62.12% vs 24.43%

AMEN

Major advantages of Firefox over IE8 (and to some extent Google Chrome):

1) Built in ad blocking and add-ons for better privacy. Scripts, Flash and “Flash Cookies” (which are not removed by clearing the browser cache)can be blocked or removed using add-ons.

2) Faster turnaround when patches are needed, and fewer known 0-day holes.

3) No Active-X Controls, no XAML, and fewer iFrames types of insecure content delivery sub-systems.

4) Unlike IE, Firefox is a Program, not as closely tied in with the Windows kernel as IE. Even if you could completely remove the IE browser, many of its components, including Active-X, are still in play, because Windows Explorer is IE without the Internet connections. So the security threats remain.

5) Firefox offers NoScript, which not only blocks drive-by downloads, but helps prevent browser hijacking through Cross-Site exploits. NoScript also chows many types of “clickjacking” — invisible, clickable page elements hiding behind other, visible, clickable page elements.

6) So-called “sandboxing” or browser virtualization can be applied much more effectively to Firefox vs. IE. Thhis is partly due to the fact that when a program opens an IE window, this windows can be totally unprotected by the sandbox. If Firefox is called up by a program, the window is protected in many more instances. An example of sandboxing is Zone Alarm Extreme Security (not free, and I do not recommend it).

So IE is definitely not a good choice if you have a choice. Yes, Firefox has had problems with crashes, sites not working with it, and a “memory leak” which affects users who seldom reboot Windows. And it is slow to load. But the upsides are more security and better privacy, especially when a few carefully selected add-ons are applied.

I have not used Google Chrome, so I cannot comment on its relative merits or demerits along these lines. But Chrome is even more isolated from the Windows kernel than Firefox, so this may give Chrome potentially even better sandboxing when that strategy is employed. And Chrome installs on a per-user basis, so it never needs to touch the Administrator Account. It can be installed directly into a Limited User Account. Firefox cannot do that.

I understand – and IE8 is fine. The major differences are beneath the surface. ActiveX technology, behind IE, has been the source of hundreds of security holes. Firefox doesn’t work with ActiveX. That, alone, to me, is sufficient reason to switch to Firefox.

I’m sure there are other folks posting here who would expand on my observations.

btw, woody, I started using Firefox since version 1.0 back in November 2004. It certainly felt like a better Netscape Navigator browser. Fast forward to January 2010, I’m using the latest Firefox 3.6 RC and it works well. Final release of Firefox 3.6 should be out in a few days.

Firefox bookmarks tutorial here: http://mozilla.gunnars.net/firefox_bookmarks_tutorial.html

Firefox began as a “better” Navigator, but many things are different.

Depending on which version of IE and Windows you use, you may be getting IE temp files from Outlook, or myriad other places. Dont’ worry about it. Zap them.