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Firefox vs. SP2's IE?

Posted by Cliff on from the as-microsoft-slowly-improves-their-products dept.

Anonymous Coward asks: "I was at my grandpa's house today, and I came across a somewhat unsettling issue. He is a user of Internet Explorer. I was talking about Firefox with him, and it turns out that he has had no trouble with popups since SP2 came out, he doesn't multitask enough to benefit from tabbed browsing, and he doesn't care about safety/privacy concerns. On top of that, I ran a test and found no difference in load/download speeds between the two browsers on his computer. This brought me to an interesting point. For someone like him, is there any benefit to be gained from using Firefox? On top of that, are there any people who are actually better off sticking with IE?"

9 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. Security/Privacy issues by rogueuk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The way I see it, if you don't care about security or privacy issues, then I don't think that there is a real reason for you to switch if you aren't going to benefit from any of the other enhancements that Firefox brings

    However, once you get nailed with some bug/virus that exploits an IE security hole, then you will probably care enough to switch

    1. Re:Security/Privacy issues by LordEd · · Score: 5, Informative

      I used to use IE with SP2 up until a few weeks ago. I went to the wrong website and wound up spending a day trying to remove a persistent spyware app off of my system. I had to drop down to a repair CD and physically erase specific DLLs that kept recreating themselves.

      You may not have privacy/security concerns, but you start noticing it when your CPU is running 99% on spyware.

      I haven't had any problems since switching to firefox.

  2. In the big scheme of things... by erykjj · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would say it makes no difference which browser you use if you do not keep up with all the security updates for the browser and/or OS.

  3. He's not alone on the net... by AlexeiMachine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If he becomes infected with a virus or a trojan that transforms his PC in a spam zombie, he then becomes a threat/nuisance/liability to others.

    He might not care if he's infected with a bunch of crapware, but if his PC gets zombified and participates in criminal activities, he might object to that.

    At least make sure he doesn't run MSIE as an Administrator on his PC.

  4. Three main benefits by Planesdragon · · Score: 4, Insightful
    For someone like him, is there any benefit to be gained from using Firefox?

    Four main benefits, in order, for Firefox over IE6
    1. When the web browser crashes, it doesn't kill part of the user environment.
    2. Security holes are fewer, farther betwee, and quicker to be patched
    3. Type-ahead-find is GREAT
    4. The web pages are standards-based, which will make the web run better for everyone.
  5. Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For someone like him, is there any benefit to be gained from using Firefox?

    Internet Explorer is holding the web back. As long as a lot of people use Internet Explorer, nobody can get the benefits of advanced web development.

    CSS 1? Eight years old and still broken in Internet Explorer. PNG 1? Eight years old and still broken in Internet Explorer. HTML 4? Six years old and still broken in Internet Explorer. HTTP 1.1? Five years old and still broken in Internet Explorer. CSS 2? Six years old and still broken in Internet Explorer. Nothing works properly in Internet Explorer.

    If he's using Internet Explorer, he's part of the problem. Ask him to stop being part of the problem. Other people might still hold back the web, but at least he won't be.

  6. Of course he doesn't care about security... by dscho · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... because whenever something bad happens, he'll expect you to fix it!

    1. Re:Of course he doesn't care about security... by TheCarp · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is why when the issue comes up with people I know I tell them this:

      "You can do what you want, but I recomend you use firefox, if you continue to use IE I will refuse to help you when your computer gets infected with viruses"

      That said, everyone that I have had try firefox has loved it and begun using it exclusivly. Normally I just say "here let me do some setup for you", install firefox, take ie off the desktop and the start menu, and then explain the new web browser to them. Often I just tell them "I upgraded your web browser, its called firefox now"

      I know to you or I this sounds very deceptive, but I realised something: its just abstraction. Forget the details of code base and who puts it out. I believe firefox is a better browser, these people don't even know what a "web browser" is. Thats why its called "The Internet" on the desktop shortcut and not "IE" - because "IE" or "firefox" is more detail than most people want.

      If you try to tell them "I installed firefox, this is what to use now because ie is bad", then you have a few problems.

      1. They don't know what you are talking about anyway so they are scared

      This means they worry "oh god is this going to be harder to use?" You can try to tell them its not, but they wont believe you because they saw you do all these weird things and so they know your idea of easy and theirs is way different.

      2. They may have used ie before and s far as they are concerned it is great. So when you say "its bad" (or however else you want to qualify or expound upon that) it doesn't jive with their experience, so they assume its just stuff they don't need to care about, or you are just being esoteric...they go back to point 1 and figure this is going to make their life harder for benefits that mean nothing to them anyway.

      So all in all, you save both your you alot of trouble by abstracting away "firefox" and "ie" and just going to "I upgraded your web browser" and when they sa y "whats that?" you say "Your internet is better and more secure"

      And yes I am being a little bit flip here, with my phrases but I also hate doing windows support and using it for anything other than gaming (tho it is fairly usable with a link to the cygwin port of X in the startup and xterm on the launcher menu)

      -Steve

      -Steve

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
    2. Re:Of course he doesn't care about security... by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 4, Interesting
      My strategy? Ask people "Hey, do you want me to install a plugin that keeps you from downloading all these stupid ads that show up on web pages?" Believe me, nobody says "no" most are amazed that such a thing could ever work. Then I install Firefox and import my block strings into Adblock, making sure the user figures out that they will not be using IE anymore.

      When I get asked about this, I try to look surprised and say "bah, you mean you thought Internet Explorer could do somehting this cool? No way! What you need for this sort of thing is an optimized browser - you know, optimized for speed and useability and all sorts of other cool things. You want me to show you some? Watch this... suppose I want to go back to the previous page [mouse gesture left]. Cool, eh? Wanna see how I did that?"

      The lesson is: install some extensions as well as Firefox. It's mind-numbingly easy, and it gets new users really interested in customizing their Firefox further. Once they start with that, they'll never go back.