Comments on: Firefox 3 vs. Internet Explorer 8 – Addressing the common arguments

By: epiquestions

epiquestions — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:41:15 +0000

In a corporate environment IE wins because it is integrated with windows so managing it would be easy compared to firefox.

Security wise..browser choice is not really an issue in corporate environments as it is still up to the admins to secure the internet access by means of corporate firewalls(on routers and software fw for each pc)and coprorate avs or the use of proxies and webfiltering apps (websense etc). All browsers have security flaws it is up to the admins to prevent that from being exploited.

In home use the gap with security issues between the browser is not that wide anymore since ie7. The users are responsible for the sites they visit/buttons they click. If the phishing funtion of IE7 works as it should then it doesn’t really matter which browser you use. But if you are into pron sites/warez etc then consider firefox and noscript works great hehe

In a web applications rendering I still think Firefox is better(in web2.0 or java based web services/apps at least). In my work where we have a JSF (Icefaces) based Web Application the pages load faster and are more responsive in Firefox than in IE6/7. The difference is between 2-5 seconds (Firefox responds almost instantly). It’s worth to note that it has been coded for IE6,7 primarily because most of our users use IE and it still runs slow. Maybe in IE8 that would change because they said that IE8 would conform to the web standard..we’ll see

I also tried this using facebook and other ‘web 2.0′ apps and firefox is faster

Personally I use firefox because of it’s useful addons like webdeveloper , fireftp, firebug, DOM inspector, foxy proxy, user agent switcher, noscript…
most of the addons I use for debugging web apps

By: Jacob Hornbech

Jacob Hornbech — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:38:40 +0000

Well I don’t think it has problems, but as you also stated, it is harder to manage than IE.

What I tried to say in my post, is that larger companies tend to optimize i.e. webshops for IE, rather than firefox, especially in some industry segments.

By: Michael Pietroforte

Michael Pietroforte — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 16:48:43 +0000

Jim, Firefox’s lack of ActiveX support is a major reason why the Open Source browser is no-go area for many organizations because they need it for intranet apps. If you have security concerns you can simply disable it for the internet zone via Group Policy. IE8 offers some new features here. I might blog about it soon.

Jack, the user interface is a matter of taste. I prefer Firefox here. I also think that many end users were confused by the changes in IE7. However, these are mostly gimmick features which are not important for most users.

Keith, I am using JavaScript-based apps in Firefox, IE and Opera every day. I have never experienced any difference. CPU usage is usually below 10% when I use web apps. Server responsiveness and network speed are the only relevant factors when it comes to browser speed. Only Flash is different here. But that is another story. The problem is that Firefox is quite unstable when it comes to web apps. I think this is the main reason why Google came up with Chrome.

SLam I was an Opera user for a quite some time. I still use it when I access sites that are not trustworthy. I think it is the most secure browser simply because of its low market share. This is why security concerns were never a good reason to use Firefox because Opera obviously would be the best choice here. This why I believe that security is often only a dummy argument of Firefox supporters.

Eugene, I have seen many IE only compliant web apps. Usually they require ActiveX. It is a pity that Firefox doesn’t support this industry standard. As I said before, it is a major argument against Firefox. So I absolutely agree, web standards do matter.

Jacob, I didn’t know that Firefox has problems in Terminal Server environments. What exactly is the problem here?

By: Jacob Hornbech

Jacob Hornbech — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:15:32 +0000

Ahh I see that you have already addressed this issue in your newest post…

By: Jacob Hornbech

Jacob Hornbech — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:52:14 +0000

While I use Firefox as my favorite browser on my personal computer, I don’t think that Firefox is ready for Terminal Server environments. Most of our users use car spare parts webshops, which almost certainly is optimized for IE, and maybe not Firefox.

Another issue. Can you administer trusted sites, and levels of security, through GPO’s for Firefox? It would make sense that it would only work for IE…

So my point is. On terminal servers, I don’t see Firefox running any foxholes anytime soon, at least until you can administer it through GPO’s.

By: Eugene

Eugene — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:51:41 +0000

To install latest Firefox is the first advice I give users which have security concerns.
IE was a complete failure for years so windows users who are already stick with quality of Firefox should have solid reasons to move to back to IE.
And not only security reasons.
Your speed and web standards argumentation seems to come from early 2000s where there were primarily static pages and IE had 99% of the market.
Speed does matter for end users especially in enterprise web applications.
Web standards compliance does matter not only to end users but for enterprises also – have you seen webapps having 2 versions: standard-compliant and IE-compliant ?

By: SLam

SLam — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:48:03 +0000

Although IE8 is leaps and bounds ahead of IE7, I still feel unsafe running it (this from an IT Professional, imagine a regular user!). If I must, for compatibility sakes, I would run it in a Virtual environment, that way I can always revert back if it gets HiJacked!

I’m sticking with FireFox 3.0 on my main box, and am beta testing FireFox 3.1 (b3) in a thinstall-safe bubble, adding an extra layer of protection from the main Windows system.

Opera is also good!

- SLam

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:18:36 +0000

Speed is a big deal depending on what you’re measuring the speed of. Startup, maybe not a big deal as most people leave their browser running all the time anyways.

When it comes to complex pages with a lot of JavaScript, the speed of the rendering engine makes a big difference. I’ve noticed a huge speed difference between Firefox 3.0 and Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 on sites that use a lot of complex JavaScript such as Salesforce.com. Even if there is only an actual split second difference in page load, the perceived speed can make all the difference to the user.

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:36:02 +0000

I agree with your points on speed. I’m not sure about the experiences of others, but for me Firefox seems slow to start up compared to other browsers (not sure if this is because of it’s reliance on sluggish add-ons).

Also, web standards don’t affect the end user. Firefox uses this argument far too much and the fact is that your casual browser doesn’t care. Internet Explorer by default has always had a better UI, and that’s what’s gonna sway users in the end.

By: Jim Jones

Jim Jones — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:19:53 +0000

As a longtime network admin and web developer I’ve been pro Firefox for a very long time, mostly due to the security concerns and web standardization issues. While some of the recent security features rolled into IE and the drop in vulnerabilities are nice, IE still supports ActiveX and as long as they do users are going to find a way to infect themselves. There are too many sites with illegitimate ActiveX components (i.e. pr0n) to ignore.

From the web stardards standpoint, no we aren’t going to be able to actually get rid of IE; too many of your intranet and administrative web components rely on IE only features. But from a programatic standpoint I always code for it to work in Firefox and then tweak for IE.

By: PCmobile911 » Blog Archive » Belarc Advisor

PCmobile911 » Blog Archive » Belarc Advisor — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:52:57 +0000

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