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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."
If you're running Win9x/2000, you can't upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer.
body massage!
I wonder how many of those are IE6, which a lot of people use because they CAN'T upgrade to IE7.
And as an above commenter pointed out, I highly doubt they factored in that some OS's can't actually run the latest version of their browser.
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
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Furthermore, we've spent so much time training users to ignore messages that say "Your $FOO is out of date!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!
I can't upgrade to the latest version. It makes my tabs crash and causes me to lose m
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.
The IT drones at my employer rigidly demand that all company machines must run IE6. They've coded all their intranet applications solely for that version and by god they will not budge. Firefox is forbidden as a "security risk" and no where to be seen is IE7. Fortunately for me I work on Linux based projects and and run what I please.
6F 9E A9 1E 96 9F 74 27 ED B8 81 6D 0C 4E 1E 78
My other Sig is a 229.
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.
Not upgrading to IE7 because you don't "use" it is dangerous. Because, as you mentioned, IE is closely integrated into the operating system, its components can be used by other applications regardless of whether you click the blue 'E' icon or not. Any Windows application that has the ability to handle HTML content is likely to use some IE components. So if IE is not fully up to date, these other applications can put you at risk.
So, for example, vulnerabilities that only affect IE6 may affect other applications that use the relevant IE components for HTML rendering (think email, IM, etc.). Such as:
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/923508
Or, even better... A recent Safari for Windows vulnerability:
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/127185
Safari, a "stand-alone" web browser, is actually at a higher risk on systems with IE6 as opposed to IE7.
As with any software on your computer, you should upgrade it whether you *think* you use it or not.
I run a rather busy Mozilla related server (~200k hits per day).
:-)
Within days after the release of Firefox 3, over 40% of my visitors
had switched to it. Another ~50% use the newest 2.0.x version.
Conclusion:
It makes a huge difference if the user is aware of existing choices and has
actively chosen a certain browser (i.e. installed something other than the default).
Also, Firefox' autoupdate mechanism works very well.
I cannot say anything about IE users - they make for less than 0,2% of my hits
Also, I don't claim to have representative numbers for the "general Mozilla crowd",
as my target audience are the more tech-savvy.
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.
Lynx 2.8.6... yep, I'm up-to-date...
in a manner of speaking.
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.