31 July 2006
Browser wars heating up
With release of Opera 9 about a month in the past, Opera is now talking about the next version, Opera 10, which is said will be able to run on any device both fixed or mobile platforms. Firefox is gaining more market share, about 13% world-wide. Most of Firefox's gain has been in German with a gain there of about 39%.
This has lead Microsoft to announce an early release of IE 7. Based on previous Microsoft performance, especially when they rush something, I don't know that this is a good idea for Microsoft, but we'll see. IE 7 basically has the exact same features as Firefox and Opera with some additional Microsoft features (no I don't mean bugs). The one thing that is troubling me about the release of IE 7 is the fact that they are planning on making it a high priority security update so people will most likely download it without really knowing what they are downloading. Yes IE 6 has some serious security risks, but this isn't a patch. It is a completely new version of the software. It needs to be considered an upgrade not a security update which has usually meant a patch from Microsoft in the past.
I advise everyone to make sure that if they have a Windows box they watch what updates they install on their computers from Microsoft and if they don't want to update IE 6 to IE 7 then make sure you don't select that update. I would also say that from a security standpoint Firefox or Opera is better. On Internet Explorer I get several different pieces of spyware (usually about 4 to 10) after just 10 minutes of using the browser. With Firefox I get maybe 3 after a week of using it. Of course using something other than Windows I don't get any at all.
This has lead Microsoft to announce an early release of IE 7. Based on previous Microsoft performance, especially when they rush something, I don't know that this is a good idea for Microsoft, but we'll see. IE 7 basically has the exact same features as Firefox and Opera with some additional Microsoft features (no I don't mean bugs). The one thing that is troubling me about the release of IE 7 is the fact that they are planning on making it a high priority security update so people will most likely download it without really knowing what they are downloading. Yes IE 6 has some serious security risks, but this isn't a patch. It is a completely new version of the software. It needs to be considered an upgrade not a security update which has usually meant a patch from Microsoft in the past.
I advise everyone to make sure that if they have a Windows box they watch what updates they install on their computers from Microsoft and if they don't want to update IE 6 to IE 7 then make sure you don't select that update. I would also say that from a security standpoint Firefox or Opera is better. On Internet Explorer I get several different pieces of spyware (usually about 4 to 10) after just 10 minutes of using the browser. With Firefox I get maybe 3 after a week of using it. Of course using something other than Windows I don't get any at all.
Labels: firefox, IE, internet, microsoft, opera
