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Update Your Browser, Dummy
40% of global users running outdated browser
A security patch is only good if someone actually downloads and installs it. A post to the Google blog points to a new study that finds only 59.1% percent of Internet users worldwide use the latest major version of their preferred web browser with all the latest patches. Firefox users are the most attentive: with 92.2% of Firefox users using the latest version. Only 52.5% of Microsoft Internet Explorer users have updated to version 7. Of course this is in part thanks to Firefox's auto-update mechanism, which the paper suggests Microsoft needs to emulate. Of course many older Windows users and corporations don't use IE7 because it either isn't compatible with their OS or it, well, breaks things.
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Chiyo
Save Me Konata-Chan
Premium Member
join:2003-02-20
Salisbury, NC
·Hotwire Communic..

Chiyo

Premium Member

nothing to see move along

This is no surprise, what I am surprised is that Microsoft hasn't bothered to do the same thing FireFox does but they already noted that in the article.

I wonder how many of hte "users" are businesses holding off upgrading to latest and greatest IE.

BIGMIKE
Q
Premium Member
join:2002-06-07
Gainesville, FL

BIGMIKE

Premium Member

Re: nothing to see move along

»www.google.com/custom?hl ··· G=Search
pandora
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Outland

pandora

Premium Member

Re: nothing to see move along

Why is that link so very long?

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
·Charter
Ubee EU2251
Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-HD

Smith6612 to Chiyo

MVM

to Chiyo
Many businesses I know of are holding off on the upgrades to IE7 mainly because of "compatibility issues." Most of or all of these issues for as far as I know, one example is Lotus Note's Domino Web Access 6.0 was patched AGES ago and the IT crew is probably just too lazy to use WSUS to install IE7 on everyone's computer.

All of the computers I use or have fixed/worked on all run either IE7 or Firefox 3 or both. Though don't forget, those smart enough to change their useragent can make it appear that they have an older browser I believe.

Mike
Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA

Mike

Mod

Re: nothing to see move along

A lot of it is compatibility issues. This study is not valid past a random statistic.

We don't use IE 7 because of Blackboard being a POS with it.
jp10558
Premium Member
join:2005-06-24
Willseyville, NY

jp10558 to Smith6612

Premium Member

to Smith6612
Brio that we use only works with IE6. Replicon 7.5 (what we have) doesn't work with FF3. So we need our time tracking for instance to actually work with our browser, so we can't upgrade till we upgrade the timecard stuff - which is not as easy or quick as a browser.

LazyITAdmin
@conversent.net

LazyITAdmin to Smith6612

Anon

to Smith6612
A lot of IT administrators in large organizations (particularly hospitals) are the laziest bunch of cretins you will ever meet. Most of them sit on their ass and do absolutely nothing unless there's a "technical emergency." I've said it before...

"If the world were full of IT administrators, we'd all still be running DOS."

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY

Smith6612

MVM

Re: nothing to see move along

Most of the IT guys I see are either on YouTube or are busy messing with the mail server. Sometimes though, I'll see them assembing a new computer for the place. But this is only when I arrive of course :P

Mike
Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA

Mike

Mod

Re: nothing to see move along

Sometimes IT people are swamped or have absolutely nothing to do.

Also, that amusing youtube clip can be the one thing between them shooting up the place and going insane.
TherapyChick
join:2003-09-19
Fayetteville, NC

TherapyChick to LazyITAdmin

Member

to LazyITAdmin
You're obviously not an IT admin, or a part of IT, or you'd know what we really do all day.

james16
join:2001-02-26

james16

Member

Re: nothing to see move along

He's just mad because the IT admin wont let him install Utorrent or minesweeper on his machine, and doesnt come right away when he calls because his keyboard is "broken again" (maybe you should stop spilling drinks on it).
neufuse
join:2006-12-06
James Creek, PA

neufuse

Member

auto updates...

MS has an auto-update mechanism... they just chose thanks to corporate pressure not to make IE7 a mandatory update..

DevlishHusky
join:2004-06-07
New Milford, NJ

DevlishHusky

Member

if it ain't broke...

the latest and greatest isn't always good. look what happened when Vista SP1 came out c.c

dadkins
Can you do Blu?
MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA

dadkins

MVM

Re: if it ain't broke...

