[quote name='dafoomie']
People keep touting Firefox but I find I really don't care for it. I don't like the design, it has serious rendering errors on sites I visit daily, and several other annoyances. Many of these things date all the way back to the Netscape era and are part of why I dropped that for IE 4 in Win98.
How long has it been since you've tried it?
Its not just popups... There are too many IE exploits to count right now that aren't fixed.
It IS slower than IE, especially on slower computers. But adblock speeds things up on ad-infested sites. And you can change the theme if you don't like the look of it.
I'll never go back to IE because of adblock alone.
[/quote]
I've run the current rev of Firefox earlier this month. I was not hugely impressed.
As I said before, I've had zero infections, ever. None. Nada, Zip, Zilch. It used to be a weekly chore to check for updates but that has ben automated for several years now. I don't even have to think about it. If there is an update available the systems lets me know and I do a quick to see if there any known issue with the patch.
Part of the safety I've enjoyed is the simple expedient of never connecting direct to the Internet. I'm always behind a router. In an era of $20 routers there is no excuse for ever going without this protection. If I were running a broadband ISP I'd make it part of the standard equipment. Actually, this is starting to happen. Companies like Versizon have a new generation of CPE that combines the DSL TA and router in a single package. (2Wire, which is what I have, has offered this for years but ISPs didn't like the idea of enabling multiple customers PCs if they couldn't charge extra plus 2Wire was a bit pricey when they first appeared. Also, the big telcos and cable companies had a massive investment in their hardware to get a good price at the time. They're changing it to better stuff as the last of the old boxes is deployed.) Of the top ten worst virus and worms of the decade so far almost all of them are defeated by simply being behind a router. You cannot attack a port that isn't exposed to the outside world.
Under SP2 the list of holes so far could be counted on one hand by a drill press operator. One of them requires malware to already be installed on the PC in question, in which case all bets are off and possible external manipulation is meaningless by comparison. The other one requires the user to be an active participant in performing a task that is extraordinarily improbable for the vast majority of users and thus most of the likely dupes wouldn't be able to get it done. When is the last time you did a drag and drop onto a CLI window? Ever?
As for ways to block Flash ads, that can be achieved by other means. One is to simply have a soft switch for Flash calls so you can quickly restore it if you feel the need to visit a Flash site. There are a few zillion of these available as freeware downloads.
