rotas»sator

I know that I’ve ranted on about ditching Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but as I’ve also said before, it’s not the only one with problems.

A bit of history

The recently-discovered problem with Firefox and Mozilla (since fixed by the Mozilla team… sterling effort, people ) actually affected every Windows-based browser based on the venerable Netscape browser. Any browser that uses the Gecko engine [geek mode engage!] shares a common family origin, which includes Firefox, Mozilla and, of course, Netscape itself. Because of this, all browsers in the Netscape family shared this particular problem.

In actual fact, it turns out that the problem had been lurking in all Netscape-based systems since about 1998!

The aftermath of this problem’s discovery has highlighted a major difference in how the builders of these browsers address bugs in their software. Ultimately, this relates to how each company/organisation cares for its users.

The real problem with Netscape

In relation to this, I was having a browse at Secunia today [don't we all? :mrgreen:] and realised that Netscape have not addressed any security issues (a total of 11 unpatched problems) with the current version of their browser (7.2) since August 2004.

Now nine months is not really that long in human terms [hmmm... tell that to my wife...], but 9 months in internet time is a human equivalent of, say, 5-7 years. It’s simply an unacceptable amount of time to ignore major problems in your flagship software.

Now I know full well that Netscape are about to release their new version on the market (v8.0), but to totally ignore gaping security holes in your primary software for soooo long is either lazy or negligent, probably both.

Flee for your life. Or at least the health of your computer. My advice to all and sundry is to ditch Netscape — they just don’t care anymore.

Get yourself a better, safer browser from someone who still cares.

Blessings, Steve

[Listening to Faith No More, King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime — King For A Day ]