What happened?
This laptop came with Vista SP1 factory installed - runs fine.

odreian615
join:2006-01-18
Chicago, IL

odreian615 to DevlishHusky

Member

to DevlishHusky
SP1 works fine on my Vista PC Nvidia driver on the other hand are still crap
wmeyer51
join:2001-05-22
Naples, FL

wmeyer51 to DevlishHusky

Member

to DevlishHusky
Upgraded to Vista Sp1 Runs like a champ

yolarry
join:2007-12-29
Creston, WV

yolarry to DevlishHusky

Member

to DevlishHusky
SP1 Runs like XP to me

jkj860
The Final Frontier
join:2002-01-10
Valparaiso, IN

jkj860 to DevlishHusky

Member

to DevlishHusky
Me too. Mine is fine.
Bobcat79
Premium Member
join:2001-02-04

Bobcat79

Premium Member

IE7

quote:
Only 52.5% of Microsoft Internet Explorer users have updated to version 7.
IE7 does not work on Win98SE, so I still have to run IE6.

tschmidt
MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH

tschmidt

MVM

Re: IE7

IE7 breaks a lot of web sites.

I upgraded and had to downgrade back to 6.

/tom
Relic (banned)
join:2003-09-29

1 recommendation

Relic (banned)

Member

Re: IE7

Think of 6=>7 as it would be XP=>Vista.

You upgraded to 6.

S_engineer
Premium Member
join:2007-05-16
Chicago, IL

S_engineer

Premium Member

Re: IE7

I like the IE 7 security patch that disables Internet browsing
No browsing...no bugs I guess!

»www.vistaheads.com/forum ··· ing.html

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

Nightfall

MVM

Re: IE7

said by S_engineer:

I like the IE 7 security patch that disables Internet browsing
No browsing...no bugs I guess!

»www.vistaheads.com/forum ··· ing.html
Yea, that problem just started happening.....7 months ago.

Michail
Premium Member
join:2000-08-02
Boynton Beach, FL

Michail to S_engineer

Premium Member

to S_engineer
From a web standards perspective IE6 needs to die a horrible and quick death. Use IE7, FireFox, Opera anything. Please get rid of that **** IE6.
ja2007123
join:2007-10-06

ja2007123 to Relic

Member

to Relic
Vista runs great on my machine.

You know, this whole Vista sucks thing is now a meme like rickroll :P
Relic (banned)
join:2003-09-29

Relic (banned)

Member

Re: IE7

Except being in the gaming industry, I'm forced to use computers with a shit OS.

aw2222
@spcsdns.net

aw2222 to ja2007123

Anon

to ja2007123
This is no meme.. Vista does stink for the most part.

Its basically a OS with 100 security checks on every click that slows down the entire computer to a miserable level. Installing Vista on any PC will basically needlessly double the response time on simple programs and worse on more complex ones.

I will stick with XP as long as I can.

pspcrazy
Anime Freak
join:2008-02-06
San Diego, CA

pspcrazy

Member

Re: IE7

OR you could just disable UAC in the control panel, and it works without checks like XP :|. Unless of course you just want to feel inferior to vista user's for some reason

S_engineer
Premium Member
join:2007-05-16
Chicago, IL

S_engineer

Premium Member

Re: IE7

Disable the indexing service too...you'll notice the difference!
gaforces (banned)
United We Stand, Divided We Fall
join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA

gaforces (banned) to pspcrazy

Member

to pspcrazy
said by pspcrazy:

OR you could just disable UAC in the control panel, and it works without checks like XP :|. Unless of course you just want to feel inferior to vista user's for some reason
It also disables IE7 protected mode sooooo, if you do what you suggest, using IE is less secure ...

ttiiggy
Premium Member
join:2001-03-27
Bozeman, MT

ttiiggy

Premium Member

Re: IE7

Make Vista run like XP:

- disable UAC in the control panel
- disable IE7 protected mode
- disable the indexing service

Vista --> XP: Less blote.
IE7 --> IE6 : Less blote.

Oh, wait. Just keep XP!
jarthur31
join:2006-04-14
Carlsbad, NM

jarthur31 to Relic

Member

to Relic
I use version 6 to update Windows only. Since Micro$oft won't allow me to customize its browser anymore I won't be using or any other version unless I'm allowed to change what it looks like and where I can put things like toolbars on it.

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

Nightfall to Bobcat79

MVM

to Bobcat79
said by Bobcat79:

quote:
Only 52.5% of Microsoft Internet Explorer users have updated to version 7.
IE7 does not work on Win98SE, so I still have to run IE6.
Yea, Microsoft should still be releasing and supporting an OS that is over 10 years old. :P

S_engineer
Premium Member
join:2007-05-16
Chicago, IL

S_engineer

Premium Member

Re: IE7

Why not, IE 7 sucks. Try this experiment; check your memory usage with IE 7 with 5 tabs open to graphically intense websites, then check the usage to those same 5 sites using Opera or Firefox. IE 7 will almost double the expense of RAM.
Do you feel the same about XP or are you now touting Vista?

