Firefox 'New Tab' Feature Exposes Secured Information

seriously... what idiot thought this new tab feature was a good idea
 
heatlesssun said:
Geeks can go on and on about how Chrome is better than IE or FF or pick whatever browser comparison you wish. Pretty much all the major browsers will do what 99% of people need them to do almost interchangeably until we get into extensions which aren't as big of a deal I think as they use to be I think.
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IE would have reigned supreme given the fact it's the default browser in all Windows installations, if it wasn't for years ago when it started to get the reputation known as the most insecure and widely exploited browser. It doesn't matter how "good" IE9 is now, the damage was already done and its reputation tarnished, if it wants to bring back users it better do something truly revolutionary. So far it hasn't. Firefox and its army of addons offer much better flexibility, security, as well as control over ones own browser.

According to Symantec:
sz7axt.jpg


So by simply not even using IE (since ActiveX is IE only), you avoid 30% of all potentially exploitable vulnerabilities. You enjoy IE9, the rest of us with common sense will use more powerful browsers.
 
^ You know, as much as I distrust Microsoft and IE, I have to say that I would rather take their advice than Symantec's.

Cute graph btw.
 
^ What the bird said. Symantec has a vested interest in making gullible people paranoid enough to give them money.
 
SkribbelKat said:
^ What the bird said. Symantec has a vested interest in making gullible people paranoid enough to give them money.
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They were the same company that said Androids (Linux) gets viruses and that they wanted all users to purchase their AV plugin for $15 immediately to avoid the threat.
The threat of what? Their ads that might not be taking up space on your smart phone?

Is it just me, SkribbelKat, or does that graph look kinda like a dick with balls...
Symantec, what a bunch of multi-colored dicks! :D
 
GoldenTiger said:
This. The Linux-FOSS lovers are blinded by the froth foaming from their mouths onto their faces.
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Sure I'm a FOSS lover. But I am also a web developer and programmer. So I think my professional opinion weighs a little more than the common user. IE9 is just okay, but it will never match the reliability, stability, and compatibility that every other major browser has. I'm not blinded by anything other than the cold hard truth. Spend a day in my shoes and then tell me IE is still a valid web browser in today's world.
 
JosiahBradley said:
Sure I'm a FOSS lover. But I am also a web developer and programmer. So I think my professional opinion weighs a little more than the common user. IE9 is just okay, but it will never match the reliability, stability, and compatibility that every other major browser has. I'm not blinded by anything other than the cold hard truth. Spend a day in my shoes and then tell me IE is still a valid web browser in today's world.
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I don't mean to argue with you as I really enjoy the benefits of open source and GPL'ed software, but I haven't had any issues with IE8 or 9 being reliable or stable. I agree (most certainly moreso in the case of IE8 than 9) that it does not adhere to standards as well as other browsers. Conversely, lots and lots of people use IE so even though it deviates from the standard, its position as a major and currently the collective largest player in the browser market makes its deviations more a standard than the standards themselves.
 
GoldenTiger said:
This. The Linux-FOSS lovers are blinded by the froth foaming from their mouths onto their faces.
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You know what else is getting old? Your insults. :rolleyes:

IE9 does have a lot of compatibility problems, and as a former webmaster, I remember what a PIA it was to get anything to work correctly with IE6 and 7 at the time.

Even web developers and programmers that I talk to are sick of having to code everything for backwards compatibility with IE.
Even many departments going so far as to abandon it all together for increased functionality and features that can be used in Firefox, Safari, and other commonly used web browsers.

I don't know why it's so hard for Microsoft to keep up with the times, but I'm really getting sick of having to put IE9 into "compatibility mode" in order to make basic websites appear correctly, not counting the endless stream of back-end errors.

If IE9 was all that everyone is saying it is, believe me, I would be using it.
But unfortunately, it's not, and is quickly being dropped by many users in enterprise situations.

But hey, I'm not trying to stop anyone from using it.
If it works for you, and you don't have any issues with it, then by all means, use it. :)
 
Internet Explorer has the longest legacy as a browser. No other browser has managed to endure the test of time and the trial by fire subjected to it and survive. Firefox was only released in November of 2004. Chrome is far younger. Yet IE first saw the light of day in 1995. It is venerable and should be revered for setting trends and serving more pages for longer than any other browser. Microsoft has stood by it to make it work well and hasn't gone incrementing its version number an absurd number of times in te seventeen years since its release.

I've seen and and supported an enterprise deployment of Firefox to replace IE7 and it was a horrific mess to deal with because of the issues it had correctly displaying sites and passing authentication without locking out AD user accounts. We're pretty much problem free now on IE8 after getting out from under Firefox about a year ago.
 
