Firefox Admits only 0.18% using Firefox 2.0

Author: Andrew

Over the last year we have been bombarded with all sorts of overhyped figures of browser market share. With the latest release of Firefox 2.0 they are now claiming 2 million downloads in 24 hours.


Wow that sounds great until you do the math and realize that is only 0.18% of worldwide Internet users.

World Internet Usage: 1,086,250,903
Firefox 2 Downloads: 2,000,000

Worldwide Percentage Using Firefox 2.0 = 0.18%

Internet Explorer 6.x More Secure than Firefox 1.x in 2006

Author: Andrew

Is Browser Security getting better? That is tough to say but Firefox is definitely not leading the way. Despite all the hype, despite all the Myths, Firefox 1.x has a worse security record so far in 2006 than Internet Explorer 6.x.

The popular security site Secunia reports advisories that can include multiple security vulnerabilities of a product. The most severe Firefox Secunia advisories tend to get posted at each version update of the browser. These version update advisories mislead someone looking simply at the advisory totals:

Firefox v1.5.09 - 12/19/06 - SA23282 - 12/19/06 - 10 Vulnerabilities
Firefox v1.5.08 - 11/07/06 - SA22722 - 11/08/06 - 5 Vulnerabilities
Firefox v1.5.07 - 09/14/06 - SA21906 - 09/15/06 - 8 Vulnerabilities
Firefox v1.5.05 - 07/27/06 - SA19873 - 07/27/06 - 13 Vulnerabilities
Firefox v1.5.04 - 06/01/06 - SA20376 - 06/02/06 - 10 Vulnerabilities
Firefox v1.5.02 - 04/12/06 - SA19631 - 04/13/06 - 27 Vulnerabilities



Firefox v1.5.01 - 2/01/06 - SA18700 - 2/02/06 - 8 Vulnerabilities

Simply looking at the advisories between Firefox 1.x in 2006 and Internet Explorer 6.x in 2006 gives a misleading 10 to 14 advisory "win" for Firefox but once you add up the actual vulnerabilities for each it is clear Internet Explorer 6.x has been the more secure browser so far in 2006:

Firefox 1.x - 13 Advisories = 88 Vulnerabilities
Internet Explorer 6.x - 14 Advisories = 36 Vulnerabilities

Winner:


Internet Explorer 6.x more secure than Firefox in 2006.

Google Spams SpreadFirefox to IE Users

Author: Andrew

I don't understand the fact that since I use Internet Explorer 7 with Google as my home page that I must be subject to Firefox Spam. Will this ever end? I woke up this morning to this screen as my default Google Search page in IE:


I checked Firefox 1.5.0.2 and you get the normal default Google Search Page and the same in Opera 9.0 Beta. Neither had any Spam. Thinking this was in retaliation to some "dirty" Microsoft trick, I checked MSN Search with Firefox and found no Spam to install Internet Explorer or an image to some Internet Explorer Propaganda Site. Google really needs to rethink where it is going here. Getting in bed with the Propaganda that SpreadFirefox pushes is bad for business IMO. I would recommend Google check the facts before they continue down this road. I'm using IE 7 which already has Tabs and you can get Tabs for IE 6 with the MSN Toolbar. That leaves Security... well I don't have any security problems with IE 7 and never had any with IE 6. As for Firefox's Security, it is nothing to get excited over.

Regardless IE Users who choose to use Google should not be subjected to this level of Spam and Propaganda. I just want my search page back or does Google really want people switching to MSN Search?

Not Surprisingly the Fanboys over at Digg.com wasted no time exploiting this for more publicity straight to the front page. While they make sure to bury any criticism. Business as usual.

Update (4-27-06) - And like that it is gone :)

Update (4-30-06) - Here we go again, now they made it smaller :(

Opera is Faster, More Secure and More Compliant than Firefox

Author: Andrew

With Opera recently releasing their web browser completely free of Ads, it is a good time to let the truth be told. Not only is Opera Faster then Firefox in all performance areas, it is much more Secure and more Compliant.


Performance
Firefox is often mentioned as a light-weight performance browser. It is also touted as being faster than other browsers. This is far from the truth. These tests clearly show Opera outperforming all other Graphical Browsers in Windows. It should be noted that Mozilla and Internet Explorer both outperform Firefox.

