Is Firefox/Opera safer than IE? What about IE 7?

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"James" wrote:

| I understand that one can "lock down" IE (i.e.
| http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/ie-sp2-surf-sa...) so that
| it is relatively safe to use. The question becomes: is it then as usable
| as before such measures were taken? We heard earlier in the year how
| some security experts were telling us to consider using alternate
| browsers (i.e. Firefox, Opera, Mozilla) since there were far fewer
| security issues and they were patched much more quickly. Now we hear
| that IE 7 will soon make an appearance. Will it be the answer some have
| been waiting for or will it be essentially the same engine with more
| security built in?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

James wrote:
> I understand that one can "lock down" IE (i.e.
> http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/ie-sp2-surf-sa...) so
> that it is relatively safe to use. The question becomes: is it then
> as usable as before such measures were taken?

No.

> We heard earlier in the
> year how some security experts were telling us to consider using
> alternate browsers (i.e. Firefox, Opera, Mozilla) since there were
> far fewer security issues and they were patched much more quickly.

Definitely patched more quickly.

> Now we hear that IE 7 will soon make an appearance.

Soon to beta, maybe. When it will actually go gold probably be all that
soon.

> Will it be the
> answer some have been waiting for or will it be essentially the same
> engine with more security built in?

I seriously doubt that MS is starting from scratch. And as long as IE
holds over 50% of the browser market, it is the biggest bang for the
buck target, and as such is much more likely to get hit than any other
browser.

I still use IE, but I wouldn't use it for anything critical, like
on-line banking, internet purchases, or anything other than viewing
known websites, that are designed to be viewed better in IE.

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