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Thoughts on Changing Browsers
What is really interesting is a
controversy regarding Download.Ject trojan and browsers; the
program used to access and navigate the internet. It all
revolves around the fact that only users of Internet
Explorer were susceptible to this vulnerability. When the
general consensus is that 95% of all users accessing the
internet are using Internet Explorer, that turns this
vulnerability into a big deal and stirred a lot of
journalists and security folks to call for users to switch
to a different browser. One that isn't susceptible to
Download.Ject and hopefully resistant to new malicious code
that's sure to follow this outbreak.
Obviously, the majority of traffic that
accesses this site has an interest in Windows XP. The
visitors range from the newest of the new to people that
have been involved with computers for years. I was curious
to see if TEG site visitors browser choice matched the
accepted demographic. Not surprisingly, at least to me, the
percentage of visitors using Internet Explorer was
substantially lower than the 95% mentioned earlier. On TEG
over the past year, Internet Explorer was used by 80% of the
site visitors, Mozilla by 9%, and Opera by 8% of visitors.
The remaining 3% was divided up among approximately fifteen
other browsers. I suspect that's largely due to the fact
that TEG visitors pay more attention to their operating
system and applications than the casual computer user.
Even before the Download.Ject mess hit the
internet I'd been fooling around with Internet Explorer
alternatives. As long as you're using Windows XP you're not
going to get entirely away from Internet Explorer and there
will be inconveniences if you do switch to a different
browser. For example, if you access Windows Update using a
browser other than Internet Explorer, expect to see the
following message. As the last line states, if you want to
use a different browser you'll have to get the updates from
a different location, but it can be done. Just not as
conveniently.
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Thank you for
your interest in Windows Update
Windows Update is the online extension of
Windows that helps you get the most out of your
computer.
You need to be running a version of Internet
Explorer 5 or higher in order to use Windows
Update.
Download the latest version of Internet Explorer
Once Internet Explorer is installed, you can go
to the Windows Update site by typing
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com into the
address bar of Internet Explorer.
If you prefer to use a different Web browser,
updates to Windows may be downloaded from the
Microsoft Download Center. |
More than once while
testing different browsers I was tempted to chuck the
whole process and stick with Internet Explorer. You get
used to one program and things become so automatic you
don't even think about how to complete a task, but I was
determined to see the process through and give each
candidate a fair shake. I'm not going to go through all
the different browsers I tested, but after eliminating a
lot of candidates I spent a solid week with Opera and
another week with Mozilla. I tried not to vary my
routine at all during the weeks of testing other than
when I'd normally access IE I'd use the current test
browser. Both Mozilla and Opera are excellent browsers,
and in spite of what you may think at first, you will
adapt quickly to the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of
a new program.
After the testing I
finally selected
Opera.
The more I use it the more I like it. I doubt I'll ever
go back to a browser that doesn't support tabbed
browsing. Yes, it's different from IE in many ways but
not so different that I ever felt lost in the interface.
The one thing I miss above all else is the Google
toolbar. It's currently only available for IE. That's a
shame and I hope Google makes a version available for
Opera. In fairness, Opera does support Google searches
directly on one of the toolbars so it's certainly more
than tolerable. Enough about alternative browsers. This
isn't a review.
It
is far too easy to become complacent and use what's
handed to us rather than explore alternatives. Frankly,
I'm glad I looked at some other options even though my
search wasn't prompted by Download.Ject or some other
potential disaster. I suggest you break out of that
comfortable XP cocoon occasionally and do some
exploring. Fortunately, Download.Ject turned out to be
more annoyance than crippling attack. Even if you don't
make a change right away it's good to be familiar with
some alternatives; just in case a situation arises where
you are forced to quickly migrate to an alternative to
save your - ummm, bacon.
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