SkribbelKat said:
I don't mean to argue with you as I really enjoy the benefits of open source and GPL'ed software, but I haven't had any issues with IE8 or 9 being reliable or stable.
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No problem, I enjoy peaceful discussion sometimes. I have personally administered tens if not a hundred systems and spent a couple years as a technical support specialist. I have seen some pretty bad stability issues from IE, ranging from the common search malware infections preventing you from using the browser, to massive slowdowns from add-ons. Recently when IE9 was launched it was completely unusable on some machines due to buggy hardware acceleration. Perhaps this was a driver issue, but then the driver should of been black listed like FF does. In the years I have used Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and other browsers, I have only had Adobe's flash take out a browser session completely, and normally a graceful recovery happens afterwards.
 
SkribbelKat said:
Internet Explorer has the longest legacy as a browser. No other browser has managed to endure the test of time and the trial by fire subjected to it and survive.
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Firefox is a direct extension of Netscape which itself a derivative of the first real browser Mosaic. It currently holds the longest run for browser technology. IE is fairly new to the game in terms of Firefox's linage. Check your User-Agent string for the famous Mozilla compatibility line.

Long term Netscape user here. Was my first browser and I stuck around. Seamonkey is about the closest you can get to the original experience.
 
JosiahBradley said:
Firefox is a direct extension of Netscape which itself a derivative of the first real browser Mosaic. It currently holds the longest run for browser technology. IE is fairly new to the game in terms of Firefox's linage. Check your User-Agent string for the famous Mozilla compatibility line.

Long term Netscape user here. Was my first browser and I stuck around. Seamonkey is about the closest you can get to the original experience.
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I doubt it shared any code in common with Netscape and there was a break in development between the time AOL bought and killed it and the time that Firefix showed up. Were any of the original developers involved or did they simply reuse a common name like Freespace did with Descent to get some name recognition to springboard adoption?
 
SkribbelKat said:
I doubt it shared any code in common with Netscape and there was a break in development between the time AOL bought and killed it and the time that Firefix showed up. Were any of the original developers involved or did they simply reuse a common name like Freespace did with Descent to get some name recognition to springboard adoption?
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Netscape created Mozilla. It is the open source equivalent. Version 6 and above actually used the exact same code base. The devs are still around doing their thing.
 
Netscape is not provably Firefox.

I'm pretty sure the same is true for Internet Exploder, but at least it hasn't changed hands since Microsoft reused Spyglass Mosiac, which, if we're going to split hairs, is older than Netscape anyway.
 
Red Falcon said:
I don't know why it's so hard for Microsoft to keep up with the times, but I'm really getting sick of having to put IE9 into "compatibility mode" in order to make basic websites appear correctly, not counting the endless stream of back-end errors.
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Can't remember the last time I had to do that and the ironic thing about that is that a lot of those problems were cause by IE becoming more standards compliant. I've been using IE 9 daily since the first beta came out and it's been a solid browser for me. Spending more time in IE 10 in Windows 8 and it's even better and the touch browsing is fantastic. IE 10 running on a Core i5 tablet, just blows away browsing on an ARM machine.
 
SkribbelKat said:
Netscape is not provably Firefox.

I'm pretty sure the same is true for Internet Exploder, but at least it hasn't changed hands since Microsoft reused Spyglass Mosiac, which, if we're going to split hairs, is older than Netscape anyway.
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Not splitting hairs either, but the developer for Mosaic, which outdated spyglass, created Netscape and in turn Mozilla was born. And Netscape > 6 is Firefox with proprietary extensions built onto it. These are simply facts, I'm not making conjecture here.
 
JosiahBradley said:
Not splitting hairs either, but the developer for Mosaic, which outdated spyglass, created Netscape and in turn Mozilla was born. And Netscape > 6 is Firefox with proprietary extensions built onto it. These are simply facts, I'm not making conjecture here.
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Wait really? What happened to Netscape after AOL bought it in 1998? I thought they horribly murdered it by throwing it uselessly at the awesomeness of IE3 and 4.
 
SkribbelKat said:
Wait really? What happened to Netscape after AOL bought it in 1998? I thought they horribly murdered it by throwing it uselessly at the awesomeness of IE3 and 4.
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Well make no mistake about it, free IE is what killed Netscape and what really got the anti-trust ball rolling against Microsoft. In hindsight I think it's safe to say that free IE was GREAT for customers that not so much for Netscape.
 
heatlesssun said:
Can't remember the last time I had to do that and the ironic thing about that is that a lot of those problems were cause by IE becoming more standards compliant. I've been using IE 9 daily since the first beta came out and it's been a solid browser for me. Spending more time in IE 10 in Windows 8 and it's even better and the touch browsing is fantastic. IE 10 running on a Core i5 tablet, just blows away browsing on an ARM machine.
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I guess it really depends on the organization's needs, plug-ins, and coding that they decide to work with.