OperaUser
@comcast.net

OperaUser

Anon

Re: IE7

IE 7 may start off using more memory than Firefox, but give Firefox a few minutes of browsing and it will end up using more memory than Safari.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to Bobcat79

Member

to Bobcat79
said by Bobcat79:

quote:
Only 52.5% of Microsoft Internet Explorer users have updated to version 7.
IE7 does not work on Win98SE, so I still have to run IE6.
Well update to at least XP dummy. Less than 1% still use that. I don't how anyone does anything these days with Win98

•••••••••••••••

TechyDad
Premium Member
join:2001-07-13
USA

TechyDad to Bobcat79

Premium Member

to Bobcat79
According to »marketshare.hitslink.com ··· qprid=10 , only about about 3.5% of users are using Windows 2000/NT/98/ME. That's not enough to really make a dent.

Speaking of the stats on that site, I took the stats on »marketshare.hitslink.com ··· ?qprid=2 and grouped them into New Versions and Old Versions. (I tossed out any items below 0.05%.) I came up with 50.61% using the new versions and 49.03% using the old versions. That's pretty close to the report's figures.
CanadianIron
join:2006-10-08
Beverly Hills, CA

CanadianIron

Member

IE6 >>>> IE7

IE6 is better than IE7 in that IE7 breaks a whole lot of things which are widely and commonly used by businesses.

•••

HardwareGeek
join:2003-11-15
Brooklyn, NY

HardwareGeek

Member

They really needed a study to tell them this?

I'm sure google could of looked at their own logs to see that most people are on out dated browsers..

FLengineer
CCNA, CEH, MCSA
Premium Member
join:2007-06-26
Deltona, FL

1 recommendation

FLengineer

Premium Member

Auto update is the reason here.

It's so much easier to click "Yes" than to go find, authenticate, download, authenticate, and install an update. Does IE7 require authentication? The Windows Genuine Advantage thing they make you do every 5 mins?
fiberguy2
My views are my own.
Premium Member
join:2005-05-20

fiberguy2

Premium Member

Here's my issues

Firefox auto updates can break plug-ins. (Usually due to not being "certified".)

I'm still waiting for Real Player, even, to catch up to FF 3. Paypal just introduced a new plug-in to use the service on any site.. not compatible with FF 3. People

IE7, in my opinion, needs to move away from the Windoze update system and have it's own like FF and about any other program does. A lot of people I know turn off the untrustworthy Windows updates because of things like the so-called critical update of WGA being installed, etc. and for other network management reasons.

Safari - I don't know much about that browser except I won't install it anyway. When Safari became part of the Apple update and they tried to push that out to my computer (because I had the update software installed for my iTunes and iTouch) I ripped iTunes off my computer and sold the iTouch. (For that and other reasons)

Others - don't use 'em.

•••••••••

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD

Premium Member

Is IE6 obsolete?

I use FF exclusively. Can IE6 be patched up to be as secure as IE7. I thought the difference between IE6 and 7 was some features, basically the tabbing.

•••••

ninjatutle
Premium
join:2006-01-02
San Ramon, CA

1 recommendation

ninjatutle

Member

Clean out your furnace filter, dummy

and your refrigerator's water filter, drain the sediments of your water heater, check tire pressures, clear gutters, get a physical.

There are a lot of things everyone needs to do. People have different priorities and know how.
Poetique
join:2007-08-05
Auburn, AL

1 edit

Poetique

Member

Re: Clean out your furnace filter, dummy

I use Firefox 3 on this partition, but IE6 on WinXP.

Not because IE7 breaks things though... moreso just because it's a big, slow, memory-hogging browser that I'm not particularly fond of. Not to mention its fairly easy to crash it to the point of having to kill & restart explorer.

Forcing people to update isn't what's needed... Microsoft's browser needs to suck less.

gomer1701ems
join:2001-08-23
Minneapolis, MN

gomer1701ems

Member

Microsoft Update

Didn't Microsoft, at one time, make it a critical update, so that even people with a pirated version of Windows could get it? I thought I saw it when I used Microsoft Update. I could have a fuzzy memory, however.

Mr Anon
@k12.il.us

Mr Anon

Anon

IE 6 isn't dead

IE 6 comes in SP3 still, in fact if you have installed IE 7 you won't be able to revert to it if you don't uninstall it before sp3.

IE 6 still gets patched and the version of ie6 in sp3 is newer than the rest. So I'm not sure how important it is to be on IE 7.

Titus
Mr Gradenko
join:2004-06-26

Titus

Member

Upgrade fatigue

People tire of the constant downloading and problems releases bring.
Not everyone must have the newest version the second it hits a server, and some people don't care if they have the newest version period. I got so tired of Mozilla downloads I don't run the damn browser anymore.
--
rdmiller
join:2005-09-23
Richmond, VA

rdmiller

Member

Re: Upgrade fatigue

I'm sticking with FF2. All those plug ins are too much work.
gnm109
join:2003-03-15
Wilton, CA

gnm109

Member

IE6 v. IE7

I'm currently using WIN XP SP2. I'm not a software or website developer but I know a slow browser when I install one. I tried IE7 and even with the phishing filter shut off, it's still slower than IE6.

