Daily Spin: After the Fox

The Big Picture

Firefox -- The Other Buggy Browser?

Somewhere out there in the big, big world is a user who thinks that we journalists are just too damn hard on Microsoft. We're always reporting on the latest Vista headaches, security flaws, patches gone bad, etc. Can't we just cut Microsoft a break? *

To this I say -- Sir or Madam, today's Daily Spin is for you.

Believe it or not, there's a cadre of users out there who still insist that Mozilla's Firefox is ten times more reliable and safer than Internet Explorer. There may be a little bias in that statement, based more on loathing for the "Eeeevil Empire" rather than Firefox's actual merits. Yes, it's a nice, little browser, simple in design and easy to use. Yes, users have enjoyed a little more added protection from spyware, phishing and other net baddies.

But the fact remains that this is a piece of software we're talking about. And no matter how much you want to believe otherwise, its not invulnerable. Last week's Mozilla update to fix 24 bugs in the browser, is proof of that -- and might give those Foxy die-harders reason to reconsider their devotion.

InternetWeek's Matt McKenzie said it best in his recent article on troublshooting Firefox:

Meanwhile, around the same time that they were patching up the holes Mozilla also decided to initiate a new support policy which ends any further security support for the Firefox 1.0.x, Thunderbird 1.0.x, and Mozilla Suite 1.7.x product lines. Granted, vendors cannot be expected to support every version of their software forever. But this definitely seems like a short lifecycle of support, especially considering Microsoft supports its apps for a much longer time.

If you're a FireFox supporter, let us know -- do you agree that FireFox has its problems? Or do you think the browser can simply do no wrong?

* the answer to that question is "no." ;-)

NWC's Take on the News

Here's what we think of the lastest news. Read the story and leave your own comment. Let's see if we agree...

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