If your wife blew $150,000 on shoes you would have steam coming out of your ears unless your a multi millionaire?
The article says he is just an air traffic controller! Unless he has a big inherietance I side with the wife on this. It is a very irresponsible thing to do and if you do not have a half million saved by 60 you are in deep shit. SS wont be around until you are 70 due to the upcoming austerity measures that are going to take place in the next set of years. I am not being political here but stating the facts that these programs people depend may not be there.
I got divorced last year due to money issues and it was very painful. I at least tried to work 2 jobs on occasion and cut back spending. But this? Wow..
His wife has a reason to be concerned. A hobby is one thing, but it doesn't matter what your passion or autistic obsession is (assuming he has aspergers)or if wife shares your hobbies. YOur kids and your spouse, and your own financial security is your responsibility. After that you can go spending.Poor wife
ASLR and the other OS protections are untouched because most corporations still use XP and a 10 year old kernel. The reason most software doesn't use these things and tap into them is because they wont run on XP. Corporations wont leave XP because software doesn't use things and tap into them. Cost savings are on top of this.
This is a great reason to upgrade to Windows 7 and keep your systems patched. This was totaly preventable and IT departments got what they deserved for their short sightedness on only cost savings.
Maybe if the IT departmentd did just that they wouldn't get infected.
Stay with XP and IE 6 and obsolete versions of Symantic to save money and you are asking for trouble. CIOs and accountants forget this at work and only look at GAAP rules for what is a cost center and a profit center and what looks nice in Excel to show a cost. This article shows the hidden costs. Most businesses are moving to Windows 7 this year thank God.
What platform was the first worm written for? What platform for the first "Root"kit written on? Infact, I wonder how the word Root got in rootkit? Hmm
So if you run your Unix boxens with 10 year old, unpatched versions of Redhat 6.2 with passwords that are mediocre then it would be perfectly secure right?
Such a system would be hacked within 30 minutes if not behind a firewall. Maybe a few hours if it ran PHP or Mysql versions from 10 years ago unpatched. Why am I making this bizaare scanario? It is because all the mahcines infected ran XP (10 years old), IT failed to keep them updated, all used ancient versions of IE (like PHP/Mysql from 2002 are vectors), and users had some weak passwords. The culture is the same in corporate America today in unix platforms as good admins are let go because they are expensive cost centers that can be replaced by help desk interns for cheap.
If your network has great management that ran Windows 7, IE 8/9, and kept Windows up to date with the newest patches you were fine. Some of the passwords would be an issue but you would be fine overall from Conflicker.
Windows and IE have both come a long way as unpopular as they are on slashdot in 10 years. If you have not ran these pieces of software in many years your bias is outdated. I am not saying its supurb but top security and performance are great reasons to leave XP and ancient IE behind. Not to mention the webmasters can celebrate with a bottle of champaign.
Save this article and email it to the idiot bean counters at work who say IE 6 is perfectly fine and so is XP so why upgrade until 2014?
I thought Conflicker came out in like 2004? It should not be infected machines today and this is stupid.
The problem is not IE and Windows. Windows 7 and IE 9 have been secure for awhile with ASLR, DEP, and sandboxing. The idiots are not the users (well most are not), but IT and CIOs and CEOs who refuse to look at things like computers as anything but cost centers. It is gray and not black and white like the CPA rules on GAAP are the golden rules for any business decision.
Use Windows Update and stop worrying if software will break. I have never heard of a piece of software not working with Windows Update for home users. If IT is looked up as tools and investments and people ran Windows Update, had proper staffing levels, and ran Windows 7 the problem wouldn't exist and it is purely preventable.
Try NortonDNS. It will filter out bad domains for you. OpenDNS does as well if you use the paid version. The free one does have phishing and banking protection for home use.
That should save you a lot of effort and it is easy to setup on your router for all devices.
I do not care what it is. If it monitors my keystrokes, redirects to other websites, steals my money from banking, or other nasty and scary things its malware.
I know you love your mac and yes they are more secure. But, I hate to break it to you but even if you do not click on it you are 0wned! It runs in your home folder. Do not try to make it look like your are 100% secure because its not one that copies itself over a network. Your reality got owned.
