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p2pnet.net News Opinion:- Savvy Web Surfers Catch New Wave of Browsers,
That’s the headline in a Reuters story on the fact Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has some “some slick new challengers”.
But it’s nothing to do with ’savvy surfers’ or a ‘new wave of browsers’ or ’slick’ or ‘new’.
Bill and the Boyz have been treating their customers with contempt for far too and now they’re paying for it.
Increasing numbers of deeply pissed off Internet Explorer users who’ve had a gut-full of being taken for for a ride by Microsoft and its non-stop security threats and breaches are looking around.
Under the latest critical IE ‘flaw,’ malicious code can be written into jpg images which can then act as channels through which hackers can access all manner of Microsoft software.
A patch has been issued. But so what? No one believes every single IE users is going to apply it. Far from it, in fact. And this means the door is wide open for all those hackers who live for just such oportunities as this.
So —– disenchanted IE users are are checking out new horizons and finding the views excellent, and as a direct result, IE now has serious competition from the likes of Opera, which is very far from being new, and Mozilla Firefox, which is now bopping along nicely, thank you very much.
And that’s great. It means the Microsoft monopoly is being shattered, which in turn means competition, which in turns means better product, better prices, better service and better support.
It’s win-win for everyone.
Except Microsoft.
But then, the Gates Green Machine is having the problems it’s having because, like the entertainment industry, it made the terminal error of looking the gift-horse in the mouth.
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See:-
slick new - Savvy Web Surfers Catch New Wave of Browsers, Reuters, September 26, 2004
critical IE ‘flaw’ - Microsoft JPEG Red Alert, p2pnet, September 15, 2004
bopping along nicely - Firefox: chasing IE, p2pnet, September 15, 2004
September 26th, 2004 at 6:26 pm
My son put firefox on my comp. very easy to use, web pages load much faster. It’s got a pop up blocker that is wonderful, and easy to use.
September 26th, 2004 at 9:58 pm
It’s been theorized that MS would let IE go into the toilet for awhile to lessen the charge of anti-competitive behavior by allowing them to say to courtrooms around the world ‘Look, we don’t have a stranglehold on the browser market, there’s no reason to decouple IE from the OS now is there judge?’
And, by this comment in the story “And that’s great. It means the Microsoft monopoly is being shattered, which in turn means competition…” it seems to have made the author think competition is alive and well again in terms of browsers - for now.
thoughts….?
TT
September 26th, 2004 at 10:18 pm
Hey TT: You say, “it seems to have made the author think competition is alive and well again in terms of browsers - for now”
au contraire - there IS no competition worth speaking of at the moment. Firefox and Opera are just nibbling around the edges. I don’t know about ‘again’ either: there never has been much.
I was trying to say competition is now starting to happen. But maybe I should have said ‘could well mean’ instead of a flat-out ‘means’.
Cheers!
September 27th, 2004 at 1:35 am
I agree re: the again part…I guess my point was that if there is the perception of competition, then this may serve MS well in future anti-competition battles, this would then support the theory that MS is intentionally letting IE tank - for now.
TT
September 27th, 2004 at 2:24 pm
put the adblock extension in there too, and you’ll be even happier.
September 27th, 2004 at 2:26 pm
I believe there were recent reports that MSIE was down to 47% of the entire browser market….
Firefox will take over… no malware can be run (no activeX, unlike opera) and It’s got so many cool extentions.
Now if they’d only keep theming and extensions consistent across revisions…
September 27th, 2004 at 6:50 pm
micro$soft doesnt have a thing to bitch about. its made its money already
September 28th, 2004 at 1:41 am
to true!