firefox safe?

Migrating to Mozilla Firefox: the Pros, Cons & Installation

A two part guide for Internet Explorer users considering changing to Firefox V2

Part 1 deals with the pro's and con's of using Firefox in preference to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Part 2 is a practical guide to installing Firefox

Part 1: The Pros and Cons

Things change quickly in the world of computers. Just a year ago Microsoft's Internet Explorer seemed to have an unassailable hold on the Internet browser market.

Then all of a sudden through a combination of multiple security vulnerabilities, an aging set of features and the emergence of more modern browsers, Internet Explorer has started to look vulnerable.

So vulnerable in fact that over 100 million users have already switched over to other browsers. And the browser most have switched to is Mozilla Firefox.

Firefox is a fast, lean tabbed browser produced by the Mozilla Corporation. It's the young nimble brother of the original full-featured Mozilla Suite that itself being a spin-off from the ill fated Netscape browser.

The current version of Firefox is 2.0, the first major update since V1.0, the first official release.

Firefox is an impressive product but it's certainly not perfect. A decision to move from Internet Explorer to Firefox is a decision involving trading one set of attributes for another. Each individual will need to weigh the pros and cons and make a decision based on their own needs.

The purpose of this guide is to help you make that choice. And if you decide to go for Firefox I hope to provide you with some tips to make the transition from Internet Explorer as smooth as possible.

Three Good Reasons to Abandon Internet Explorer

1. It's an ongoing security risk.

Even the most one-eyed Microsoft supporter would have to accept that IE has been plagued with security problems.

First, as the world's most popular browser it's a target for hackers. That's because any vulnerability they uncover can be utilized against over 90% of all computers. That's quite a temptation. In fact there have been more attacks against IE than any other Windows component or application and there is no reason to believe this will lesson in the future.

Second it's a security risk because it employs Microsoft's propriety active scripting component called ActiveX. Now ActiveX offers users some real convenience features but those features come at a high cost. Security experts have been concerned about ActiveX right from its introduction and those concerns have proven justified as ActiveX has been at the center of multiple security vulnerabilities including many of the most serious. And it's not only ActiveX, IE also makes use of VBScript and browser helper objects (BHOs) two other convenience technologies that has been heavily exploited by hackers.

The latest version of Internet Explorer, IE7, includes enhancements that address many of these scripting problems but the fundamental problem remains.

Third it's a security risk because IE is too close to the core of the Windows operating system. In fact Microsoft itself argues that it's actually not a browser but part of the operating system. Such closeness is not a good thing; it means that a hacker who breaks into IE may not only have hacked your browser but may also be able to gain access to the operating system itself.

Finally Microsoft's record for responding to reported flaws in IE has been checkered. In several well publicized instances Microsoft have denied the existence of the flaws and instead, gone into "blame the messenger for the message" mode rather than respond. In other cases they have questioned the severity of the claimed flaws. This strange PR-driven stance has meant that patches for a number of critical flaws have been slow to arrive. Indeed even today there are over 20 publicly reported but yet unpatched critical IE flaws. And don't expect things to change much in the future.

Want to read the rest ... go to

http://www.techsupportalert.com/firefox.htm

Hope this helps

Pat

Safe.. About as safe as any internet browser can be. Check Firefox's system requirements to find out as to whether or not your system can run it properly.

Well the internet is never safe, but you can try using the SAFE MODE...

Firefox can sometimes not read some CSS/JAVA script...

internet always dangerous depending on what websites you visit, though firefox should be safer than IE

Safer than IE

im using it right now, i wouldnt choose anything else but as far as i know its the safest browser out there

of course ... it is used by the millions of web surfers around the globe