Anti virus software is needed PERIOD in 2012! If you are cheap Avast has a free version for the mac. Telling fellow mac users that they are secure and do not get malware is a great miservice. The days of Windows only desktops accessing the internet are over. New IOS, Macs, and Android devices are now on the net and do not have the security protections Windows has since 2007.
IE is sandboxed and has not run on anything in ring 0 since the IE 6 on Windows 98. Even on XP IE 6 only uses the services it uses run on ring 0 which is a bad security practice too I may ad but that was 10 years ago.
Windows Vista and higher have UAC, DEP, ASLR, and sandboxing. I am not a troll at all but stating the truth that with a fully patched Windows 7 system with a good anti virus product that monitors behaviors is a pretty secure system. Flash and Java can still infect and go around the kernel and ring 0 through a buffer overflow or other memory corruption and the CPU will simply execute it without any check at all. This is true regardless of OS.
This is why an anti virus product is needed to monitor internal changes and block them on the Mac as well as Windows.
You are not superior at all and in the future more malware writters will target Apple because users like yourself think you do not need anti virus software and that they are always patched when Apple ends support after 3 years.
MS doesn't seem to bad today compared to the past. At least they are not going all nuclear and killing every smartphone but their own through any means possible (like having rounded edges)like Apple. MS is even licensing their technology for affordable prices. Still I feel that part is wrong but MS is more interested in a defensive patent chest in case Windows Phone 7 takes off with Nokia and Apple turns their eyes on them.
So was drafting the W3C standards and EMCA aka javascript. You do not see these organizations patenting everything to the wazoo do you?
In the old days companies worked together to create something for the mutual benefit to both companies and the industry. Everyone wins with little to no risk. PowerPC was such a project by Motorola, Apple, and IBM. Infact, Apple and IBM were competitors and they still worked together with software as well.
IBM of old had great leaders and did good things with the one exception of letting Bill Gates clone the IBM DOS for clone makers.
Today, everyone is just trying to get steal from one another and hurt the other guy rather than make money.
Only Microsoft and Apple supported h.264 in this version of the browser wars.
Couldn't happen to nicer people. This is why Google and Mozilla supported WebM because of BS like this. For those defending h.264 all I have to say is I told you so. Maybe next time do not be so gung ho on supporting patented technology as standards.
Safari is not crap on your platform unlike Windows which requires bloated version of quicktime to run video. Just use that or Chrome. I kind of like Safari on Apple platforms. Windows users who hate IE and Chrome are shit out of luck though.
Chrome is read-only and sandboxed. The updater is a seperate executable with no interaction with Chrome. Fairly secure setup if you ask me unlike Firefox which is all integrated and neither.
IE 9 is not bad if you do not mind the lack of add ons. You can download protection lists from MS that will ban many ads similiar to flashblock if you just want a simple secure browser and nothing fancy, and secure without as many scripts.
FF 11 is a HUGE improvement on my system over FF 3.6. I was just playing with it last week.
I read your comments and know you have an old computer so I do not know how FF 11/12 would perform with 256 megs of ram as my system has 8 gigs. But its at least getting better. Even with that ram FF 3.6 was a dog and I briefly went to IE 9 shockingly last year when it was new before going with Chrome.
Webmasters do not want to test and debug 30 different browser versions and configurations.
There are only 2 options. 1. Stick with very old proprietary browsers so things are predictable for years like IE 6 & 7 like the big corps want 2. Just have it auto update and not care
It really is no big deal if you use a proper browser like Chrome where the plugins do not break. You never have to worry about flash being out of date and your browser is surprisingly consistent. Even FF is getting much better and this is coming from someone who tested it out last week after not touching it for a whole year since FF 4.0. It was a big change from someone who did not get the minor small improvements over time.
Or use IE. IE 9 is a decent browser now but even that is going to be updated every year. IE 10 will be RC this June with Windows 8 and will be automatically updated on your computer.
Just deal with it. Its not radical like browsers used to be in the old days when each release interpreted standards differently and was a big deal like Netscape and IE 7 and earlier were.