Security
Secunia shows Opera 8.x to only have 1 out of 13 vulnerabilities unpatched. While Firefox 1.x has 3 out of 26 vulnerabilities upatched. Clearly Opera is the more Secure Web Browser.

Compliance
The Acid2 Browser Test is a test page, written to help browser vendors ensure proper support for web standards in their products. Althought the Acid2 Browser Test does not test every web standard, it clearly shows that Opera is more compliant with the features considered most important for the future of the web.

Opera v9 Acid2 Browser Test Results



Firefox v1.5 Acid2 Browser Test Results


Conclusion
With the obvious superiority of Opera to Firefox in Speed, Security and Compliance why is it not being recommended as much? That is a good question. Features that people really care about such as integrated Search, Tabs and Pop-up Blocking have been in Opera way before Firefox even existed. The last obstacle of price is no longer one. Opera is now free.

Firefox Fanboys Regroup to Spam More

Author: Andrew

Guess what time of year it is? Firefox Spam Time! - Video Spam that is. "My Lord, IE still holds Market Dominance!" cries the Fanboy. The Emperor responds, "Yes young Foxer, on my word unleash more Spam!". "Yes my lord, we will commence Spamming.....I mean "Spreading" Firefox."

"Firefox 1.5 would be backed by a "big marketing push" that will include a community marketing campaign that will encourage Firefox fans to tell the world about their favorite browser by publishing home-made videos on a Mozilla Web site. You will have real people telling you about Firefox's features, what's cool and great" - Christopher Beard

“I think that you can spend a lot of time buying ads and radio jingles, and you really have to repeat those over and over and pound it into people’s heads. People have defense mechanisms against these commercials. But it's something different when it’s a user standing up and saying genuinely what makes Firefox great for them. So I believe that campaigns like these testimonials are going to be a key piece in the next wave of marketing.” Asa Dotzler - Firefox Spam coordinator.

Yes, now that you can see what A Firefox Fanboy actually looks like, people will convert in droves! Brilliant idea if you work for Microsoft and wanted to promote IE, otherwise have mercy on my media player.

Does the world really need more Firefox Spam? Let alone Video Spam? No. Do people with no real life become Firefox Fanboys? The answer undoubtedly is Yes.

With all this time gone by and all this effort wasted will any of these Fanboys tell the truth about Firefox? Obviously No, it is all about the Religion.

Downloads
But you will hear plenty about how many people download it! I have already explained why this is very misleading here. If the same people keep downloading it over and over, that does not mean more converted users or even new users. None of which takes into account how many people try it out due to the hype and dump it at the first site that doesn't work right. This happens far more then you think. Not to mention people such as myself download each version so I can review it but I personally don't use it as I run into the same problems with it that I have with Opera, broken sites. Personally I use AvantBrowser since it works with 99.9999% of the Web. A good alternative that has the same compatibility is Maxthon. The reason is both are IE shells. They take the ultimate in website compatibility = IE's engine and put a new shell around it. You get all of Firefox's wiz bang, overhyped features with none of the compatibility problems or slow performance.

Performance
Yes you heard that right SLOW PERFORMANCE. The numbers don't lie. IE is faster in 6 out of 7 of the tests. Opera 8 and 9 are faster in all of them. Firefox loads like a dog. Fanboys conveniently do not tell you this either.

Security
Firefox still has outstanding unpatched vulnerabilities. Fanboy response? "IE has more" and that makes Firefox secure how?

Evangelism
While Tech Evangelists will make you believe, only technically savy people use Firefox or some other BS. This is simply not the case. The far majority of Firefox users I meet use it to be "in" or think they are "in". This is generally the iPod crowd. Their reasons for using it range from lack of basic Windows Knowledge to buying into the hype or some bizarre hatred of Microsoft. It is usually not a coincidence some of these popular evangelists push Apple products. Now really I don't care, Apple makes some decent products. The problem is that it is the Evangelists lack of technical savy that drove them to Firefox in the first place. This is the same with their followers. Again I don't have a problem with that but don't sit there and claim to be technically savy when you can't prevent yourself from getting infected with Spyware.

