Ditch Internet Explorer
Ok so let me set my intention here… I am a dedicated Apple Mac user and could never bring myself from using anything else! Steve (Jobs) and I are on a mission to convert the whole earth over to using Apple! So when news comes to hand that helps our cause I have to share it.
Today in an article on the SMH website (link here) is the mention of M..M..M..Microsoft self confessing that its very own, loyally used, beloved Internet Explorer has a major security flaw. Apparently this only applies to version 6 of the program (according to Microsoft) but on all operating systems including the new W..W..W..Windows 7. Microsoft reportedly said, “that the hole could be closed by setting the browser’s internet security zone to ‘high’.” If you do this you would be lucky to get Google to even display let alone anything else!
The German Government has issued a statement to its citizens to stop using Internet Explorer due to this latest security flaw discovery. According to the statement even running Internet Explorer in ‘protected’ mode is not enough to prevent a hacker from exploiting this security flaw. This is an amazing step which I think Kevin Rudd and his government should follow suit and issue the same warning but with an addition of fining or arresting offenders!
UPDATE 19/01/2010: France have now also joined in advising its citizens to look at using alternatives to Internet Explorer.
UPDATE 19/01/2010: The Australian Government has issued a warning about Internet Explorer on its Stay Smart Online website.
With that said I should clarify that there is no perfect solution to being totally security risk free, but according to security site Secunia.com Internet Explorer 7.x is has about 13 times more vulnerabilities and advisories than Firefox 3.
Now I’m not sure about you, but if it were my computer there was no way that I would be using Internet Explorer as my default web browser when there are many other programs, also freely available, that are far more secure and compatible with web design and coding standards. Such programs include Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari are all web standards compliant which means that they display web pages the way they should be and all look the same. But then there’s Microsoft Internet Explorer, the only kid on the block that needs its own special files to make the page look the way the designer/developer intended. Try it yourself, download Firefox and install it and then look at a site in both browsers and you will see a difference.
While I am at it, all versions of Outlook and Microsoft Mail are just as bad as its internet browser cousin! It’s rendering capability of html emails is about 5 years behind other products. If you are using outlook can you view videos or flash animations? NO! But if you were on Apple Mac Mail you could!! If you’re not prepared to join the cool kids and make the jump to Apple just yet, the same people that produce Firefox also produce an email client called Thunderbird which I would recommend changing over to as a minimum.
Posted from my iPhone
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQb_Q8WRL_g
Yours in design,
Paul-oceratops