Well there are now 3 known vulnerabilities on the mac platform. Flashback, Word 2004, and an iframe hack that FF and Safari can execute. Java itself only has 3 known issues yet is considered the most insecure plugin on the planet. Why? Because no one ever updates Java or they need an old version for the corporate crapware app like ADP for payroll.
To me it is simply irresponsible not too and Avast has a beta of their free anti virus program for MacOSX. They are more secure generally but its time users ran anti virus software on them. With few users running any protection it is just too easy of a target to ignore.
Flash is insecure and is on every mac and simply visiting a site will get you owned regardless of platform. Time to put the pride away and educate all mac users they need the same precautions they practiced on Windows. Trust me there is mac malware out there as I fix computers for a living.
The security is simply getting worse and worse. There will be million still running this version years from now who will be getting lots of trojans from what I am learning about this release more and more and of course wont be able to update.
Thats a relief actually from a security standpoint.
A hacker wont have access to the local system unless you are unfirewalled or already owned. All the hacker has access to is the browser and the browsers security determines what it can do next. Still if FF is not sandboxed and read-only like Chrome it can write malware to the %appdata folder and later attach itself to a local system process. So while not immune hacking Chrome is difficult because of its read only and sandboxing features. Only the updater can write and its seperate and untouchable by Chrome itself.
The issue is its practically root as its an executable in the users home folders that is not protected by UAC.
Chrome has this issue as well. However, Google made Chrome read-only and created the auto updater as a seperate program so malware can't change it or wite to the drive. Also, Chrome is sandboxed as well.
As far as I know Firefox is not sandboxed and I do not know if Firefox is updated through a seperate program or through the browser. If it is through the browser then a simple buffer overflow can use it to write malware directly and execute with full priveliges. In other folders security would lock this for a regular user account that is on a locked PC at work.
I am aware that you can make a policy to like these folders down harder but many companies do not bother doing this as it interferes with other software.
I had the same opinion as you and left Firefox a year ago.
However, I think the view of everything must sit frozen in time is harmful and a by product of IE 6. Its 2012 and you can't sit on a browser for 6 years and only upgrade then anymore. Standards are evolving fast and so is the need for cloud makers, webmasters, and app developers to use the latest standards and not have to test for 30 versions of all browsers.
The rendering engine does not change per release like it did with IE 6 & 7. It is not radical. You do not see sys admins at work testing ascii text compability with notepad & Word ever Windows update do you? That would be idiotic and silly.
It is the same with HTML 5 and css 3. I think business in general has its head up its ass from listening to MBA beancounters and those of us who said XP is the pinnacle of all that is holy and is the standard for which we all we live for the next 1,000 years. IE 6 made it hard to migrate and give IT directors nightmares and they do not want to change.
However, I do agree with you this move for the root access of a users home folder is dangerous and inappropriate at work. Chrome is sand boxed and is read-only except for the updater program which runs seperately from the browser. Does Firefox have a sandbox yet? Is it read only? Is the updater program in the browser or seperate?
I would stick with Firefox 3.6 for another month or so and then go all IE. IE 9 is a good browser if your workplace already switched to Windows 7 or is in the process of migrating.
Bare in mind even IE is going to get update every year. IE 10 is close and maybe go RC status this June with Windows 8. Its coming next and next year you will be doing the same with IE 11. Fast updates are going to be the norm for now on.
Chrome's sand box prevents writting to the disk. Its pretty hard to exploit to do this. FF does not have a sandbox so it is a concern unless my knowledge is outdated.
I recently rewipped my PC. I am developing a business oriented website where users have older browsers (sigh) and I installed FF 3.6 since many corporations still use it.
My god was it a pig. I ran a ni nite installer which updated FF by accident (I wanted 2 installed versions) to FF 11. I have not run FF = 3.6 in over a year. BIG IMPROVEMENT.
I rate it as fast as Chrome when it comes to starting up, debugging, and scrolling up and down, and even running javascript. It uses much less ram and is quite competitive. I hate the auto updating but I give Mozilla credit it greatly improved it.
