popularity. What I don't understand is why a few members on this list continue to harp on each next "exploit" as the end of the world and a reason why we should all dump this OSS browser business and go back to IE.
I had much the same response as you had when I first read the article - one has to click yes to install the crapware, it only attacks IE, it is a java problem, but I noticed on further reading that the Mozilla team is treating it as a browser issue, and is working with Sun to fix it. That makes it sound more like a FF issue that it appears at first glance. On top of that, since several of us on the list sell to end users or support them, we know that when presented with a question, no matter how well worded, most users will make the wrong choice, so even the yes/no question really doesn't protect most users who are using FF. I understand that this is an education thing, but let's face it, people can't/won't learn most of the time, so the browser has to do a lot to protect them.
To the best of my memory, every FF exploit that has been discovered so far has been patched very quickly (instead of M$ taking months and years to patch IE, it at all). I am not so optimistic to think that\
I was only aware of one real FF patch - the 1.01 release. Sure there were other patches, but they are hidden away and appear to me to be nightly builds - hardly the thing most users are going to search out and install successfully.
I'm a huge supporter of FF and OSS in general, but the problem is that there is a small window of opportunity available for FF before MS finally comes up with a solution. They always do if you give them enough time. FF is the poster child for OSS, and as it has been touted by the media as a secure browser, the FF team absolutely has to take ownership of any perceived security flaw and get it fixed as fast as possible. I think it can be done, I just hope it can be done quickly enough to stop MS from beating them to the punch.
T
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