I think, though, we are comparing apples to oranges in terms of general usage. While you make reference to "hardened" IE configurations, I can argue you could go to the same extent with any browser.. or moreso, but it's largely irrelevent as the goal is to make the browser "out of the box" better then it's competitor, as that's the way 99% of people will leave it.
This is the great misnomer.. the assumption that IE is better because you can trick it out to make it better.. something I will not deny. But it's somewhat like me saying a Honda Civic is the greatest drag car ever because tricked out, it stomps. That doesn't mean that the floor model is the same thing.
That's the whole point. Firefox, out of the box, with default configurations, I would trust more then IE, out of the box, default configurations. But if you spend your time hunting for Pr0n or WaReZ, then you pretty much get what you 've got coming ;)
CW
The problem is, you CANNOT tweak Firefox for security. It has NO ability to do so except rewriting the code yourself. That is the big problem a lot of people do not see.
I agree that Firefox out of the box is more "secure" than IE.
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- Carroll Kong
