Firefox is no threat to Internet Explorer
Remember, guys…Internet Explorer 1.0 code was Mosaic. Microsoft licensed that code base, but Mozilla is open source.
Microsoft has every damn byte of code every produced by the project. And you better believe improvements derived from the open source project are going to be woven as deeply into Microsoft's next generation browser as BSD code is in the NT kernel.
Anyway…
Microsoft says Firefox not a threat to IE
Published: November 11, 2004, 10:54 AM PST
By Munir Kotadia
Special to CNET News.com
Just days after the launch of open-source browser Firefox 1.0, Microsoft executives defended Internet Explorer, saying it is no less secure than any other browser and doesn't lack any important features.
At a security roundtable discussion in Sydney on Thursday, Ben English, Microsoft's security and management product manager, told attendees that IE undergoes "rigorous code reviews" and is no less secure than any other browser.
"Because IE is ubiquitous, you hear a lot more about it, but I don't think that Internet Explorer is any less secure than any other browser out there," English said.
Steve Vamos, Microsoft Australia's managing director, agreed, saying he does not believe IE's market share is under attack following the recent high-profile debut of the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser.
Vamos said that although he has heard other people mention the competitive threat posed by Firefox, he doesn't see it as a problem.
"I'm not sure that that is the reality. I have seen comments around that, but there is nothing I can refer to that really supports that," he said. Instead, Vamos said, consumers need to be educated about all the features already offered by Microsoft's browser.