The only thing it stil lacks over IE 9 and Chrome is decent hardware acceleration for smoother scrolling with the arrow keys and a sandbox for security. Otherwise I would use it fulltime.
I may even switch back to it now if Mozilla ads better multi core CPU support, threads/process per tab, and a sand box. Versions 3.6 and 4.0 were quite bad and even IE was faster than 3.6 last March. How embarasing? I ran the benchmarks and even switched to IE 9 for a month or two before going to Chrome. FF has come a long way.
The case is now about copyright as Oracle claims they own the language and any call that looks like theres to the ignorant jury. So Google is saying no we do not call it Java, we call it Andriod. Oracle is claiming look at the source code! We own the syntax how can it not be the same if we own the language and the api calls that came with our version first.
It has never been tried in court before. SCO never even with that far. Infact, SCO would have fresh new ammo as they can quote this case. That would be scary indeed as Microsoft owns C/C++ now and could claim ownership of GNU GCC.
Oracle is claiming they own the api and language as a copyright not patent. So in essence you can't call javax.swing.bloatware() without Oracle claiming ownership.
The jury is ignornant and probably does not understand patent vs copyright law. Either way it is a liability and a scary one as well.
I support home users for a living and see mac viruses very often. The trend started last year.
They get infected by flash and java and exploits in javascript. The users debate and tell me they are not infected because they own a mac. I run a scan and everytime there is a slowdown several trojans are on it.
Macs are worse because the users do not believe in anti virus software and therefore are easier to target. The Windows malware gets on throug the same web based exploits because of outdated flash, java, and iframes in Firefox that Windows versions have.
People need to get a more update knowledge as this is becoming a large problem regardless of platform. Clickong on free screensavers in IE 6 with unpatched XP is not how these infections come by anymore. IE and Windows 7 with patches is very secure and sanboxed (version 9 of IE is) and mixed with anti virus software is pretty good. Almost all the infections are through ads and 0 day exploits in flash and rogue PDFs.
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If your wife blew $150,000 on shoes you would have steam coming out of your ears unless your a multi millionaire?
The article says he is just an air traffic controller! Unless he has a big inherietance I side with the wife on this. It is a very irresponsible thing to do and if you do not have a half million saved by 60 you are in deep shit. SS wont be around until you are 70 due to the upcoming austerity measures that are going to take place in the next set of years. I am not being political here but stating the facts that these programs people depend may not be there.
I got divorced last year due to money issues and it was very painful. I at least tried to work 2 jobs on occasion and cut back spending. But this? Wow..
His wife has a reason to be concerned. A hobby is one thing, but it doesn't matter what your passion or autistic obsession is (assuming he has aspergers)or if wife shares your hobbies. YOur kids and your spouse, and your own financial security is your responsibility. After that you can go spending.Poor wife
You hit the nail there.
ASLR and the other OS protections are untouched because most corporations still use XP and a 10 year old kernel. The reason most software doesn't use these things and tap into them is because they wont run on XP. Corporations wont leave XP because software doesn't use things and tap into them. Cost savings are on top of this.
This is a great reason to upgrade to Windows 7 and keep your systems patched. This was totaly preventable and IT departments got what they deserved for their short sightedness on only cost savings.
Maybe if the IT departmentd did just that they wouldn't get infected.
Stay with XP and IE 6 and obsolete versions of Symantic to save money and you are asking for trouble. CIOs and accountants forget this at work and only look at GAAP rules for what is a cost center and a profit center and what looks nice in Excel to show a cost. This article shows the hidden costs. Most businesses are moving to Windows 7 this year thank God.
Really?
What platform was the first worm written for? What platform for the first "Root"kit written on? Infact, I wonder how the word Root got in rootkit? Hmm
So if you run your Unix boxens with 10 year old, unpatched versions of Redhat 6.2 with passwords that are mediocre then it would be perfectly secure right?
