"and it wasn't the strong-arming or the marketing that motivated users to switch browsers, it was the features"

Err, so you're trying to say that having IE pre-installed on a zillion OEM boxes and pressuring OEM's to drop Netscape wasn't a factor here? The DoJ would certainly disagree, for starters...

Much as I hate to re-kindle any of the long-dead flamefests concerning MSFT and browsers, this is really a revisionist stretch on your part to claim that Microsoft's little tactics w/ the OEMs weren't the major factor in killing Netscape as the dominant browser.


"Mozilla Firefox, a browser with a smaller feature set but with better perceived, if not real, security."

And I can find IE's tabbed browsing feature... where? How about text zooming? Themes/skinning? (Oh, you can get themes and skins for IE... from third parties. Loaded with adware. Hooray.)

(Good to see they finally got popup blocking in place, though... but what if I don't have Windows XP w/ SP2 installed, just like, oh, 60% of the planet's Windows users?)

But I believe I know what you were getting at: because Mozilla/Firefox doesn't allow ActiveX (you know, that big, fat transmission belt for Malware?) ...it's suddenly shorter in the features department. Err, really?

"Despite seemingly endless public reports of security flaws in IE, I imagine that Microsoft has also quietly fixed hundreds if not thousands of other potential security flaws before anyone else discovered them..."

I agree to a small extent. However, if they didn't have a flawed foundation in the first place, they wouldn't be so busy trying to patch that leaky roof up there. Pretty much goes along with the whole theme of your article, no? To wit: "Will they take a step back and instead of fixing a specific URL spoofing vulnerability ask themselves why it is even possible to spoof a URL in the first place? Or will they question the strategy of such tight OS integration?" Indeed.

"I'll put up with the IE flaws for now, but show me you are planting the right seeds for the future."

You're a braver fellow than I am... I have too much stuff that needs protected. (which prolly explains why XP in its entirety is on my short-list for replacement on the P4 box with another OS entirely... once my just-purchased Macintosh dual G5 shows up. ;) )

/P

[ reply ]

Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/279/29256#29256