BTW - "I get no Spyware"

So when you get that latest Firefox Spam Video Mail, think twice about who the person is who is sending it and why. There is a good chance that person knows less about computers then you do.

Discuss in Forums

Firefox FireTune Utility Includes Useless Tweak(s)

Author: Andrew

Another day, another program that spreads misinformation. You would think by now people would do five minutes of research before providing others with advice. In this case the FireTune Tweak Utility made by TOTALidea falls for the old /prefetch:1 shortcut myth. FireTune claims to improve Firefox performance using Placebo effect tweaks like this? I wonder how many other useless tweaks are included in this utility?


Ryan Myers of the Microsoft's Windows Client Performance Team has already debunked this Myth months ago. Yet judging by the download numbers at MajorGeeks over 600,000 people have been suckered in, lovely.


Misinformation and the The Prefetch Flag

The /prefetch:# flag is looked at by the OS when we create the process --however, it has one (and only one) purpose. We add the passed number to the hash. Why? WMP is a multipurpose application and may do many different things. The DLLs and code that it touches will be very different when playing a WMV than when playing a DVD, or when ripping a CD, or when listening to a Shoutcast stream, or any of the other things that WMP can do. If we only had one hash for WMP, then the prefetch would only be correct for one such use. Having incorrect prefetch data would not be a fatal error -- it'd just load pages into memory that'd never get used, and then get swapped back out to disk as soon as possible. Still, it's counterproductive. By specifying a /prefetch:# flag with a different number for each "mode" that WMP can do, each mode gets its own separate hash file, and thus we properly prefetch. (This behavior isn't specific to WMP -- it does the same for any app.)

This flag is looked at when we create the first thread in the process, but it is not removed by CreateProcess from the command line, so any app that chokes on unrecognized command line parameters will not work with it. This is why so many people notice that Kazaa and other apps crash or otherwise refuse to start when it's added. Of course, WMP knows that it may be there, and just silently ignores its existence.

I suspect that the "add /prefetch:1 to make rocket go now" urban legend will never die, though. I know that at least one major company ships products with it in their shortcuts, without ever asking us... just for good measure, I guess. :-P All it does is change your hash number -- the OS is doing exactly the same thing it did before, and just saving the prefetch pages to a different file.

To sum it up adding /prefetch:1 does nothing but force Windows to use a different prefetch (.pf) file for prefetching Firefox other then the one it was using. In Windows Media player creating separate prefetch files for each mode makes sense for Firefox it creates a second prefetch file for no reason. This does nothing to improve performance loading Firefox. Now if the makers blindly added this useless tweak in I highly doubt they thoroughly tested and researched all the other changes this utility makes.

This doesn't sound like a big deal until you realize you have over 600,000 people telling everyone about this program and a shortcut tweak that does absolutely nothing. Maybe the makers of the program will learn but I doubt it.

Update December 13, 2005 - Success!
Firetune v1.0.9 removes the useless /prefetch:1 shortcut tweak.

The Firefox Update Conspiracy

Author: Andrew

Modern software releases patches and updates incrementally, meaning you only have to download the code that is different. This allows for much smaller and more effective downloads. Patching systems such as this have been around since software had version numbers. Why then does Firefox require you to download the full program every time a new version is released?

Updating from v1.0.2 to v1.0.3 requires a 4MB download for a meager .01 version update. Don't get me wrong the security updates are welcome and show that the developers are committed to their product. It is the way that they are released I question.

If you step back and look at it, how hard is it really for the Firefox developers to release an incremental system, let alone a standalone patch? I understand it is nice to have precompiled builds for installs but using an archaic update system is inexcusable. Why then was it omitted?

1. Firefox developers thought their product was so good that it would almost never need to be updated
2. Firefox developers did not know how to program such a feature
3. Firefox developers did not have the time and resources to invest in such a feature

Or

4. They deliberately omitted it so updates boost their media hyped Download Number

Whether or not this was intentional remains to be seen but it cannot be ignored that it is having this effect. Now think about it, say you have 10 million adopters of the initial v1.0.0 release, they all upgrade to v1.0.1, your download number now doubles to 20 million, these same users upgrade again to v1.0.2, you now have 30 million downloads. Finally to v1.0.3 with 40 million downloads and still only 10 million users! How much of the super hyped Firefox Download Number is due to the current users just getting the latest version? Much more than you think.

