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IE8 Update Forces IE As Default Browser
We discussed Microsoft making IE8 a critical update a while back; but then the indication was that the update gave users a chance to choose whether or not to install it. Now I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes in with word that the update not only does not ask, but it makes IE the default browser. "Microsoft has a new tactic in the browser wars. They're having the 'critical' IE8 update make IE the default browser without asking. Yes, you can change it back, but it doesn't ask you if you want IE8 or if you want it as the default browser, it makes the decisions for you. Opera might have a few more complaints to make to the EU antitrust board after this, but Microsoft will probably be able to drag out the proceedings for years, only to end up paying a small fine. If you have anyone you've set up with a more secure alternative browser, you might want to help check their settings after this."
Here's to the end of IE 6 and all the hacks needed for site to render correctly!
IE remains the biggest security problem in Windows (besides user stupidity).
If webpages can override the render engine in IE8 then IE8 is only as secure as the worst render engine.
There's nothing wrong with this tactic. Firefox does the same thing to me in Linux.
IE6 is a plague on the internet development world. If it gets rid of that, wonderful. Making it the default browser, that's classic Microsoft. Actually, that's the new, desperate to hang on to market share in the face of shrinking revenue Microsoft.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
I'm sure it was accidental. Nobody at Microsoft would notice this because they all use IE (by law).
No sig today...
I'm yet another person who installed IE 8 via Windows Update and it did NOT forcibly set itself as the default browser.
Seriously Slashdot, do you even bother to vet your troll articles anymore? Do you realize how embarrassingly pathetic this one significant site in the tech world has become?
Is it not a bit early to be deciding which browsers are more secure than IE8?
No it isn't, unless you believe in miracles. This isn't really Microsoft's fault but for every hacker who says "lets target Firefox and try to capture bank details" there are 100 trying to do it for IE.
While I agree that making it default _without asking_ is a shady move on Microsoft's part, I'm sure what the payoff is for them versus the negative response many people will have. Those users who have a non-IE browser as default will notice the switch and will switch it back, these are the users who are actively choosing which browser to use anyway. The people who don't care what browser they are using, are probably already using IE. So what do they accomplish, other than reaffirming to the non-IE people the rightness of their choice?
Because you've not installed IE8 yourself and discovered the `article` to be pure BS. I use Ubuntu, and didn't get around to installing IE8 until I've put Ubuntu 9.04 on my box (which works great, thanks), but when I got around to installing IE8 it was relatively painless and didn't make itself default over Firefox, but I'm forced to assume that TFA was written by some sort of fucking idiot or a liar. It's that which should not be surprising.
...we know that most people (sadly) are using some version of IE currently; ergo, if they install IE8 and it makes itself the default, this is good for a variety of reasons entirely related to security (and good for the rest of us as the last thing I need is more zombies out there spamming me night and day.)
Now, most people who have an alternative browser installed do so because they are 'aware' of the realities of modern web surfing and make an intelligent choice accordingly. These people are being inconvenienced by this because they've got to set their browser back to being the default (often this is simply a case, using Mozilla as an example, of starting up their favorite browser and it saying "Hey, don't you want to use me all the time" and they choose "yes, make yourself my default browser." Inconvenient, annoying, suspicious, yes - a real problem for these people? No...
The last group are the (imho) very small minority of web users who've been lucky enough to have an informed web user install an IE alternative for them, but they themselves do not know what the fuss is about. These are the people actually getting screwed by this. They may end up with IE8 until their good Samaritan revisits them to right this terrible wrong.
Ignoring whatever the actual motives for this decision at Micro$oft was, I personally think the good outweighs the bad. It would still be nice to smack the guy who green lighted this in the face though, wouldn't it? :)
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When I looked at my XP box the other day, there was a bubble notifying me of available updates. I checked to see what it was and all there was was IE8. So I unchecked the box, told it never to ask again, and that was the end of that. So why the FUD ? Can't you even configure windows properly ? Please stay away from Linux.
What do you mean "your" operating environment? Windows is theirs!
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
The guy was probably clicking "next, next, next, next" and missed the option to NOT make it the default browser.
I've noticed Firefox and Opera ask you TWICE. Once when you install it, and once after you first start it (or forever if you leave "don't ask me again" unchecked).
How was this modded troll? It's a fact of life, and he even added "This isn't really Microsoft's fault" which most slashdotters wouldn't have bothered with.
IE is the primary target for browser hacking, and will remain so as long as its market share is anywhere in the vicinity that it is now.
The best thing you can do at the moment is install Firefox *and* Chrome *and* Opera and try to dedicate types of sites to each browser.
I usually assign Google properties to Chrome, highly compliant sites to Opera, and everything else to Firefox.
(This may sound paranoid, or just overkill, but I have to develop/test on multiple browsers anyway so for me it's also a way to get to know them better.)
I'm not suggesting that everyone should install every browser, but at the very least install Firefox and make it the default, because they patch it early and often, and it's very good at maintaining itself (updating when you restart, checking for plugin updates, etc.)
Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
How much browsing is done through the "default browser" setting anyway? Maybe the occasional click of an email link. Surely most of the time, however, browsers are invoked directly by double-clicking the icon of your usual browser, rather than through invoking the Windows default browser setting. And most browsers have an automatic pop-up asking you if you want to set them as your default browser, with "yes" pre-checked (as well as "run this check every time"), so most non-techy users would very quickly end right up back with their old browser setting again, just through their habit of saying OK without thinking very much.
It's conceivable that it only makes itself the default under certain circumstances. Maybe if you have auto-updates "fully" turned on (where it doesn't even ask, it just installs), it'll make it the default.
I don't want to sound troll-ish but it's likely that people who have auto-update set to "download-and-install-automatically" aren't the more savvy set, and therefor MS thought they could get away with it (I almost added "and I don't want to sound like a conspiracy-theorist", but this is MS, it's *expected*).
I can even see MS apologists taking their side here, something like: "look, you probably installed Firefox on your parent's computer to protect them from IE hacks, not because of usability, but IE8 makes very significant improvements and you know that it will be kept patched on a system that automatically installs updates from MS"
To me this seems to be a designed tactic.
Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
There's a reason why I hate Microsoft at times, and Visual Studio installs are definitely one of them. First it goes and update your entire system, restarts a couple of hundred times and then it messes up your file associations. And of course you can be assured additional fun if you work at a company that does not have internet connections on their development PC's.
Compare that with an Eclipse inst^H^H^Hunzip.
Anyway, the whole idea that a single source file should open in an IDE is flawed. Let IDE's open workspaces and projects, but single files (many of them just containing fragments of code) that I want to view (promptly if possible) should *NOT* open in an IDE, and especially not in VS.
That said, VS itself is getting better. But it starts off by annoying the hell out of possible switchers.
And in turn by the third. Apparently I am the first one smart enough to do so anonymously.
Installed on Vista 64.
I think what TFA actually means to say is:
"I got really click happy and just blindly clicked my way through the IE8 install without looking and it made itself my default browser, how dare it!"
By those numbers, only 6.5% of IE users are running the latest version. Even if you include IE7 you get that only 73.5% of IE users have upgraded to a browser released in the last three years.
On the otherhand, 91.4% of Firefox users are running the latest stable version or a beta version. And if you include FF2 (released the same month as IE7) 99.5% of firefox users have upgraded to a browser released in the last three years.
Firefox users are far more likely to upgrade to the newest version than Internet Explorer users are, which is what he was claiming.