Firefox, IE, and Browser security

There were reports floating around recently (that came from Symantec, the anti-virus company that profits from the insecure state of proprietary software) saying that Firefox has more security problems than Internet Explorer.

This may be fact.

But it misses the point entirely. To read that statement as a condemnation of Firefox (or more broadly, of any Free software) presupposes that some software will not have bugs or security problems. And that just ain’t so. All software has bugs and security problems. Period, end of report. The question is, how are those bugs and security holes responded to?

As this story points out, the fact that more holes are being found — and efficiently patched — with Firefox and other Free software applications is a strength, not a weakness.

It’s just not a strength that is easily profitted-upon. Therefore, corporations who depend on profit will throw more obfuscation out there around this issue.

Bottom line: nothing is more secure than Free software. Period.

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