Discuss in Forums

PopUp Blocking Comparison Test

Author: Andrew

Using PopupTest.com and a couple of sites with Flash related PopUps I performed a basic comparison to see which browser would block the most types of PopUps without interfering with Good PopUps.

Test System = OS: Windows XP SP2.


Results

IE+SP2 PopUp Blocker = On (Default)

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
PASS - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
FAIL - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
PASS - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
FAIL - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
PASS - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

04 - Failures


IE+SP2 PopUp Blocker = On + Google Toolbar v3.0.119.9

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
PASS - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
FAIL - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
PASS - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
FAIL - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
PASS - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

04 - Failures


IE+SP2 PopUp Blocker = Off + Google Toolbar v3.0.119.9

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
FAIL - Come and Go Test (Says it is Blocked?)
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
FAIL - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
FAIL - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
FAIL - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
PASS - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

06 - Failures


Firefox v1.0.1 (Default)

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
PASS - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
PASS - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
PASS - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
PASS - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
FAIL - phpnuke.org
FAIL - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

04 - Failures


Firefox v1.0.1 + Flashblock v1.3.0.1

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
PASS - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
PASS - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
PASS - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
PASS - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
FAIL - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

03 - Failures


Opera v8.0 Build 7522 = Block Unwanted PopUps (Default)

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
PASS - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
FAIL - Mouseover PopUp
FAIL - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
PASS - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
FAIL - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
PASS - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

05 - Failures


AvantBrowser v10.0 Build 165 (Default)

PASS - Multi-PopUp Test
PASS - Multi-PopUp Test#2
PASS - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
FAIL - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
FAIL - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
FAIL - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
PASS - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

05 - Failures


Maxthon (MyIE2) v1.2.00 Standard (Default)

FAIL - Multi-PopUp Test
FAIL - Multi-PopUp Test#2
FAIL - Come and Go Test
PASS - Timed PopUp
PASS - Mouseover PopUp
PASS - Floating PopUp
PASS - Channel Opener
PASS - Modless Window
PASS - Fullscreen Trap
FAIL - Drop down PopUp
FAIL - Floating Banner
PASS - Chromeless
FAIL - Sticky PopUp
PASS - phpnuke.org
PASS - drudgereport.com

PASS - Good PopUp 1
PASS - Good PopUp 2
PASS - Good PopUp 3
PASS - Good PopUp 4

06 - Failures

Note: SP2's PopUp Blocker was disabled during AvantBrowser and Maxthon testing.


Conclusion
IE+SP2 and Firefox v1.0.1 Tie for their Default PopUp Blocking Ability. Firefox v1.0.1 with the FlashBlock extension edges out IE+SP2. Currently there are no Perfect PopUp Blocking Browsers.

Discuss in Forums

Why Adblock is bad for the "free" Internet

Author: Andrew


I can understand and sympathize with the general distaste for pop-up advertisements. They are obstructive and annoying. But I do not sympathize with the distaste of standard banner advertisements that pay for all the free content we currently enjoy.

Again the idealists fail to understand how websites pay for their monthly server and bandwidth charges. For most "free" sites their revenue is generated through advertisements. Other sites use subscription services and the rest eat the cost. The ones eating the cost have another source of revenue usually not Internet based.

Since day one, I've understood the back end reason for banner ads. They are a necessity of free content. Lets be honest any web savvy user generally ignores all ads that they choose. So pushing features such as Adblock is harmful to the Internet, as we know it.

While Adblock is nothing new in terms of ad blocking software, it is significant in that it's current hype and price (free) is making it widely recommended and used as an extension to the Firefox Web Browser. This is a dangerous trend.

"Adblock is a content filtering plug-in for the Mozilla and Firebird browsers. It is both more robust and more precise than the built-in image blocker."

Adblock effectively robs these free sites of their revenue. If Internet Explorer came with a feature such as Adblock, you would effectively wipe out thousands of websites, maybe more. These are the same free sites users of Adblock frequently visit. The irony is how this is self-defeating.

The Future
If features such as Adblock become commonplace you will force an unnecessary outcome, one in which free sites deliver their content in a way that only disabling Adblock will display the content. Web Sites that depend on advertising as their primary source of revenue should take notice.

