[Baltar]

Originally Posted by mcovey

And as for security, I believe firefox was named one of the most unsecure browser, based on the number of presently known and unpatched holes, as well as the rate that new holes were being found. It's no longer got the added advantage of being non-mainstream and not a target of those who want to exploit the holes, since it has, what, 10% market share?

Firefox security issues get patched a lot faster than IE, and Firefox has fewer critical vulnerabilities. If you hear that IE has fewer vulnerabilities or that they get patched faster, it's simply Microsoft propaganda. Here are excerpts from the Firefox and IE articles in Wikipedia:

The fact that Firefox has fewer and less severe publicly known unpatched security vulnerabilities than Internet Explorer (see Comparison of web browsers) is often cited as a reason to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox for improved security. A 2006 Symantec study showed that Firefox had surpassed other browsers including Internet Explorer in the number of vendor-confirmed vulnerabilities that year through to September, though these were patched more quickly than vulnerabilities found in IE and other browsers. Symantec later clarified their statement, saying that Firefox still had fewer security vulnerabilities, as counted by security researchers. Firefox currently has one security vulnerability marked "less critical" by Secunia. Internet Explorer has three security vulnerabilities, the most severe of which is marked "moderately critical" by Secunia.

While Internet Explorer is not alone in having exploitable vulnerabilities, its ubiquity has resulted in many more affected computers when vulnerabilities are found. Microsoft has not responded as quickly as competitors in fixing security holes and making patches available. Not only are there more security holes discovered in Internet Explorer, but these vulnerabilities tend to remain unpatched for a much longer time, in some cases giving malicious web site operators months to exploit them before Microsoft releases a patch. Several companies maintain databases of known security vulnerabilities that exist in Internet Explorer, for which no fixes have been published by Microsoft. As of November 27, 2006, Secunia reports 3 unpatched vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, of which the most severe vulnerability is rated "moderately critical". In contrast, Mozilla Firefox, the main competitor to Internet Explorer, is reported to have 1 unpatched security vulnerability, rated "less critical." Opera, another competitor to Internet Explorer, is also reported to have no unpatched security vulnerabilities.