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Internet Users Not Updating Browser
Jackson writes "Security researchers from ETH Zurich, Google, and IBM Internet Security Systems have shown that more than 600 million Internet users don't use the latest version of their browser. The researchers' paper, shows that as of June 2008, only 59.1 percent of Internet users worldwide use the latest major version of their preferred web browser.
Suggestions have also been made to inform users that their browser is out of date."
40 percent of internet users are not updating their browser.
And these same users are probably happily using windows 98 on their Pentium II's, and don't give a damn about having the most shiny, newest toy.
Large numbers of corporate users are at the mercy of the IT department's update/upgrade schedule. In my environment, there are a large number of applications that will break if IE7 is installed, and the schedule to update and test those dependencies is lengthy.
Furthermore, we've spent so much time training users to ignore messages that say "Your $FOO is out of date! Click here to install the latest version because it's almost always malware, and now you want to turn around and do the exact opposite?
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Firefox already automatically updates.
If you have automatic updates turned on in Windows, they automatically update as well.
However, most people I know turn off automatic updates because it can be so obnoxious. Many folks also disable the BITS service because of the process overhead it chews up.
It's the difference between being a virtually seamless integration (like Firefox) or an overly-obtrusive integration that eats up system resources.
For instance - firefox tells you when you go to close the program that there are updates ready. Microsoft pops a little icon that #1 interrupts what you are doing #2 may very well crash the machine or lock it up if it happens while you're playing a game, etc. Remember that letter Gates sent about usability? It's the key in this case, I think.
I also wonder if this took business users into account - I can't update because my IT department won't let me. I doubt that would be different if we were using Firefox or Opera rather than IE.
Only 59.1% of users are up-to-date? I guess the submitter is the kind who sees the glass 40.9% empty.
You just got troll'd!
What about your browsers that are provided by your IT department of your company?
I work in pretty large company and our IT dept. have disabled auto-updates from XP, Firefox and so on. Then they push updates to users when needed.
Above works fine in my company, but what about those companies with similar policies and non-existing or incompetent IT department? Browsing tubes all day long with old versions.
rdev
Please, for the love of all that's holy, upgrade to IE7.
Once IE6 installations get down below a certain point, we won't have to spend crazy amounts of time rewriting web pages so they *also* work in IE6.
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
Fortunately for us, people like you are willing to deal with your house exploding while the rest of us use candles for a few months more while the bugs in gas lighting are being sorted out. Having the latest 1337 illumination technology is more important to you than it is to us, so it's a win-win situation.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Even if you do not explicitly use Internet Explorer for browsing, you should upgrade it as it is a core part of the Windows Kernel.
That is another part about IE that I have issues with. Why make a web browser part of the OS? It makes very little sense. It should, at most, be a bloated application that I could uninstall at whim. But no! It has to totally screw with everything else. As it is now, I specify Firefox as the default browser and disable access to IE. It doesn't matter which version of IE, I'm still not using it.
Not that I recommend Norton products, still...
Thanks to a run-in with their overly-aggressive virus scanning process (that can't be turned off) I no longer use Norton home products. Their corporate/enterprise software that I use at work is waaaaaay better.
The game.
I love the Awesome Bar. I'll often want to visit a site I saw the other day but all I can remember is part of one word of the site title. That's all I need in FF3 - I just type in the partial name and the correct site is usually the top result. Now, instead of clicking my bookmarks, I just type one or two letters in the address bar and if the intended site isn't the top result this time it will be next time.
Awesome Bar was a feature I wasn't even aware of until FF3 went gold, but it was as appreciated and innovative as it was unexpected. Words are for people, DNS names are for computers.
Seems like when a new Fire Fox browser gets "released" there are still some rather annoying bugs. I usually wait about six months for the main bugs to be worked out before I upgrade.
If they say "IE 6.latest" or "Foxpro 2.latest" doesn't count as "latest" and those versions have no known unpatched vulnerabilities not shared by IE 7.latest or Foxpro 3.latest then they aren't counting properly.
I agree. dBASE III works just fine for me, and I see no reason to update to dBASE IV when Ashton Tate currently provides the same level of support for both.
Firefox 2.0 is just as current as 3.0, and will be until the end of this year. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
Someone whose business applications only run on Windows 95/98 or ME
...can run existing Windows 95/98 or ME licenses in a virtual machine.
While Firefox 3 chose to abandon Windows 95 compatibility, Firefox 2 is still being patched and maintained. Unlike the IE6 users of Windows 95, who no longer get MS patches.
If you're running an OS thats 13 years old, you have much bigger issues than running the latest web browser.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
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