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If you don’t feel like reading this whole article I can sum it up in two words: Get Firefox. If you want to read on about how IE sucks, then go ahead.

I decided to use IE just for the hell of it and see how crappy the internet is without Firefox. Since Service Pack 2 should have made it more secure, I decided to see how true that was. Apparently not.

ActiveX controls are the things that popup and ask you to install things, usually adware. Service Pack 2 blocks all of these by default but a little bar pops up on top telling you that it was blocked. Of course, IE is still vulnerable unless you go into Internet Settings and turn off ActiveX controls, but no one does this. So because a bar pops up notifying people when sites try to install bad software, this makes IE okay, right? Wrong…

Here’s what really pissed me off. Sites know that SP2 blocks their spyware, so now they provide detailed instructions on how to install it, bypassing all of SP2s new security features (which are weak anyway). Yes, it’s happening. “In order to continue using our site you must…” Check out the picture for the actual instructions given. Quick note about the picture – it is a real screenshot and a javascript detected Internet Explorer and those instructions popped up over the main content of the website. Dumb people would follow the instructions because they want to access the site. And here’s the kicker. The damn thing says security warning, and the instructions are asking you to install it. People are really dumb and would.

I can’t make this point any stronger: GET FIREFOX!!!! I went to the exact same site and every bad script and popup was blocked.

Wow! What a damn good browser. It kicks Internet Explorer’s ass. Actually, I’m not a big fan of replacing things that came with the operating system, but you need to get this browser. First off, it is much more secure than Internet Explorer. For example, all those install on demand spyware installers are completely blocked. So it eliminates the holes in IE. It also doesn’t run stupid javascripts. For example, I made a computer crashing javascript using AIM vulnerabilities and opened it with IE. When I opened that same script in Firefox, it stopped immediately. Firefox also has a nice easy to follow options dialog. Internet Explorer’s is really confusing. All the stuff to clear your cache and history are right there, instead of going through IE’s many sub-option dialogs. The size of the browsing window is clear and to the point, instead of being cluttered with IE toolbars. Another key feature is the built in popup blocker. The most awesome thing has to be the Tabbed windows. Instead of having 10 instances of a browser open, you can have one and it will open in tabs. Another nifty little feature is a little google toolbar (which you can remove of course). Oh, I forgot the download manager… Yeah, it’s very nicely done. You can pause downloads and it is a really cool interface.

I highly recommend this browser and it is a MUST for everyone to download. It’s also free.

Screenshot
Download it here