Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Depending on how secure your computer already is, you may or may not want to switch to Firefox as an internet browser.
Every day it seems I hear of some new exploit or vulnerability in Internet Explorer. Several of my friends have suggested I switch from IE to this other browser they claim is more secure: Firefox. Will I be safer if I switch?
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Maybe. It really depends on how secure you are to begin with.
But before you switch it's worth understanding what you are and are not getting and what you'll still need to do.
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I actually run Firefox. It's a fine internet browser, and works very well on 99% of the web sites I visit. Like many of the IE alternatives, it actually does a better job of implementing the various HTML standards than IE does. Unlike IE, it's in active development, which means that features are being added, and bugs are being fixed on a regular basis.
Firefox works well.
If you do switch, you'll still need Internet Explorer at times. Not surprisingly, several Microsoft sites, including Windows Update, require Internet Explorer to work. In addition, many sites are "optimized for Internet Explorer" often whether they know it or not, and they take advantage of IE-specific quirks, extensions, and features not supported in other browsers. The result is that some sites just won't look the same in browsers other than IE.
But what about all those exploits?
In my opinion, IE is an "ok" piece of software; it's better than some and worse than others in terms of overall quality and security. Certainly the news would have you believe that it's a total disaster and security nightmare, but I disagree with that strenuously. I believe IE (and in general Microsoft) is a victim of its own success.
All software has bugs. Period. It's a fact. IE has bugs, Firefox has bugs, and some of those bugs are certainly security related.
Pretend you're a hacker. You want to cause some trouble, and gain a little notoriety - do you look for exploits in the product that 85% of people use (that's Internet Explorer, by the way, though market share is falling), or the one that perhaps 10% of people use (Firefox, who's market share is growing)? Obviously you want the bigger bang for your hacking buck, and you'll target the bigger crowd - the crowd using IE. Couple that with a strong anti-Microsoft sentiment in the hacking community, and you can see that the number of times IE gets exploited actually says more about the number of people trying and nothing about the relative quality of IE versus alternatives like Firefox.
Regardless of their relative merits, IE will be hacked more often simply because it's a bigger target. And as I said, I believe the same is true for Microsoft software in general.
Should you switch? Well, as I said earlier, it depends on how secure you already are. If you're doing the right things already:
- you run up to date anti-virus and anti-spyware software with regularly updated databases
- you have auto-updates enabled, or you regularly visit Windows Update
- you're behind some kind of firewall
- you general visit only "safe" websites
- you don't download things you don't trust or open email attachments you don't recognize
you're probably just fine with IE. The fact is, you should be doing all those things even if you're running an IE alternative.
However, if you want a little more protection and if you want to make yourself a little less of a target, then by all means, Firefox is a great alternative.
Yes, I have all those things, and I run Firefox. Why? Mostly to become familiar with it enough to write articles such as this. I also happen to like tabbed browsing (also available for IE via some add-on products), and appreciate some of the add-ons that are available for Firefox. However my wife, who is probably a more typical computer user, has been using IE for years without a single incident. Not one.
So absolutely, use Firefox if you like. But you don't have to, and if you do, you shouldn't let it lull you into a false sense of security either.
Article C2268 - January 23, 2005
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
I only ever use firefox...it is very safe and I like the fact that the add ons include web of trust and many other safety alternatives. It is the best browser.
Posted by: Bunny Rodwell at February 16, 2010 12:55 PMwell, im thinking aobut downloading firefox on my laptop that has WIndows 7 on it. My only concern is VIRUSES. I donwloaded Firefox on my desktop and it runs perfectly fine but i dont really care if my desktop gets viruses or not, but thts not the case with my laptop. Im VERY cautios about not getting any viruses on my laptop. Should i get Firefox on my laptop or not? If so, then PLZ give me a safe link to the download OR tell me where i should download it at. Thx in advanced.
02-Apr-2010
Posted by: Garrett at April 2, 2010 3:02 AM
Very good article. Covers all the pros and cons from a subjective point of view. I just use internet explorer because while it is more susceptiple to attacks, it is also much more widely supported. If you have a problem with it there is almost a guarantee that you can google it and someone else will have had the same problem while with open source software its a bit more work trying to find related issues. Additionally if are already implememtning proper security steps you shouldn't have any issues in the first place with IE.
Posted by: Nate T at July 31, 2011 5:44 AMI disagree with Leo.
Leo has stated on another article, that you CANNOT import XP image viewer to use in Windows 7. Therefore, you have to use something like Irfanview.
I have successfully imported the required dll file + reg files needed to make it run. It DOES run XP image viewer in Windows 7, because I am using it right now.
I said that, because Leo is wrong on some of his assumptions. Leo generally has good advice, but he is not perfect.
That said, let's get back to the web browser issue. Should you use Firefox, or Internet Explorer?
I leave that up to you, but let me tell you some things I tried before I do. I opened anywhere from 4 to 20 tabs on my machine with Internet Explorer 8. And Internet Explorer would crash, then crash on recovering the tabs.
YES Internet Explorer works! And it works with more than one tab. But barely.... I have had 1,611 tabs open in Firefox & the only thing that stopped me from opening more, was running low on memory.
That isn't to say that Firefox NEVER crashes, for it has, once in a while. But you can open far more websites in Firefox before you do have a crash, than IE. Also, FF remains much more responsive with more tabs open, & is just a faster seeming browser. Period.
If you corrupt your IE installation, you have no recourse but to attempt a repair installation. And it malware has sufficiently hosed your IE program, you may not even be able to do that properly.
FF can be completely installed & reinstalled. No problems. FF also does not suffer from active-X, which is a component that IE uses that allows drive by downloading & installing (a major cause of malware on machines).
I have noted carefully that a ton of patches for Windows, is fixing some vulnerability that exists because of IE, or is patching a component that IE uses.
I have had far fewer malware infections on machines that deploy FF than IE.
Sure, all software has bugs, but IE just seems to be a bug.
Use whatever you want, but the idea of using a web browser that crashes with less than 20 tabs, & also a browser that automatically installs malware because of active-x controls doesn't seem like a good idea to me.
Posted by: Johnny at January 1, 2012 9:15 PMLeo,
You make it sound as though using Internet Explorer solves all compatibility problems. Or most of them. It does not.
I have been to many websites that do NOT work in any iteration of Internet Explorer. Even facebook sometimes displays incorrectly in Internet Explorer 9 under Windows 7.
Do you know what works? Firefox!
And for those 0.000001% of websites that do not work with any browser but IE because Microsoft paid them to only "support" IE & block all other internet browsers from connecting, well there is IETab that works great!
You can use Firefox & still surf IE based sites. Isn't this great?
Amen!
Posted by: Andrea at January 6, 2012 10:52 AM