“The calls to dump Internet Explorer may be getting louder, but they are falling largely on deaf ears among enterprise users,’ Matt Hicks reports for eWEEK. “IT managers and users say that while the rash of security flaws associated with IE has drawn new attention to its vulnerabilities and has led some individuals to switch browsers, enterprises are reluctant to change browsers because of their reliance on IE-specific intranet applications and Web sites.”
“Following a series of critical security flaws tied to IE, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team last week suggested the use of an alternative browser as one way to avoid potential problems. Its recommendation has drawn widespread attention to rival browsers from the open-source Mozilla Foundation, Opera Software ASA and Apple Computer Inc.,” Hicks reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The IT world is currently dominated by sheeple.
Their lo$$.
the calls to dump IE should probably be announced again and again for the good of all the users…
and users should also be encouraged to websites that work exclusively with IE to fix their sites to accomodate other browsers….
Lemmings!
Taking it a step further.. I would like my site to deny access to those browsers claiming as IE.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> so that it doesn’t do any bad stuff at my end.
Well, I got at least one person at work to switch to Firefox this week.
There is another one here that tries to throw bad Apple news in my face, but he is never successful.
He was exicted when he saw that my background said “Introducing Longhorn”
He was less than excited when he got a better look and realized it was just Apple messing with his “secure” little Windows world.
You have to remember how technically challenged most PC users are.
Although switching to a new browser is no big deal for most Mac users, PC users are afraid of any changes to their narrow minded view of computer use.
The lazy approach to web development on the PC side has also lead in a large degree to this ridiculous reliance on IE in order to use many of these poorly designed, myopically tested web applications.
Bottom line:
I say let them continue to live in hell! Anyone that stupid and ignorant deserves the grief.
I talked to the IT director of my local bank last week. I followed up with an email to him about the CERT warning. During our conversation, and totally unsolicited on my part, I was surprised to find out that he has been trying to get Mac compliance (in specific) for sometime now. Now armed with this latest CERT warning (he didn’t know about it) he feels pretty strongly that strict reliance and compliance on/with MS will no longer be tolerated, nor accepted. He needs to justify the switching of services to one that does support alternate browsers and presumptively Macs too.
Slowly, people are awakening from their long MS induced slumbers.
zac
moo.
We’ve had a lot of trouble getting web pages written in .Net to render the same in Safari as they do in IE for Windoze, which is one of the reasons that IT is reluctant to switch browsers. I know that the answer is to take out the Windoze-specific formatting and hooks, but that’s easier said than done because people who develop in .Net aren’t aware of the differences or how to fix them. I wish someone would publish a side-by-side comparison of .Net code and the Safari- and other browser-compliant code that would produce the same functionality.
The world has always been dominated by sheeple. This is just another example of why monopolies/monocultures are BAD. Everyone standardised on IE, MS stopped developing the product because they didn’t have to, and now a lot of big companies are stuck with crap because it’s too expensive to switch.
Browser specific web development is simply moronic and lazy. I can design a site in golive (or even imageready for that matter) that works perfectly all around and then we have a programmer who does more extensive websites who cant get a simple gif animation to work on the Mac browsers! what the hell? I thought the information super-highway was for anyone? May they should close off I-90 to anyone without Bridgestone Tires!
Well, that’s the price an enterprise pays for being so slavish in adopting the products of a single company in the name of ‘integration’, which is normally just a front for some money-saving special deal under Microsoft Select or somesuch.
I’m already telling my clients that I intend to wipe all Windows XP machines where the user has administrative rights (where adware becomes a real problem) when SP2 comes out and re-install from scratch – and they should expect a bill.
Not quite so cheap now, eh?
This cancer has 2 parts:
1. A browser that allows external control (ActiveX).
2. An OS that allows itself to be controlled by a browser.
Switching browsers only takes out half of the cancer.
Cure the whole disease; switch OSs and browsers!
Sheeple???????
isn’t that everyone here?
the Longhorn bulls will trample you once it is out of the gate of Pamplona/Seattle.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/07/07/spain.pamplona/index.html
start running. Mac zombies. start running.
Websites written in .NET? Anyway, I hardly ever have problems with page rendering in Safari, at least nothing really noticeable. Most of my family relies on my to keep their computers up to date and safe, and I manage to sneak Firefox on their computers and make it their default browser.
True Story
About 1 year ago, I had moved and went shopping for a new bank. My primary criteria were its location and internet access to my account. I found one that had fit both very well. But, within a few days, I tried to log into my account. It claimed I had to have IE. After several tweaks and adjustments using various other browsers, my best results were very poor and unreliable renderings of the page. I contacted their webmaster and he said that I had to have IE (he wasn’t too enthused about me using a Mac either).
I told him that I would be going down to the bank first thing in the morning to close my account “…because there was no way I’d keep my money at a bank that allowed for such a historically insecure system to display, access and manage my account! I was not comfortable with such a shoddy system, nor with a bank that didn’t think about ALL of its customers.”
Just as I had said, I closed the account the following day, and went to my second choice. It was a bit further away, but their online banking works like a dream with Safari.
