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Get Rid of Internet Explorer - Browse Happy!
Matt writes "BrowseHappy not only tells us why IE is unsafe, but also provides "switcher" stories of people that stopped using IE and switched to a safer browser. This campaign is not so much against IE, but for the use of safer and more user-friendly browsers."
I feel like a Dutch boy plugging his finger in the proverbial leaking dikes.
IE vulnerabilities are dime a dozen, that I could well be a thousandaire (just doesn't ring right, uh?) Latest one is the drag-n-drop exploit. In fact, it becomes a down outright security risk just to have the blue E icon available on your desktop and startup menu.
So, I deleted the blue E icon thereby forcing the end-user to get exposed to Mozilla and Firefox.
They too went home and switched as well.
Looks like the groundswell support is brewing here. I wonder if this is also true elsewhere.
Not only is it designed to be a great browser, it has extensive plug-in support so you can make browsing what you want it to be, not what some Redmond-based empire tells you it should be... ;)
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"There *IS* no patch for stupidity" -www.sqlsecurity.com
I am not a windows bigot, nor am I a fanboy. I use Windows XP and related windows software because it just works, and I'd rather actually use the PC than constantly fight it. I've used Unix in the past (Irix actually) and LOVED it, however I've basically given up or more accurately abandoned the desire to use Linux because XP does pretty everything I need, and the software availability and stability meet or exceed what I need (graphic design, web development, 3D modeling and animation, games). Yes, I know there are "issues", but because I "know what I'm doing" and I'm protected by a firewalled router, as well as ZoneAlarm, SpyBot & TeaTimer, etc. I once again , just don't see the reason to learn a new OS. If I had a free week or two I might try Mandrake or something again. The above spout was just to give background that I'm not an OS freak, nor a complete luser. That said, I've always disliked IE as an application in it's own right (performance, memory utilization, UI, etc.), however after a few iterations of NS being complete crap (rendering , performance, etc.) I resigned to use IE. tried Opera, not really impressed, switched back to IE. Recently installed FireFox and I will NEVER use IE again unless the page requires the active X crap. I love everything about Firefox, and as more extensions become available, I love that I can make it work EXACTLY how I want it to work. My only complaint is that I wish it was lighter weight in terms of system requirements, as I'd love to be able to run it on some REALLY old PC's that are essentially worthless for anything but dumb terminal applications (one example is y Fujitsu Point510 tablet). Anyway, that's my story. I would love to see an extension that spellchecked text boxes in online forms though...
What I don't know I just fake...
This is comforting but not a perfect solution. I primarily used IE because most of my customers use IE and I want their same user experience. I tell developers to use IE for the same reason. Fortunately most online consumers not use lynx.
Just works? I recently had to use a new computer, and I decided to try IE. First site I went to, I was hit with three popup ads and a spyware download. Second site I went to was www.opera.com.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
that may be the result of spyware opening browser windows......
I know I'm going to be called a lamer and flamed out the ass, but screw it - it has to be said. I was going to move most of our lab computers to Moz this year but ran into issues with profiles. {sigh}
What is it with OSS software? They want to get noticed on the Windows platform, but the very people they need to have accept it (mainly corporations) can't/won't use it because of the hassles involved with profiles and/or user permissions.
Sometimes it's just minor problems - like Moz' inability to have things set up for multiple users on a box, but then there's OpenOffice.org. Not only is it a NIGHTMARE to install in a lab environment (although through reghacks, I got it to work well enough), but it also has problems with Terminal Server.
Now that said, there is progress being made. OOo 2.0 beta lets you install for multiple users and there have been discussions on Mozdev about my very issue with Mozilla.
I understand that 99% of the people who develop for these projects don't know/care about how a Windows shop operates, but if they want their programs to be used on this platform in larger environments, they'll have to start learning how to make them more friendly.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
It maybe wrong to do it without telling them but I would rather have them safe and secure than in the know.
One of my customers, a small book store, migrated to Mozilla after the rash of security issues arose with IE. When I perform such a migration, I always go back the next day to get feedback.
