This Pretty Much Explains It All
As much as I take criticism for liking IE7 and it’s predecessor IE6, I think this article pretty much sums it up. I am linking to it through Slashdot so be patient. I have been saying right along that Microsoft having such a big market share over everyone else is the only tried and true software around, excluding maybe Unix. It’s pretty plain and simple numbers just don’t lie.
September 25th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
With Firefox gaining more and more market share it is only common sense that more and more people are going to go after it a find more security holes. The telling stat, and the real advantage as far as I am concerned, is the quickness of the fix. From the article: “Firefox still leads the pack when it comes to patching though, with only a one-day window of vulnerability.”
MS used to be decent about patches but the last year or so have been pretty lethargic about rolling them out…
September 26th, 2006 at 12:48 am
The whole thing with “Open Source” and “project” software is that they are really good at supporting them as long as the project stays popular, updates and patched may come fast as long as everyone stays interested. I feel WAY more comfortable knowing there is a person getting paid to sit and write fixes every day, rather than wondering if some software will even be around in a year or two. ( Wasn’t that long ago that Firefox was mozilla and mozilla was netscape.) At least IE has always been IE and will ocntinue to be IE and patched from there. No one is “losing interest” and movingon to the next big project.
September 26th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
With some “project” software your argument has some merit. However, in the case of Firefox, Mozilla is a corporate entity with a group of people dedicated to the Firefox project. The difference between IE and FF is that while IE has the group of people working on the project as you said, the stream of ideas and innovations to that project is limited to that group of employees or the company itself. With FF the stream of ideas and innovation comes from the corporation as well as users of the project. Not to mention that applications that are meant to work with each application will be able to work better with the open source product where the code is readily available to the developer. And don’t even get me started on MS and “standards.” That is a debate for a whole other post.
September 28th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
Here in lies the whole problem FF is a “project” while IE is a business, companies and people have to rely on it and microsoft has someone to answer to FF is a project and really answers to no one. They just do what they want and if it’s innovative and cool great but when it’s not it’s just something to be fixed or upgraded later. Microsoft is always getting in new ideas and stuff from other sources outside the normal employee base. They usually buy the company, that they are getting ideas from, ( not trying to debat that right now), but they do get them from other sources. What I like is that someone somewhere is responsible, meaning they can get fired if something is wrong. Not so much with “project” software. They can just get away with whatever, when something goes wrong they usually fix it but aren’t as motivated to do so unless there is money involved. Luckily for everyone with google and other entities there is in FF’s case, but for how long and in investment situations it’s only untill the popularity goes away.
September 28th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
I’m going to take issue with a few of your comments above… IE is not a business, it is a division of the business. It, in and of itself, provides no income. The same can be said of FF. It is a product developed by the Mzilla Corp. Noboday has to “rely” on IE. They all have a choice. Mozilla and Microsoft have the same advantages. They can do what they want. The coporation answers to no one except itself. Mozilla also. The difference is that Microsoft has chosen to not involve the Net Community in the development and direction of the product. Mozilla has. This decision makes it easier to develop things for FF without Mozilla having to do it. More later…
September 30th, 2006 at 12:10 am
Actually IE is an integral part of Microsoft Windows and does cost money since it is a nessesary component of it and businesses do rely on it every day, to run Windows and Office applications. it is in every way part of what makes 90% of business run in this country. FF is JUST a browser and sure it’s fun and cool but I doubt it will remain FF forever it will change again just as it has over and over. Microsoft is the only trying to fix a technology that shouldn’t work on the scale it does in the first place others just want to include cool apps and plugins to try and steal some market share while they can. Microsoft with IE and Office are trying to help make business more secure and reliable which is why they are not so willing to give out code for all the world to develope with. When everyone has the source code everyone can potentially become a hacker for that product. This argument that it is free and open suggests everyone is responsible and nice. Microsoft is a not a naive as this and therefore I suggest more resposible to the people who use it.