Such a system would be hacked within 30 minutes if not behind a firewall. Maybe a few hours if it ran PHP or Mysql versions from 10 years ago unpatched. Why am I making this bizaare scanario? It is because all the mahcines infected ran XP (10 years old), IT failed to keep them updated, all used ancient versions of IE (like PHP/Mysql from 2002 are vectors), and users had some weak passwords. The culture is the same in corporate America today in unix platforms as good admins are let go because they are expensive cost centers that can be replaced by help desk interns for cheap.
If your network has great management that ran Windows 7, IE 8/9, and kept Windows up to date with the newest patches you were fine. Some of the passwords would be an issue but you would be fine overall from Conflicker.
Windows and IE have both come a long way as unpopular as they are on slashdot in 10 years. If you have not ran these pieces of software in many years your bias is outdated. I am not saying its supurb but top security and performance are great reasons to leave XP and ancient IE behind. Not to mention the webmasters can celebrate with a bottle of champaign.
Save this article and email it to the idiot bean counters at work who say IE 6 is perfectly fine and so is XP so why upgrade until 2014?
I thought Conflicker came out in like 2004? It should not be infected machines today and this is stupid.
The problem is not IE and Windows. Windows 7 and IE 9 have been secure for awhile with ASLR, DEP, and sandboxing. The idiots are not the users (well most are not), but IT and CIOs and CEOs who refuse to look at things like computers as anything but cost centers. It is gray and not black and white like the CPA rules on GAAP are the golden rules for any business decision.
Use Windows Update and stop worrying if software will break. I have never heard of a piece of software not working with Windows Update for home users. If IT is looked up as tools and investments and people ran Windows Update, had proper staffing levels, and ran Windows 7 the problem wouldn't exist and it is purely preventable.
Try NortonDNS. It will filter out bad domains for you. OpenDNS does as well if you use the paid version. The free one does have phishing and banking protection for home use.
That should save you a lot of effort and it is easy to setup on your router for all devices.
Ah Mr. 1990s security right there.
I do not care what it is. If it monitors my keystrokes, redirects to other websites, steals my money from banking, or other nasty and scary things its malware.
I know you love your mac and yes they are more secure. But, I hate to break it to you but even if you do not click on it you are 0wned! It runs in your home folder. Do not try to make it look like your are 100% secure because its not one that copies itself over a network. Your reality got owned.
Anti virus software is needed PERIOD in 2012! If you are cheap Avast has a free version for the mac. Telling fellow mac users that they are secure and do not get malware is a great miservice. The days of Windows only desktops accessing the internet are over. New IOS, Macs, and Android devices are now on the net and do not have the security protections Windows has since 2007.
Trolling?
IE is sandboxed and has not run on anything in ring 0 since the IE 6 on Windows 98. Even on XP IE 6 only uses the services it uses run on ring 0 which is a bad security practice too I may ad but that was 10 years ago.
Windows Vista and higher have UAC, DEP, ASLR, and sandboxing. I am not a troll at all but stating the truth that with a fully patched Windows 7 system with a good anti virus product that monitors behaviors is a pretty secure system. Flash and Java can still infect and go around the kernel and ring 0 through a buffer overflow or other memory corruption and the CPU will simply execute it without any check at all. This is true regardless of OS.
This is why an anti virus product is needed to monitor internal changes and block them on the Mac as well as Windows.
You are not superior at all and in the future more malware writters will target Apple because users like yourself think you do not need anti virus software and that they are always patched when Apple ends support after 3 years.
MS doesn't seem to bad today compared to the past. At least they are not going all nuclear and killing every smartphone but their own through any means possible (like having rounded edges)like Apple. MS is even licensing their technology for affordable prices. Still I feel that part is wrong but MS is more interested in a defensive patent chest in case Windows Phone 7 takes off with Nokia and Apple turns their eyes on them.
So was drafting the W3C standards and EMCA aka javascript. You do not see these organizations patenting everything to the wazoo do you?
In the old days companies worked together to create something for the mutual benefit to both companies and the industry. Everyone wins with little to no risk. PowerPC was such a project by Motorola, Apple, and IBM. Infact, Apple and IBM were competitors and they still worked together with software as well.
IBM of old had great leaders and did good things with the one exception of letting Bill Gates clone the IBM DOS for clone makers.
