IE9

[fansince62]

I have a buddy who is in web work for a living and hacks for a hobby on the side. He is about the biggest geek I know and if a better coder exists out there, I sure haven't met them. He is about as anti-Microsoft as you can but after years of avoiding IE is back to using it as one of his primary browsers (Chrome and Opera are the others). He too raves about the speed and significantly better security on both IE8 and IE9.

Neo...well...IE still has its security vulnerabilities. these systems aren't stand-alone - they depend on libaries, third party binaries, etc., etc. but my point all along has been the OS it usually rides on. It's a standard axiom in security that any controls higher in the system stack can be defeated by exploits lower in the system stack.

sounds like you have an industrious friend! I was watching a DEFCON tape the other day and the hacker de jour (not making fun of your friend...but it is a strange sub-culture)....was explaining some research he had conducted on hacking rfid systems that may be used in the future as part of mass transportation network systems (e.g., closure warnings). he opened up by stating "A few things about me...I hate people." I about spit out my coffee.

 

[fansince62]

Fansince, although In my personal opinion you are spot on in the structural problems with MS security model, I will have to admit that most reviews I have read of both Windows 7 and IE9 comment favorably on dramatic improvements in the security area so, who knows, maybe the tide is turning.

eh...don't listen to anything in the trades. wait and see what happens with the whole patching system, major hacks that are actually made public, etc.

 

[Burgundy Burner]

Why IE will do just fine, but problems for FF.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/why-internet-explorer-will-survive-and-firefox-wont/3064?tag=nl.e539

 

[fansince62]

BB...I downloaded Firefox 4.0 today cuz of some extensions I wanted to play with. Awfully fast......and the wealth of FREE extensions is amazing. I'm still a Safari guy on my MAC at home and IE for the box at work. but FF is something I'm going to explore for a bit.

my core problem with IE is precisely what MS touts: its integration with the OS. You're not hooking into IE...you're hooking into all the vulnerabilities of the MS environment. Those monthly "critical" patches that take forever? well.....frankly...they have become a pain in the arse. more fundamentally.....it makes it very, very hard to trust the 40 million lines+ of code that is the system.