Beyond Security
Lest we focus too much on just the area of security: Firefox has numerous other problems, too, as these real-life reader letters suggest:

Of course, that's a tiny, nonrandom sample. But, like the stats that undermine the "it's more secure" myth, the letters illustrate that Firefox and its related software isn't a panacea for browser and E-mail problems outside of the security area, either. There are no magic cures, period.

Making Choices
It's important to remember that the mass market is radically different from the quieter niches where Linux and other open-source software used to live, and where they originally developed their reputations. It's very hard to produce robust, secure software that can succeed when installed on all manner of hardware, alongside all manner of software, employed by all manner of users, and attacked by large numbers of malicious developers. In fact, anyone who wants to play in the mass market will suffer some of the very same problems that Microsoft has more or less had to itself in past years.

To its credit, the open-source community responds to security problems as fast as it can, but many users still remain in adamant denial about open-source bugs and security holes, preferring to think that they don't exist, or denying their import when they do. (See Linux Has Bugs: Get Over It).

As you choose your browsers (and operating systems, or any software, for that matter), make sure your decisions are based on cold facts; not on unproven conventional wisdom; not on false analyses that ignore huge factors such as the size of the installed base; and not on the evangelical zeal of pro-open source or anti-Microsoft partisans.

It's great that there are open-source alternatives to try, and it's smart to proactively explore all your options. But go in with your eyes open: All software has flaws. There are no panaceas!

What's your Firefox experience been? Or your experience with other open-source software? Do you agree with Fred that software from Microsoft, Apple, and the open-source community is roughly equivalent in quality? If not, which is superior, and why is that so? What objective measures can we use to prove or disprove quality assertions? Join the discussion!

Continue to:
Responses to "Langa Letter: The Pros And Cons Of Firefox"

To discuss this column with other readers, please visit Fred Langa's forum on the Listening Post.

To find out more about Fred Langa, please visit his page on the Listening Post.