[Hurricane Andrew]

Yeah whatever Internet Explorer has so many more Problems than Firefox!

Listen, I love Firefox as much as anyone and have been using it as my primary browser since the pre 1.0 betas. The reality of the situation, however, is that Firefox has experienced 25 vulnerabilities during the first half of the year, with 18 being critical. IE, on the other hand, has experienced 13, with 8 of those being critical. So to say that IE has more problems just doesn't "add up" so to speak.

Also, though the flaws may be patched quicker, there are a few problems with them. First, the Firefox patches require that you uninstall the old version and install a new version. It's not so much a patch as it is an entirely new installation. I know the Mozilla folks are supposedly working on a better update system, but for now, to most users, this "patch" process isn't very friendly. Also, in an an era of near-zero-day exploits, patching quick may not be as helpful. If the exploit's already out there, it's too late. Better to have fewer issues than rely on quick patches that users may or may not apply.

[chilepepper]

hogwash. many of the vulnerabilities occur if you go to the wrong site. it is balderdash to say "if the exploit is out there it is already to late". if you wait a full month or two for M$ to decide to decide to issue its patch, that might be too late...

by the way folks, anyone get the feeling that the symantec report was very, very carefully orchestrated for microsoft skipping this months patch??

as for the differences between IE and FF, since I made my kids stop using IE and start using FF the spyware and virus infections on our home machine (Windows ME protected by a firewall) have gone to zero...

[mdefranc]

Secunia shows these currently unpatched vulnerablities: IE 19, Firefox 3, and Opera 0.

The Symantec analysis is far less relevant to browser security.

[elmer fudd]

"The reality of the situation, however, is that Firefox has experienced 25 vulnerabilities during the first half of the year, with 18 being critical. IE, on the other hand, has experienced 13, with 8 of those being critical. So to say that IE has more problems just doesn't "add up" so to speak."

No. The reality of the situation is that Microsoft has only acknowledged 13 vulnerabilities. If you continue reading the article you'll find this: "There is one caveat: Symantec counts only those security flaws that have been confirmed by the vendor. According to security monitoring company Secunia, there are 19 security issues that Microsoft still has to deal with for Internet Explorer, while there are only three for Firefox."

Firefox might not be perfect, but Microsoft won't even admit they have a problem.