Today, everyone is just trying to get steal from one another and hurt the other guy rather than make money.
Only Microsoft and Apple supported h.264 in this version of the browser wars.
Couldn't happen to nicer people. This is why Google and Mozilla supported WebM because of BS like this. For those defending h.264 all I have to say is I told you so. Maybe next time do not be so gung ho on supporting patented technology as standards.
Safari is not crap on your platform unlike Windows which requires bloated version of quicktime to run video. Just use that or Chrome. I kind of like Safari on Apple platforms. Windows users who hate IE and Chrome are shit out of luck though.
Chrome is read-only and sandboxed. The updater is a seperate executable with no interaction with Chrome. Fairly secure setup if you ask me unlike Firefox which is all integrated and neither.
IE 9 is not bad if you do not mind the lack of add ons. You can download protection lists from MS that will ban many ads similiar to flashblock if you just want a simple secure browser and nothing fancy, and secure without as many scripts.
FF 11 is a HUGE improvement on my system over FF 3.6. I was just playing with it last week.
I read your comments and know you have an old computer so I do not know how FF 11/12 would perform with 256 megs of ram as my system has 8 gigs. But its at least getting better. Even with that ram FF 3.6 was a dog and I briefly went to IE 9 shockingly last year when it was new before going with Chrome.
Webmasters do not want to test and debug 30 different browser versions and configurations.
There are only 2 options.
1. Stick with very old proprietary browsers so things are predictable for years like IE 6 & 7 like the big corps want
2. Just have it auto update and not care
It really is no big deal if you use a proper browser like Chrome where the plugins do not break. You never have to worry about flash being out of date and your browser is surprisingly consistent. Even FF is getting much better and this is coming from someone who tested it out last week after not touching it for a whole year since FF 4.0. It was a big change from someone who did not get the minor small improvements over time.
Or use IE. IE 9 is a decent browser now but even that is going to be updated every year. IE 10 will be RC this June with Windows 8 and will be automatically updated on your computer.
Just deal with it. Its not radical like browsers used to be in the old days when each release interpreted standards differently and was a big deal like Netscape and IE 7 and earlier were.
Well there are now 3 known vulnerabilities on the mac platform. Flashback, Word 2004, and an iframe hack that FF and Safari can execute. Java itself only has 3 known issues yet is considered the most insecure plugin on the planet. Why? Because no one ever updates Java or they need an old version for the corporate crapware app like ADP for payroll.
To me it is simply irresponsible not too and Avast has a beta of their free anti virus program for MacOSX. They are more secure generally but its time users ran anti virus software on them. With few users running any protection it is just too easy of a target to ignore.
Flash is insecure and is on every mac and simply visiting a site will get you owned regardless of platform. Time to put the pride away and educate all mac users they need the same precautions they practiced on Windows. Trust me there is mac malware out there as I fix computers for a living.
Mod up!
The security is simply getting worse and worse. There will be million still running this version years from now who will be getting lots of trojans from what I am learning about this release more and more and of course wont be able to update.
Thats a relief actually from a security standpoint.
A hacker wont have access to the local system unless you are unfirewalled or already owned. All the hacker has access to is the browser and the browsers security determines what it can do next. Still if FF is not sandboxed and read-only like Chrome it can write malware to the %appdata folder and later attach itself to a local system process. So while not immune hacking Chrome is difficult because of its read only and sandboxing features. Only the updater can write and its seperate and untouchable by Chrome itself.
The issue is its practically root as its an executable in the users home folders that is not protected by UAC.
Chrome has this issue as well. However, Google made Chrome read-only and created the auto updater as a seperate program so malware can't change it or wite to the drive. Also, Chrome is sandboxed as well.
As far as I know Firefox is not sandboxed and I do not know if Firefox is updated through a seperate program or through the browser. If it is through the browser then a simple buffer overflow can use it to write malware directly and execute with full priveliges. In other folders security would lock this for a regular user account that is on a locked PC at work.
I am aware that you can make a policy to like these folders down harder but many companies do not bother doing this as it interferes with other software.
I had the same opinion as you and left Firefox a year ago.