Related Topics
www.FirefoxMyths.com
Firefox - A New Religion?

Firefox Unleashes Spyware

Author: Andrew

It looks like the Prophets have been found correct and the age of Firefox Spyware is upon us. While the current Java Scheme requires user intervention, this is how it started on IE. Users were given Pop-up window choices to install a "necessary" program, choosing "Yes" would install the Spyware. I can hear the cyber cries now, as Firefox followers commit mass suicide, their beloved browser infallible no more.

"In a flurry of remote downloads, numerous changes to the registry took place and a sizeable amount of IE specific installs began downloading. Amongst the assortment was DyFuCA, Internet Optimizer, ISTsvc, Kapabout, sais (180 Solutions), SideFind, Avenue Media and something called djtopr1150.exe lurking in the Temp folder."

Double Standard:
Is there a Double Standard for Internet Explorer? Of course there is. The Firefox community will quickly dismiss this sort of exploit. It will be considered not important because it requires user interaction. Yet these same exploits found in Internet Explorer have been fiercely criticized by the Firefox community and used as a reason to switch away from IE. This is also why recommending Firefox, as a Spyware solution is very dangerous. Installing and using Firefox does not clean or prevent your system from being infected with Spyware. The parasites can still exist in memory, robbing your system of resources, killing performance and causing application crashes.

Pop-ups:
The infallible Firefox is currently being plagued with Pop-under advertisements that are displayed when you minimize or close Firefox. These are related to the Flash Plug-in. It turns out that Firefox does have the ability to block these but it was disabled by default.

"Well, we shipped 1.0 with the capability to block these pop-ups and pop-unders but we didn't enable it because we were concerned about breaking legitimate uses"

This is an excuse for "We could not write it good enough to not break legitimate uses."

Pop-up Solution:
There are solutions but again this requires as much work as it does on IE.

"To block pop-ups from plugins, open your Firefox 1.0 or 1.0.1 browser, type about:config in the address field. Right-click in the resulting config page somewhere and select New -> Interger. Type privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins in the resulting dialog, hit OK, type 2 in the next dialog and you're all set."

This pref can actually take three values:

0: open allowed
1: the opened windows are treated as popups, but they're allowed to open
2: the window is a popup, block it

It should be noted this solution renders certain web pages useless and blocks user requested Flash Pop-ups. A better solution may be FlashBlock,

"an extension for the Mozilla and Firefox browsers that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash content on a webpage and blocks ALL Flash content from loading. It then leaves a placeholder on the page that allows you to click to view the Flash content."

Flashblock currently blocks the following content types:

Macromedia Flash
Macromedia Shockwave
Macromedia Authorware

Conclusion:
Firefox having only been out less then a year is already being plagued with elementary style Spyware exploits and Pop-ups. This is only a sign of things to come. The Followers however should have taken note to Beware of false Prophets.

Discuss in Forums

Firefox - A New Religion?

Author: Andrew


Religion (Definition) - "A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion."

Is Firefox a bad web browser? No. Is it the next coming of the Almighty? According to some it would seem that way. It is one thing recommending a program, it is entirely another to preach about something as if you were part of a religious cult. Seriously how sad is it that a program needs a web page like this: www.spreadfirefox.com

"Welcome to Spread Firefox. You are our marketing department, a diverse community of people tired of swatting popups, chasing spyware, combating identity theft and installing security updates you could set your watch to. You have a vision of the 21st century web and are ready to push it to the world, wresting control from a monopoly that has let it stagnate. We'll provide the tools, but you will drive campaigns that will be rolled out here over the coming months."

You can see clearly here this site is less about recommending a better browser and more about a crusade against Microsoft. But to have your crusade you must have a Religion and of course followers. To recruit followers you need beliefs.