I do like the tabs feature on IE7 but I can live without it until Bill Gates and his crew figure out a way to force me to buy another new computer with his latest OS.

Mizzat
Will post for thumbs
Premium Member
join:2003-05-03
Atlanta, GA

Mizzat

Premium Member

Corporate users

Me and my qurter million other corporate peers are locked into IE6.

NotMe
@rr.com

NotMe

Anon

IE 7?

If I had a dollar for the number of machines I've rescued in the past year, simply by de-installing IE7...

Even worse, most of the victims had it done "automatically", for their own good.

So now they have another process running, the "don't install IE7 update" process.

Similar straits occur with new machines running Vista.
Newer is not necessarily better.

Mashiki
Balking The Enemy's Plans
join:2002-02-04
Woodstock, ON

Mashiki

Member

One thing I have seen...

In a lot of cases is some people keep older versions for compatibility. In the worst cases, people see a download that's going to take 20mins-2hrs, and say forget it and simply don't do it.

That last feeling is pretty common among non-broadband users which there still is quite a few of.
Skunko
join:2000-10-12
Texas

Skunko

Member

Re: One thing I have seen...

IE 7 is a huge piece of trash. I DOWNGRADED back to IE 6, the same way I DOWNGRADED back to XP. Go away vista and ie7 NO BODY WANTS YOU, YOU SUCK!!!!!

wxboss
This is like Deja vu all over again.
Premium Member
join:2005-01-30
Fort Lauderdale, FL

1 edit

wxboss

Premium Member

Browser updates....why?

Click for full size
Most computer users

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536

Premium Member

Extensions

I don't see why firefox cant update the BROWSER without breaking extensions. most people have 'musthaves' that are always broken after an update.

Unit649
I B U, Who U B?
Premium Member
join:2000-01-22
Stockton, CA

Unit649

Premium Member

Re: Extensions

You'd think unless the update was dire (like an exploit, known to people who might use it) that they could release the update to the people who make extensions first and give them a day or 2 to fix it before releasing it to everyone.

Course, part of the reason people like FF is that its open like that-they find a problem they fix it NOW, get it out to everyone, and disclose it. They don't try to hide it like MS does with a lot of stuff "Oh, this is a security update" when all they did was remove a note that someone left in the code or something that could be potentially embarrassing or something like that.

You have a good gripe, but on the other hand, people would probably complain that it wasn't fixed yesterday!

Grail Knight

Premium Member
join:2003-05-31
Valhalla

Grail Knight to dvd536

Premium Member

to dvd536
quote:
I don't see why firefox cant update the BROWSER without breaking extensions. most people have 'musthaves' that are always broken after an update.
Well Mozilla Foundation updates Fx and then Mozilla Foundation only offers the ability for Fx to use extensions.

It is up to the extension developer to make sure they are updated for Fx or Tb version whatever.

Same goes for themes.

Ben
Premium Member
join:2007-06-17
Fort Worth, TX

Ben

Premium Member

I Haven't Upgraded to F.F. 3 Yet...

I'm unsure how my add-ins would be affected, and I wonder about Flash and what not.

So, I figure I should wait a little while.

And, there are advantages to not using the latest thing. All the kinks in the older version are more likely to be gone, though this only works as long as they work to update the older software.

As for not using the latest thing, there can be advantages in other cases too.

DVD came out in 2000, but I didn't break down until 2004 when many movies started to be DVD only. So, I didn't spend like $300 for the player. With Blu-ray, I won't buy it until I'm forced to, so to speak.

Cars: This is a big one. The first year of any model, if it's not based on a previous frame, is likely to have all sorts of kinks and problems. So, the best thing to do is only buy models that haven't been significantly updated in a long time. I.E. Grand Marquis is a good choice since my understanding is that the chassis/engine hasn't been significantly updated since '92, just minor improvements since then.

Lone Wolf
Retired
Premium Member
join:2001-12-30
USA

Lone Wolf

Premium Member

Re: I Haven't Upgraded to F.F. 3 Yet...

And I haven't upgraded to XP SP3 either. I'll wait for the bugs to be worked out.
bgraham2
join:2001-03-15
Smithtown, NY

bgraham2 to Ben

Member

to Ben
To be honest I am a pretty well an anti upgrade / update kind of guy. Got better things to do than obsess about updates. I do keep Adaware and Avast up to date.

Since I had not updated anything in the last year or so in XP I broke down and went to firefox3 and SP3. Wasted an hour or so and the end result really is that XP runs the same and Firefox 3 has a fancier back button. Oh now a backup of my C drive takes 2 DVD's.

You can update and upgrade software until your computer is a slow obsolete piece of junk or take the if it ain't broke don't fix it approach.
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