IE is comfy. So using Firefox will decrease the potential for viruses?

Not just viruses but a whole slew of exploits targeted directly for IE that the IE team has not fixed. They have a horrible security track record, even to the point that there is now a proof of concept exploit for an IE hole that was reported in April (ASN.1) and has not yet been fixed.

If you like your computer you should run to getfirefox.com and install it along with the kick-ass modules it provides. You can continue to use IE for your Intranet but aside from that IE should not be used on the Internet under many circumstances.

Ouch, pretty harsh comments. I was spending too much time correcting problems after users were installing, updating, uninstalling, reinstalling Firefox on networks that I manage. I banned everyone from using it. Perhaps it’s improved, but I’m leary of switching.

I have to side with Vlad with this one as IE has caused far more problems than benefits, especially for users that will just click on anything because it looks legitimate.

Once you go to Firefox you will never go back to IE.

I’ve been one of the more outspoken critics of Microsoft IE team because, through their blog, they have demonstrated more interest in picking a cute RSS icon and soliciting feedback on the new “blue e logo with a yellow streak, what do you think ?” than they have on resolving security issues that have plagued their platform for months.

In my humble opinion, Microsoft should open source ActiveX and outright fire everyone on the Internet Explorer team. Every last one of them.

I feel that strongly about the disappointment that IE has been in version 6.x

-Vlad

I read these things on your blog often enough and I have come to terms with it to the point that I’m just dismissing people that still use IE. It is the same thing I tell people that use AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail for their business accounts… “It may be just good enough but if you’re not aware of the problems are you really incontrol of your business?”

Amy,

I know how you feel. I manage a network of 2300 desktops where most people did everything they could to get Mozilla and later Firefox to work on their computers. Managing it has been a nightmare, especially in earlier 0.x releases.

I am happy to say that all of our sites now run Firefox and that it has a lot of creature habits (such as msi packages, group policy, user agent masking, automatic updates, bookmark and profile storage customization) built in and its a snap to disable users from trying to do stupid things with their browser because we manually nuke components we don’t wish them to have access to.

Since we rolled out Firefox (via Group Policy) we’ve had an 80% drop in spyware issues. There’s something to think about.

It’s all about the features. You can’t convince people to switch on security alone, but show them what Firefox can’t do (and more importantly what Explorer can’t) and you’ll win.

I second the note from the other comment — we have seen such a huge drop in spyware/adware on our systems that we have completely removed resource wasting antispyware software from our clients workstations. Things are running faster and better and they cannot believe that this software is free. Then show them mobile bookmarking, ability to view IE pages in IE, view PDF files as text without launching Acrobat hog, quickly researching links through tabs, integration with google, ebay and amazon search..

Microsoft is one of the biggest PRO-Microsoft folks I know, if he says dump it believe me, you need to look. I switched because of the features, the added security and ease of management of my clients was just an extra bonus. It’s not every day you have this soft of an app fall in your lap for free.

This is not your fathers Netscape or Mozilla, Firefox is as solid as the money can by.

There is a site telling you how to block wmf extension if you have ISA 2004:

http://blogs.technet.com/jesper_johansson/archive/2005/12/28/416565.aspx

I am shocked there are still people using IE after all the exploits. What Vlad is talking about is by no means new, I hope someone at Microsoft is listening.

I stuck with IE when the exploits first started out. Then I turned off ActiveX. Then I turned off Javascript. Now I can’t even browse around because of WMF.

Microsoft, LISTEN to VLAD. If the guy that writes your Exchange documentation, leads SBS groups, supports SBS for tons of resellers, spends hours producing radio shows… and god knows what else is saying dump IE then there is something wrong.

And Vlad is by no means alone:
Listen to your supporters.
Listen to your customers.
Listen to sysadmins running your software.

Your IE team is giving your software and your company a huge black eye. The core of your evangelism is switching away from your software and you are doing nothing to solve their problems.

Many of us will not be making it to Vista.

Does Firefox now work with Remote Web Workplace?

RWW works, but connect-to-computer does not.

Remote Web Workplace connect to computer requires a terminal server ActiveX which is not supported by Firefox or any other browser. When you upgrade to Firefox just install the IEview plugin - it allows you to define trusted sites where IE can be used. I do this, it opens IE for anything https://*.microsoft.com and all my local stuff. Search my blog to see how that is done.

Other RWW components work just fine. You can access Outlook Web Access and other stuff on RWW with Firefox.

-Vlad

I just installed it, finally, and wow…. Thank you Vlad!@

Ahhh…. great find on that! I’ve been using Firefox for quite some time in conjuntion with IE7…. unfortunately though IE7 doesn’t work with RWW either so… I’ll stick to showing clients how RWW works with their machines. Actually you can go further on RWW with firefox than you can with IE7 (but I guess IE7 isn’t realeased yet either).

Cheers

Jerz66

You’re not alone. Thoughtful people in the Windows community have lost patience with IE. Many are still hiding behind anonymity. We covered some of the on-the-record comments, including yours, at Email Battles.

In our Background section at the end of the article, don’t pass by Dare Obasanjo’s excellent rundown on how IE got to this sorry state: Mac IE’s Death: A Case for Microsoft Disbanding or Transfering the Windows IE Team. (For those who don’t know, Dare’s a developer on the the Live team and creator of RSS Bandit, an favorite RSS feed aggregator for Windows.)

In short, Dare says it’s hard to keep pouring money into something you don’t view as a profit center.

Duh.

“…please download Firefox today and say goodbye to IE-borne online threats.”

And say hello to Firefox-borne online threats.

Just out of curiosity, do firm data exist to prove that Firefox actually is more secure than IE? (That’s not a sarcastic question; I’m genuinely curious.)

Two problems in your comment that I see:

1) Due to the nature of the decoding .DLL, an .WMF file renamed as a .JPG will be processed as a .WMF file, thus opening your system to exploitation from files labeled as .jpg (in the same manner that emailed .PIF files were actually renamed .EXE files that would be opened as .EXE files by windows).

2) According to one source, all browsers are susceptible because it is a Windows file, not IE.

OBTW, don’t the last two letters of the WMF TLA indicate an alternate interpretation of the name?

John & AC:

There have been far fewer problems with Firefox, far less intrusive, and were always patched within a day or two. The current IE/Windows problem has taken days, and there won’t be a patch in at least a week and a half. This is beyond irresponsible.

As for all browsers being affected, that is not true. Firefox does not automatically launch wmf files as Internet Explorer does through the Windows Picture & Fax viewer that uses the exploited DLL in the question.

If you only used Firefox instead of IE you would not be affected by this issue.

-Vlad

“There have been far fewer problems with Firefox, far less intrusive, and were always patched within a day or two.”

Is this documented somewhere? Again, I’m not trying to be sarcastic–just looking for facts. Over the past year, how many security issues were documented with Firefox and how many with IE?

But is Firefox safe from renamed wmv files? Fiefox will open jpg’s. If it uses the faulty widows dll, then won’t it be susceptible?

Don’t get me wrong- I’m a confirmed Firefox user who hates to use IE.