After a month of checking balances and paying bills via the bank’s online system, I emailed their customer service department describing my satisfaction with their website using my iMac and Safari web browser. I also told them of my history with the previous bank.
Companies, webmasters, and IT managers need to know what they are doing right as well as what they are doing wrong. Spend a few minutes emailing the companies that work well with your Mac. Bring a little smile to someone else’s life.
I’m pleased to report that
a) I’ve got one new Mozilla recruit this week and
b) that I’ve written to Egg, the UK on-line bank to complain about IE-specific parts of their site. They have confirmed it is designed to use ActiveX so I’ve given them notice that I’m seeking another bank.
As far as intranets go, I could see this happening years ago. Its a fairly obvious rule of business not to become too dependant on any single supplier in case they go bust or their quality dips. IT managers who gave out directives to intranet deveopers such as “use only MSIE” have a lot to reflect upon.
Will corporations be liable once online web transaction processing starts getting jacked by pro hackers? What about companies that allow employees to do online banking on breaks and lunch hour. They initially loved online banking as employee attendance rose quite dramatically. Now they know IE is fucked and has been foreve but they are too lazy to do anything about it. Hmmmm. Just wondering if there are any legal types out there who might be able to answer that…
-j
I called my bank and managed to get into contact with their web/systems security person when this vunerability first came out.
I told them the Department of Homeland Security just warned everyone to immediatly dump IE and that they needed to stop accepting connections from IE browsers and warn people in their online banking. (showed the site etc)
He gave me a bunch of shit how glorious and safe Microsoft was and wouldn’t dare, so I called the bank president and threatened to pull my substancial funds from their bank and make a big press ruckuss if they didn’t.
They turned off their online banking and placed a warning on the site.
It’s ridiculas they have become so immune to something as serious as this.
Even though enterprise may be reluctant to switch now, the idea is in their head and considering options.
The screaming is getting louder!
Ron said, “…the Longhorn bulls will trample you once it is out of the gate of Pamplona/Seattle.”
One has to pay careful attention to where the gate is located. Once a herd of bulls get going, they won’t pay attention if the gate is located at the edge of a precipice – charge out, and over the cliff they all go!
If Longhorn code is rewritten as much as is thought, I would advise caution. With several million lines of untried code, you are asking for potential disaster. Oh yes, there will be the infamous “beta release”, but only the ignorant would truely believe that any significant number of problems will be cleared up. Basing my judgement on the many releases of software and subsequent patches from Microsoft, I’m not confident in their ability.
Even when OSX was first released, the Free BSD kernel which drives it, was quite mature. Yes, there has been several tweeks to improve speed and remove hiccups, – and there are many more yet to come, but for the most part OSX has been a very solid and successful change for Apple. I see nothing to suggest that Longhorn will be a delight for those who take the plunge (pun intended)!
Hey folks, if you’ve got a good bank, publicize them! I use SunTrust and their online banking works like a dream with Safari.
I’m happy to report that I’ve switched 50+ users at work to Mozilla Firefox and I’ve even convinced 10+ users to switch to Mozilla on their home computers, and 3 users have commited to buying a Mac instead of a PC for their next home computer. I live next to Billy G, but yet, I have no trouble convincing people to “Think Different”. It’s not hard when even the people that work at Microsoft are scared. I talk to them on a regular basis. Macs are a worry, but Linux and the Open Source movement are REALLY freaking them out.
Spread the word, open source = good, competition = good, Microsoft = BAD.
“I know that the answer is to take out the Windoze-specific formatting and hooks, but that’s easier said than done because people who develop in .Net aren’t aware of the differences or how to fix them.” – Mike Young
That is the root of the problem, isn’t it? People insisting on using Microsoft-specific development when the alternative exists simply because they are too lazy or too ignorant to do so even knowing that Microsoft solutions have a history of security problems. The first step is always the argument about saving costs going with Microsoft solution; however, when a serious problem surface, either you have to re-do all development for another platform or you have to rely on patches after patches from Microsoft. Either way, you are spending IT dollars, which negates the low cost to begin with.
It’s a surprise that IT people are such hard-headed that they’d repeat this mistake over and over (I’d love to use the word stupid, but some of them are quite intelligent otherwise). Probably the best message for IT type is: Start with platform independent development, even if you don’t officially support other platforms. Always have a back-up scenario for the worst case. Otherwise, it’d be more expensive in the long run.
Hey Ron, by the time the Longhorn Bull gets out of the gate, it’ll never catch me. I’ve got a good 3 year head start on it, minimum.
I do find it funny that MS’s next OS is being named after a Bull!
” After a month of checking balances and paying bills via the bank’s online system, I emailed their customer service department describing my satisfaction with their website using my iMac and Safari web browser. I also told them of my history with the previous bank.” – Aryugaetu
Bravo. I think it’s important to let people know why you give them your business and the reason why you don’t choose their competitor. By letting them know and complementing them, you give them a reason NOT to limit their support for alternatives or else they suffer the same fate as their competitors. It’s not enough to just switch.