However, I think the view of everything must sit frozen in time is harmful and a by product of IE 6. Its 2012 and you can't sit on a browser for 6 years and only upgrade then anymore. Standards are evolving fast and so is the need for cloud makers, webmasters, and app developers to use the latest standards and not have to test for 30 versions of all browsers.
The rendering engine does not change per release like it did with IE 6 & 7. It is not radical. You do not see sys admins at work testing ascii text compability with notepad & Word ever Windows update do you? That would be idiotic and silly.
It is the same with HTML 5 and css 3. I think business in general has its head up its ass from listening to MBA beancounters and those of us who said XP is the pinnacle of all that is holy and is the standard for which we all we live for the next 1,000 years. IE 6 made it hard to migrate and give IT directors nightmares and they do not want to change.
However, I do agree with you this move for the root access of a users home folder is dangerous and inappropriate at work. Chrome is sand boxed and is read-only except for the updater program which runs seperately from the browser. Does Firefox have a sandbox yet? Is it read only? Is the updater program in the browser or seperate?
I would stick with Firefox 3.6 for another month or so and then go all IE. IE 9 is a good browser if your workplace already switched to Windows 7 or is in the process of migrating.
Bare in mind even IE is going to get update every year. IE 10 is close and maybe go RC status this June with Windows 8. Its coming next and next year you will be doing the same with IE 11. Fast updates are going to be the norm for now on.
Chrome's sand box prevents writting to the disk. Its pretty hard to exploit to do this. FF does not have a sandbox so it is a concern unless my knowledge is outdated.
I recently rewipped my PC. I am developing a business oriented website where users have older browsers (sigh) and I installed FF 3.6 since many corporations still use it.
My god was it a pig. I ran a ni nite installer which updated FF by accident (I wanted 2 installed versions) to FF 11. I have not run FF = 3.6 in over a year. BIG IMPROVEMENT.
I rate it as fast as Chrome when it comes to starting up, debugging, and scrolling up and down, and even running javascript. It uses much less ram and is quite competitive. I hate the auto updating but I give Mozilla credit it greatly improved it.
The only thing it stil lacks over IE 9 and Chrome is decent hardware acceleration for smoother scrolling with the arrow keys and a sandbox for security. Otherwise I would use it fulltime.
I may even switch back to it now if Mozilla ads better multi core CPU support, threads/process per tab, and a sand box. Versions 3.6 and 4.0 were quite bad and even IE was faster than 3.6 last March. How embarasing? I ran the benchmarks and even switched to IE 9 for a month or two before going to Chrome. FF has come a long way.
The case is now about copyright as Oracle claims they own the language and any call that looks like theres to the ignorant jury. So Google is saying no we do not call it Java, we call it Andriod. Oracle is claiming look at the source code! We own the syntax how can it not be the same if we own the language and the api calls that came with our version first.
It has never been tried in court before. SCO never even with that far. Infact, SCO would have fresh new ammo as they can quote this case. That would be scary indeed as Microsoft owns C/C++ now and could claim ownership of GNU GCC.
Go read the news about it?
Oracle is claiming they own the api and language as a copyright not patent. So in essence you can't call javax.swing.bloatware() without Oracle claiming ownership.
The jury is ignornant and probably does not understand patent vs copyright law. Either way it is a liability and a scary one as well.
What a truly ignorant comment.
I support home users for a living and see mac viruses very often. The trend started last year.
They get infected by flash and java and exploits in javascript. The users debate and tell me they are not infected because they own a mac. I run a scan and everytime there is a slowdown several trojans are on it.
Macs are worse because the users do not believe in anti virus software and therefore are easier to target. The Windows malware gets on throug the same web based exploits because of outdated flash, java, and iframes in Firefox that Windows versions have.
People need to get a more update knowledge as this is becoming a large problem regardless of platform. Clickong on free screensavers in IE 6 with unpatched XP is not how these infections come by anymore. IE and Windows 7 with patches is very secure and sanboxed (version 9 of IE is) and mixed with anti virus software is pretty good. Almost all the infections are through ads and 0 day exploits in flash and rogue PDFs.