StuWhite - 2:42 pm on Jan 17, 2007 (gmt 0)

Surely, in hindsight, IE was vulnerable for the entire year. The vulnerabilities existed before the proof of concepts were issued.

Likewise, Firefox was probably unsafe for the entire year as well. Vulnerabilities have been found in Firefox in the past and more will undoubtedly be uncovered in the future.

Exactly how unsafe are they though? Sure, IE may be less safe, but how many users actually suffer substantial harm from these vulnerabilities? Surely most exploits are mitigated by the use of a firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware apps.

After all, getting out of bed in the morning is unsafe too. I can think of plenty of vulnerabilities that could befall me before I even make it to breakfast. One has to keep things in perspective though.

I continue to prefer IE simply because it renders most web pages the way the authors intended them to be displayed. I went through a phase of using Firefox but gave up on it because I came across so many sites that simply didn't work on Firefox. I only use it now if I want to take advantage of a particular extension.

Sure, I could get up on my high horse and refuse to visit sites which aren't standards compliant. But really, life is too short...