Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Says Firefox Not a Threat to IE
KillaKen187 writes "A CNET article claims that 'just days after the launch of open-source browser Firefox 1.0, Microsoft executives defended Internet Explorer, saying it is no less secure than any other browser and doesn't lack any important features.' It's also interesting to note that these statements made by Steve Vamos, Microsoft Australia's managing director, come with no knowledge of what Firefox has to offer as he admits not even installing or using Firefox."
Back when I actually needed to use IE to access certain websites, I would always use the free AvantBrowser mod. IIRC, AvantBrowser simply sits on top of IE, so it is actually IE at the core. Regardless, it's got lots of features - tabbed browsing, pop-up blocker, flash filter, key bindings and a bunch of other stuff. Pretty nifty if you _must_ use IE.
"You and your third dimension."
People are dumb, but in a different way that you're thinking -- people are dumb because they don't really know what they want until you give it to them.
Microsoft itself, for instance, became a success by giving people what they didn't know they needed, or by filling a void that no one realised was there.
The fact that they're now playing the "our customers don't want it" card is proof how much their corporate culture has stagnated: people don't want things like tabbed browsing, because they don't know they can have them.
I just find it strange that almost every person I've ever introduced tabbed browsing to has loved the feature, even those that still prefer to us IE.
[ think ]
How come the tabs don't respond to the Tab key?
In Windows, Ctrl+Tab will cycle through taps from left to right, whilst Ctrl+Shift+Tab will cycle the opposite direction. Standard Windows behavior.
Why do I want downloaded files to automatically saved to my desktop - what's wrong with "My Documents/Fire Fox/Downloads" so I don't get clutter all over my desktop?
Go to Tools, Options, Downloads, and change the default download directory if you'd like it somewhere else. Alternately, you can have it ask where to download every time.
I do not load "harmful ActiveX controls" but I want to load "useful" ones. In fact as a smart user I wonder how to make them work in FF? If a client of mine tries to use my web form (activex) doesn't see it he will get the shits with me - not his browser.
There are third-party ActiveX plugins if you really want them, but remember not everyone uses Internet Explorer or Windows - if I want to use my Risc PC to browse an ActiveX-based website, I'm out of luck. Beware of alienating a potential audience.
Google is part of my toolbar.
Firefox comes with a search bar built in, not tacked-on as a third party add-on, and supports plugins for virtually any other search engine you could think of. From my browser, I can instantly search Google, Amazon, the IMDB, Wikipedia...
I have the "Features you are used to" because I got used to them in IE.
Virtually every feature you'll use commonly in IE is present in Firefox, many done in a superior way. Granted, some pages fail to render properly in Firefox at the moment, but for the vast majority there are no problems.
Meanwhile, 'Fox has many features that are a godsend in day-to-day browsing. Pop-up blocking? I've found many manage to sneak through in IE 6 SP2, whilst Firefox not only can block popups more consistantly, but also supports blocking images through a simple right-click.
Tabbed browsing is something you have to experience to realise why you need it - if you're browsing along and find something you want to read later, just middle-click to open it in a new tab, still browsing in the same window. It just works.
And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
You may want to look into typing the url about:config in Firefox. Some of the settings that don't have user interface elements can be adjusted in that page. I don't know if all your concerns are addressed, but some of them (ex. cache path, turn off animations) definitely are covered in that.
As for the benefit of tab browsing... What I find useful is that when you open links in a new tab, the page is loaded in the tab while you can still work on the current page. If you try to emulate that with IE by opening new IE windows, the original page's window becomes the furthest back window. Actually, more annoying is that to open up a series of links, you have to keep going back to the original window. In the case of tabbed browsing, you're in the original tab until you decide to switch off of it.
I bet our admins WISH they could script the uninstalling of IE. Remember, if you "uninstall" IE, you really just remove the front-end iexplorer.exe program and not the REAL IE (all the DLL's that really make up IE and that is "integrated" into MS Windows). So MS Windows desktops are still at risk to IE vulnerabilities even if you "uninstall" IE.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
Info and download here.
The real path to male liberation