Firefox users safest on the web
Internet Exploder users are mostly oblivious
FIREFOX USERS tend to keep their browser software more up to date than punters who use other web browsers, a Swiss study has reported.
Conducted by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in collaboration with Google and IBM between January 2007 and June 2008, the study analysed Internet users' web browser preferences and online behaviours, particularly with regard to security.
Overall, the researchers' report said that less than 60 per cent of wibblers use the latest, up-to-date versions of their web browsers. The study noted that failing to keep browser software updated greatly increases web surfers' online security vulnerability to attacks.
Of the web browsing population surveyed, Firefox users were found by far to be the most likely to use the latest version, at over 83 per cent.
In second place, just over 65 per cent of Apple's Safari users were found to use the latest version, after December 2007 when Safari 3 was released.
Ranked third, about 56 per cent of Opera users said they were running the latest version.
Microsoft Internet Explorer users came in last with regard to safe wibbling, with less than 48 per cent using the most secure release available over the 18-month study period.
The study also estimated web browser market shares, reporting that Internet Explorer had 1.1 billion users or 78.3 per cent, Firefox had 227 million users or 16.1 per cent, Safari 48 million users or 3.4 per cent, and Opera just 11 million users or 0.8 per cent.
Recently, Firefox market share was reported to have jumped to 19 per cent, while Internet Explorer's market share has slipped to less than 73 per cent. µ
See Also
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Comments
Firefox 2 did it - we'll see about 3
Given the whole set of new 'features' delivered by Firefox 3, which are mostly unwelcome as they cause it to crash or greatly affect functionality in bizarre ways, how long do you think it will be before Firefox 3 security gets exploited?Now I am a great Firefox user - I'm using it right now in version 2 - but Firefox 3 is pretty flawed.
If you are a typical Win XP user and don't do anything adventurous at all you possibly won't agree. But the fact is they have made a lot of ill choices and made many implementation bugs in 3.
There is absolutely no reason to believe 3 security won't be similarly affected.
Viva Firefox 2!
Autoupdate
I'm not suprised because Firefox has autoupdate and install activated by default, so it will just install the updates for you.Opera requires you to manually download and install updates.
% count for zip
Just because of the numbers involved and the market shareLies, Damn lies, and statistics
Opera safer
As Opera has a smaller slice of the market (Which I can't understand its a brilliant browser) we are safer as who is going to bother to target us?No problem here
I and any of my friends didn't had any problem with FF 3 both on Windows and Ubuntu, except with flash sites in Linux. Hopefully Adobe will address these problems soon.No surprise
First off, I'll disagree with Jerry. Firefox 3 runs beautifully for me (better than 2), and the new features are very welcome, though easily turned off.And I'll agree with Ratfink that Firefox updates itself automatically, so it's hard NOT to have the latest version of it. Safari also seems to update automatically. I haven't used Opera, but I'll take Ratfink's word for it on manual updates. And IE's updates are built into Automatic Updates/Windows Update which an appalling number of people do not use, so no real shock it's the least-updated.
So this report isn't really about the users, and is instead points for the software-makers involved. Good for them, though.
Not so True
No firefox 3 is even less safe. Bugs and more Bugs. This browser has holes! Stick with Opera or Safari.Opera has fewer flaws
I've tracked security stats on the main browsers on Secunia for a few years, and Opera consistently has fewer, and less damaging flaws than the other browsers.I like Firefox, but I don't particularly trust it, and IE is a wormhole.
I suspect Firefox's automatic update option is why so many users have the latest patches.
I suspect if you looked at how much risk a user faced continuing to use an unpatched browser, Opera would come out in front of the pack for risk minimisation.
To the commenters
I'd like to point out that merely a few days ago FF2 was updated, even though FF3 was released for some time already, in other words the FF2 people can be counted as the updating crowd even if they didn't move to FF3 yet, as long as they update their FF2.Since I use both versions I'd like to say that I noticed no bugs/crashes that I could contribute specifically to FF3 so far, but I can see how some don't like that new 'awesomebar', it's a bit too 'T9' isn't it, it's great for the kind of person that it's designed for, but there are many people whom only get less from it, not more.
bollox
Sorry, I had to LOL at this. FF3 is currently the most UNSAFE browser according to Secunia. Its one outstanding vunerability is rated a greater security threat than the 9 oustanding IE combined. Being a fanboy doesnt make safe mkay just keep that in mind.Am I the only one?
I don't suppose that it has occurred to anyone, including the authors of the study, that part of the reason for so many Internet Explorer users not running the latest version of that browser might have something to do with system requirements? In particular, the Windows operating systems supported? There has always been a huge user base that tends to run older PC's and often older operating systems. Since IE7 requires XP or Vista, while Opera (V. 9)can run on systems going back to Windows 95 and Firefox (V. 3) can run on Windows 2000, that might have an impact on the results, no?then...
"Not so TrueNo firefox 3 is even less safe. Bugs and more Bugs. This browser has holes! Stick with Opera or Safari.
posted by : John, 07 July 2008"
how about you submit your findings so that it can be patched? makes no sense whining about a problem if you're not gonna be part of the solution :P
Firefox 3 runs fine...
I am always curious when i see peoplel say Firefox 3 crashes for them, and is broken, and has flaws, etc.Everything has flaws, fine. perfection is always in the eye of the beholder... But... Firefox 3 has been running absolutely fine for me for months... Some of the early betas had serious issues, serious flaws... But then again... BETA...
But i'd say since 3rd beta... it's been fine, and then the more polished 'official' 3 has been great... It tends to always be open for me.. 24/7 at least four or five day stretches at a time without me even restarting it. Always at least 5 or 6 tabs...
What they hell is wrong with that? Whats broken with that? The tabs don't have small simple pages in them either... So can someone explain what is so broken or bad about FF3? even the memory usage is better then FF2...
Sigh... Makes me wonder if it isn't just people complaining to complain.
Dsp
Misleading
This article is misleading in its message. From the sound of the article, they make it sound like such Firefox users consciously take measures to keep their browser updated, rather than the fact that Firefox just prompts the user to install the update the next time they launch the browser.Instead, the article should praise the nagging code in Firefox, because were it not for it, I doubt we'd see any difference in update frequency over the competition.
+1
Opera is pretty impressive. Its like Firefox after you've added 40 extensions.Only you don't have to install extensions in opera.
I will admit that, when I install Opera into a computer that the first thing I do is change the panel to my tastes. I like seeing works and not just symbols.