The owner of this store was deeply impressed by Mozilla. She now uses the Mozilla suite itself exclusively on her three computers on the store. What has impressed her more than anything hasn't been the fact that she has to deal with less spyware and more to do with the fact that she now has a *better browser experience.* Among other things, pages now load significantly faster...
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
I am not sure if you are genuine, or an inciteful troll....
The general public simply don't know any better. In my experience, anytime I do a spyware removal ($30-$60) I offer to install Mozilla for free. I explain that if they mostly use Mozilla, they will need my services less frequently. When put in terms of frustration and money, most people do listen and are willing to try it.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
True story.
I volunteered to look after a student computer lab at university. We did a fresh install of Windows 2000 on all the workstations, set up NTFS, applied all security patches and turned on the auto updater. The lab is firewalled and NATed through a Linux server that's running Samba as a primary domain control for an NT domain. All users have low priv accounts, authorized through the PDC on the local network.
In other words, this is a pretty secure setup, except for the local machines (everyone has physical access). But regular users don't have admin privileges.
There was something I found quite odd. After running for a year or so, I discovered that when I launched IE from my own account, it came up with the Yahoo bar installed. That's weird, I thought, since I'm the only admin and regular users don't have that kind of privileges.
I double checked the patches and hotfixes, yup, we're still up to date...
Fast forward... things started to fall apart after 1.5 years. Some how, spyware entering via IE from one account was able to 'infect' other accounts. Launching IE would immediately pop up ads - even in accounts that were never used before. Whole system-wide applications and spyware seemed to be installed by low privilege users. It's a bloody mess, I don't want to touch it any more.
I'm not sure whether Windows or IE is to blame (my guess is: both) but if they want me to volunteer my efforts to admin the lab next year, a bunch of 1st year students are going to walk in and find a bunch of dumb consoles running stripped down X interfaces to a FreeBSD server.
What we need is "fIErfox". It would be a version of Firefox with the default skin set to an IE look-alike, and the installer would basically be double-click, wait 30 seconds, then a box pops up saying installation complete. It would erase all traces of IE and replace them with itself, with the IE icon.
Call it IE upgrade or something.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
--Aristotle
I code in asp.net pretty much use many windows/ms related products but IE is just virus on many systems. My brother-in-law had 2 computers all infected with spyware and crap, he brought the first one, after fixing it I put netscape on it and told him to use it. About a week later he brought in the second system and he was so happy about the previous one working so well and loving netscape and all. No longer does he have to put up with pictures of naked women whenever he tries to browse the web.
I only managed to install mozilla on his second pc though. There is a stupid bug with netscape where it won't run if windows restores the registry. It has to do with profiles, pretty lame if you ask me. who uses those stupid profiles anyways. I tried all the fixes until I gave up and just installed mozilla. Seems to be working well.
Now if there was a button to make IE just disappear completely..
did you forget to take your meds?
Someone who is preaching to the masses about this is libertarian radio talk show host Neal Boortz whom had countless problems with his computer and finally got word about FireFox (I was proudly one of those who told him about it) now he is talking about it a lot and giving updates and has said he will NEVER go back to IE! With IE and popup blocking software he still got popups but with FF he said not he hasn't gotten a single one.
Making the IE icon launch an alternate browser may or may not be a good idea depending on your situation. It is obviosly a bad idea if you're actually trying to fool the user into thinking that they are still using IE, rather than teaching them that they must use the other browser.
However, swapping icons can be very usefull if the user knows what is going on. The reason? People get used to clicking on certain icons for certain taks.
I realised the extent to which this was important recently, when I switched from using Mozilla 1.7x (I had been using the suite's browser as my primary browser for for about 2 years) to Firefox 0.9x on my PC. For a period of time I had both, the Mozilla and the Firefox icons on my desktop (I was still testing if Firefox was good enough for me). The trouble was that out of sheer habit I would always click on the Mozilla icon instead of the Firefox icon. I tried removing the Mozilla icon all together, but I had myself searching for for it for a few seconds every time I wanted to go on the web, completely ignoring the Firefox icon. Finally, out of frustration I ended up making the Mozilla icon launch Firefox.
I had it like that for a few weeks.