsers to the normal user, IE will forever be the market leader. It does the job well, it's stable, it's fast, it's got all the basic features you need. 98% of web users don't need anything more, so stop pushing people that don't need specific software to get it!

 

[Athan]

In fact, I've never heard of a real person's computer security breached due to an IE exploit. I've never heard anyone on the net complain that they have been a victim of it.

Tell that to my friend Rosemary whose computer got totally taken over by spyware from seemingly-innocent browsing. It took her (somewhat tech-savvy) boyfriend hours of TRYING to clean the thing with Adaware, Search&Destroy etc. before even he had to admit defeat and decide it was format and reinstall time.
I'd link to her livejournal posts about it, but even if they're public I doubt she'd want you lot tromping through and making silly comments.

It DOES happen.

-Ath

 

[Clown]

Don't believe you, ner ner.

 

[dysfunction]

Until other browsers can offer legitimate bonuses for using their browsers to the normal user, IE will forever be the market leader. It does the job well, it's stable, it's fast, it's got all the basic features you need. 98% of web users don't need anything more, so stop pushing people that don't need specific software to get it!

Netscape used to be the market leader until MS knocked them out by having IE nicely installed for everyone to use immediately. Its a much better product imo and always has been.

Unfortunately I have to use IE as some idiots try and be clever when designing web pages so that you cant browse them without IE.

 

[Shovel]

Some 'idiots' are also not as clever as they think they are. Most pages that are "IE only" are purely because the so-called developer has decided it's easier to copy across some browser-sniffing code and block out the rest of the world, than to check that his code works in other browsers. Or just because he's a Microsoft fanboy.

The worst however are the one's which block you but actually do work. Or actually would work. There's a Firefox extension for "User Agent" switching, so you can 'pretend' to be IE. When you get to the site using this, most of the time the site looks and functions absolutely fine, and it all just harps back to the time when people thought it was cool to block Netscape 4.

Bad example again: The O2 XDA website. It blocks you saying that you must run "IE or Netscape 6", but blocks Firefox which is based on the same (but newer) Mozilla tech than NS6. Utter crap.
That is why everyone should make pages using lovely code that degrades elegantly into older browsers (and will do for ever more), rather than pretending that they know better than the user for all time.
Sadly the same people who make websites with blocking also seem to be some of the same people that don't give a shit.

Interestingly, Opera (verison 7 at least) pretends to be IE by default. It's a functional choice to avoid egit programming like the above, but sadly means that web stats (recording who visited with which browser) are corrupted in favour of IE. Bad thing imho.

 

[]SK[]

I dont see why they shouldnt include IE with their OS's. I agree though they shouldnt force you into using things you dont want to use. Like bloody MSN opening everytime you open Outlook Express. I know the reg hack to stop it but I shouldnt have to be doing that. Why do they exploit MS Apps more than others? Simple, there about 1 Other Browser to 500 IE users.

 

[sibanac]

Why do they exploit MS Apps more than others? Simple, there about 1 Other Browser to 500 IE users.

that statement is flawed, about 70% of the webserver are apache, and about 30% are IIS.
Yet as far as i can recall i dont remember any large scale worm outbreaks on apache and a fair few on IIS.

IE is more insecure then the other browsers because the way it ties into the OS.

Even CERT is advising people to dump IE and use Opera/Netscape/Firefox

 

[]SK[]

Umm good thinking batman! I stand down.

 

[Gef]

Firefox is updated daily, you can rest assured that if there was a security flaw in it, there would be a fix out for it that night. Cant really say the same for Microsoft.

 

[fatbusinessman]

that statement is flawed, about 70% of the webserver are apache, and about 30% are IIS.
Yet as far as i can recall i dont remember any large scale worm outbreaks on apache and a fair few on IIS.

*bows to the mastah* :worthy:

 

[EvilMonkeh]

hmm
ie isnt that bad.
but the one thing that really pisses me off about it is this.
you start it. you know where you want to go. you type in www.cheese.com, but because ie is so shit it gets so far as www.che then puts the cursor at the beginning, giving ese.comwww.che

it happens every time, and it is extremely annoying.

 

[TdC]

http://www.theregister.com/2004/06/28/cert_ditch_explorer/


CERT says "use anything but IE, kids, or you may well get digital SARS"

 

[Tom]

hmm
ie isnt that bad.
but the one thing that really pisses me off about it is this.
you start it. you know where you want to go. you type in www.cheese.com, but because ie is so shit it gets so far as www.che then puts the cursor at the beginning, giving ese.comwww.che

it happens every time, and it is extremely annoying.

Not quite so annoying as the yellow popups that get in the way in the history bar.

 

[NetNifty]

Netscape used to be the market leader until MS knocked them out by having IE nicely installed for everyone to use immediately. Its a much better product imo and always has been.

Unfortunately I have to use IE as some idiots try and be clever when designing web pages so that you cant browse them without IE.

Also:

To make matters worse for Netscape, Microsoft used their influence with full force to prevent OEMs (an OEM is a computer maker such as Gateway or Dell) from putting Netscape on any of the computers they shipped. Microsoft told OEMs that they could not uninstall Internet Explorer and install Netscape's Navigator even when customers asked specifically for Netscape or they would lose their Windows licenses. For OEMs, losing their Windows licenses would essentially put them out of business, so they had no alternative but to submit to Microsoft's demands. So, Microsoft used their absolute control over something that OEMs couldn't do without (Windows) to push a totally unrelated product (Internet Explorer) into more places than customers wanted and keep other products (Netscape Navigator) out even when that's what customers wanted and what OEMs wanted to give them.

 

[Athan]

Excerpt from Malware attacks IE users via pop-ups

It seems that the suspect pop-ups are delivered on certain websites that run ads from third-party ad servers, which appear to have been hacked. When the pop-ups appear, vulnerable versions of Internet Explorer begin downloading a malicious file that records activity - such as passwords - onto the infected PC and sends that data to a server reportedly located in Estonia.

So yet another way that you can't trust any site because you may still get shafted via something it links to.

-Ath

 

[inactionman]

Excerpt from Malware attacks IE users via pop-ups



So yet another way that you can't trust any site because you may still get shafted via something it links to.

-Ath

And still no fix from Microsoft after nearly a week of the bug being exploited!

I :wub: my Mozilla Firemonkey! (I have the firesomething extension installed )

 

[]SK[]

Well I finally found what the bug thats been annoying me since I first started using firefox. At first I thought it was just when you first open up Firefox.

If you goto a web page with a textbox and click inside it (get focus) then click the address bar list to drop it down, it opens and quickly closes. I use google as my homepage which sets its focus in the text box when the pages loads. Im going to have to change my home page now just because of this bug. Glad I know how to avoid it though now.