I sure hope IE10 keeps on improving, it's not like I enjoy hating a web browser. :(
 
Red Falcon said:
I sure hope IE10 keeps on improving, it's not like I enjoy hating a web browser. :(
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Well for 99% of folks they'd have no reason not to like IE I think. In fact that's probably true of Chrome and Firefox as well. For web browsing without extensions and plug-ins, which I think are becoming less important overall though they will always be there on the desktop, there's not a heck of lot of difference between them from an average users standpoint.

It'll be interesting what Chrome and Firefox come up with for their Metro browsers. They have some work to do to be as good as IE 10 on Windows 8 touch devices.
 
JosiahBradley said:
Sure I'm a FOSS lover. But I am also a web developer and programmer. So I think my professional opinion weighs a little more than the common user. IE9 is just okay, but it will never match the reliability, stability, and compatibility that every other major browser has. I'm not blinded by anything other than the cold hard truth. Spend a day in my shoes and then tell me IE is still a valid web browser in today's world.
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I am a developer myself, thanks... I still hold my opinion.
 
GoldenTiger said:
I am a developer myself, thanks... I still hold my opinion.
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Just saying, you have more credibility because I base all my decision exclusively on people's screen names. ;) Well, there's that and the content of your posts too, but we won't dwell on that part overly much.
 
So anyone else using Chromium (not Chrome)? Is it a safe alternative to FF?
 
techie81 said:
So anyone else using Chromium (not Chrome)? Is it a safe alternative to FF?
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techrat said it was pretty good in another thread. I'm probably going to get around to trying it sooner or later, maybe this weekend?
 
heatlesssun said:
For web browsing without extensions and plug-ins, which I think are becoming less important overall
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Disagree. Knowledge about plugins and extensions is becoming more important than ever now that the primary method of malware infection is through web based exploits targeting your browser its extensions.
 
techie81 said:
Yeah, I'm liking it a lot.
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The new FF for Android may win be back over Dolphin, I'm still debating and evaluating.

JosiahBradley said:
Firefox is a direct extension of Netscape which itself a derivative of the first real browser Mosaic. It currently holds the longest run for browser technology. IE is fairly new to the game in terms of Firefox's linage. Check your User-Agent string for the famous Mozilla compatibility line.

Long term Netscape user here. Was my first browser and I stuck around. Seamonkey is about the closest you can get to the original experience.
Click to expand...
Same here, I remember using Mosaic and Netscape back in the mid-'90s. :cool:

SkribbelKat said:
I doubt it shared any code in common with Netscape and there was a break in development between the time AOL bought and killed it and the time that Firefix showed up. Were any of the original developers involved or did they simply reuse a common name like Freespace did with Descent to get some name recognition to springboard adoption?
Click to expand...
On that note, does IE9 share any of the code with original IE?
 
beowulf7 said:
The new FF for Android may win be back over Dolphin, I'm still debating and evaluating.


Same here, I remember using Mosaic and Netscape back in the mid-'90s. :cool:


On that note, does IE9 share any of the code with original IE?
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It'd be really neat if it did share some common code. At least it's been owned by the holy Microsoft the entire time though. ;)
 
PornoSatan said:
Disagree. Knowledge about plugins and extensions is becoming more important than ever now that the primary method of malware infection is through web based exploits targeting your browser its extensions.
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My point here is that with the rise of mobile platforms and HTML 5, extensions and plug-ins exist to a much lesser extent and aren't as necessary.
 
SkribbelKat said:
It'd be really neat if it did share some common code. At least it's been owned by the holy Microsoft the entire time though. ;)
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Yeah, true that IE1 through IE9 has been under the same ownership the whole time, unlike the transition of Mosaic to Mozilla.
 
techie81 said:
So anyone else using Chromium (not Chrome)? Is it a safe alternative to FF?
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Generally safer than FF because it's open sourced and Google's pretty on top of squashing exploits with their bounty for them.
 
I don't see that as being a huge deal as long as it can be turned off. As for showing the passwords I suppose this could be an issue on shared computers and it also opens up to exploits as the passwords need to be stored somewhere, so a flash exploit or something could probably sweep and pickup all your passwords. Though that's only if you use that feature. I always turn that off.

As for IE9, I was always an IE hater myself but I did try it and have to say they finally got it right this time. They even fixed the PNG rendering issue.
 
Red Squirrel said:
As for IE9, I was always an IE hater myself but I did try it and have to say they finally got it right this time. They even fixed the PNG rendering issue.
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Yeah, the PNG display problems drove me nuts too, Mister Squirrel. :p

I guess if Chromium is as delicious as techrat says, I might start using it on PCs where IE9 isn't supported.
 
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