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.
5 comments:
circusbred,
Firefox has multiple unpatched vulnerabilities allowing exposure of sensitive data to local users. I would consider that serious. BTW thanks for responding how I said someone like you would. Now answer this question. How does more vulnerabilities to IE make Firefox secure?
Pers,
Results from your site have nothing to do with actual market share. I've seen people claim 80% Firefox usage.
And it is SITES that are compatible. How many non IE sites do you know of?
Yes I get no Spyware and all personal attacks will be removed.
Secunia Advisory ID:
SA8283
Release Date:
2003-03-13
Solution Status:
Unpatched
Now, I am well aware that it isn't a critical flaw, but why exactly would Microsoft not fix it? It's been around for almost 2 years, and they haven't touched it. It probably wouldn't take much effort. Having more vulnerabilities open for longer periods of time just gives hackers more variety when making exploits. While you and I may be smart internet users, what about those people out there that are just learning how to use the internet? While we may not fall prey to banner ads that say "Critical error. Click here to fix it.", they might. I also agree with the notion that it is very possible to remain spyware free and use IE. Firefox is not a cure all for every internet problem. What it does do is make it easier to stay safe. SP2 is also not perfect, but no piece of software is. Tell me this, do you hate the Firefox software itself, or its users? Why do you use IE? What advantages does it have over any other browser? I actually want to know.
This is rated NOT CRITICAL. The lowest possible security rating of Secunia.
"Solution: If you regard this as a security issue, filter files with the ".mht"extension in a proxy"
Not all vulnerabilities listed here Microsoft has confirmed to be real issues.
I most certainly do not hate the Firefox Software. I do dispise the legions of Fanboys who attempt to shove it down everyone's throat for more then what it is. I've had clients stop using AntiVirus and AntiSpyware because they think they do not need it now with running Firefox.
The reasoning that you are safer running FF is simply not true. I use IE and Avant all the time and have no problems.
"This is rated NOT CRITICAL. The lowest possible security rating of Secunia.
"Solution: If you regard this as a security issue, filter files with the ".mht"extension in a proxy"
Not all vulnerabilities listed here Microsoft has confirmed to be real issues."
My point is that the least they can do is at least try to patch these problems, as it would probably take one of their programmers less than 30 minutes to fix it. Instead it remains a factor in a larger number that makes them look bad on Secunia.
"I've had clients stop using AntiVirus and AntiSpyware because they think they do not need it now with running Firefox."
That doesn't make Firefox bad, it makes your clients stupid.
"The reasoning that you are safer running FF is simply not true. I use IE and Avant all the time and have no problems."
Anyone can be safe with any browser when they take the right precautions. Chances are that if you have no problems when using IE, you'd have just as few when using Firefox.
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