Beliefs:
Beliefs through propaganda? Yes, Firefox is being marketed as if it is superior to Internet Explorer in regards to Pop-ups, Spyware and Security. How convenient of the Firefox followers to leave out the other side of the story:

The Dark Side:
Internet Explorer with Service Pack 2 installed for Windows XP is just as secure as Firefox in relation to Spyware and Pop-ups. Service Pack 2, released Aug 2, 2004 (Firefox 1.0 released November 9, 2004), includes the following security enhancements relating to Internet Explorer:

1. Built-in Pop-up Blocker
2. Internet Explorer Download Monitoring (ActiveX Controls)
3. Removal of MSJVM

And the following related to Windows Security

4. Updated and Enabled the Windows XP Firewall
5. Automatic Updates Improvements
6. Data Execution Prevention

These features eliminate the threat of auto install Spyware. However like anything, Spyware can still infect people via ignoring the warnings or installing applications with bundled Spyware. How many people do you think who are told to use Firefox are told this? How many people are told there is a solution to the Spyware problem using free software in simple guides like these:

Malware Removal Guide 1-2-3

15% of web pages aren't completely compatible with Firefox:
Firefox is not 100% Internet Explorer and ActiveX compatible. Web pages that depend on ActiveX or were only tested in Internet Explorer will only render and work properly in Internet Explorer based browsers. Web page features such as Menus, Web forms or other content may not function or behave differently then intended. This means that someone using Firefox may come across a website that does not look or work right. This is pretty significant information that is conveniently left out by the legions of Firefox followers.

The Security Myth:
"Firefox is 100% Secure", simply not true. Firefox has over 290 Security Vulnerabilities and more vulnerabilities in 2006 than Internet Explorer.  Some of these vulnerabilities have remained unpatched since 2004! Irony? It gets worse. Over 90 Extensions have been found to collect data and uniquely identifying users without notifying them. Popular extensions such as Greasemonkey, Firebug and IETab all are vulnerable. Even Spyware gets through. So much for security.

Innovations:
Firefox is being touted as having innovated features as if it invented them, such as tabbed browsing and Pop-up blocking. I'm sorry to be the historian and ruin everyone's party but Opera has had these "Innovations" for years. So have other web browser like Netcaptor, Avant Browser, Maxthon (MyIE2).

Followers:
Firefox followers can be anyone but obviously people with too much time on their hands. Let me clear something up, there are many respectable users of Firefox who use it and understand it for what is and do not preach it but recommend it. These are the same respectable people who have always done this with every program they have used. This new trend of the "Followers" does not include them. For to become a Follower you have to submit to the hype and preach the beliefs. At which point you become part of the religion, Spamming "Firefox Rules!" everywhere you go. As an example of how ridiculous it has become, I submit the following from a news article:

"All of this has been a pinch-yourself experience for Mozilla's Baker. A former Netscaper, she became accustomed to laboring in obscurity during the Mozilla project's early days. Now she's struggling with the group's recognition. She gets buttonholed by parents at her son's school and approached by strangers at exercise class.

Recently, after Baker handed a Mozilla T-shirt to a friend at Trapeze Arts, the circus-skills gym where she works out, a nearby woman burst out: "Are you from Mozilla? Firefox changed my life!" She then kneeled and bowed before a stunned Baker."

Need I say more?

The Religion:
I've never seen anything as crazy as the Firefox Followers who bombard everyone with "Use Firefox, Take Back the Web!" "Firefox Rules!" Slogans, signatures, advertisements ect... Its not just in forums its now in magazines, newspaper ads, bumper stickers, it's everywhere and it's down right annoying. This is like the Jehovah Witness follower who keeps coming to your door even though you're not interested. Honestly I'm a little scared that there is a generation of kids out their who have been brain washed to spending a good portion of their life promoting a web browser as if it was their religion. If I had known this I could have utilized this army of zombies to promote "Use Antivirus Software! So you stop sending me infected E-mails!" Which is probably a more useful allocation of resources anyway but I will leave the Religion founding to the pros over at www.spreadfirefox.com

Resources:
www.FirefoxMyths.com
CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) - Firefox
Firefox fanatics decide to make money by punishing users
Firefox Gripes
Firefox Unleashes Spyware
Internet Explorer 6.x More Secure than Firefox 1.x in 2006
Opera Innovations
Opera is Faster, More Secure and More Compliant than Firefox
PopUp Blocking Comparison Test
Silent Firefox Adware Install - Proof of Concept
Websites That Don't Work Well With Firefox
Websites alienate Firefox users

The Anti "Man-Made" Global Warming Resource