Internet Explorer Security Holes are a Good Thing

Anything prompting people to finally move to a better browser can´t be bad

We have been encouraging people to switch from Internet Explorer to basically any other browser for several years now and the latest security holes that have garnered world wide attention after the Google issues in China just underline the reasons why. However, all the press is getting people to switch and that is great news for the web in general!

For some time now the slow, insecure, and non-compliant Internet Explorer 6 browser has stifled web development. Web sites that must cater to the outdated browser are left with workarounds, bloated code, and must forgo using new features to support a browser that, in internet terms, is something like a 120 year old man on life support. So anything that prompts people to drop the IE browser in droves is actually a very good thing for the Internet in general.

After the news broke of the latest in a line of security holes affecting the IE family of browser software several governments have recommended to their users to switch and thankfully, the users have been listening. Mozilla in Germany has shown probably the most staggering evidence with a 300% increase in downloads of Firefox. There is little doubt that as soon as people try a different browser and see how much faster it is, and how much better the web looks they will never look back.

So we applaud the security holes in IE, and hope many more are found and widely reported - because with each user that drops IE and moves to one of the modern browsers out there, the entire community of the Internet will benefit.

Addendum Jan 23rd:
Even more holes found - see the related story As if there were not already enough compelling reasons to finally drop IE - there seem to be a cornucopia more rolling in by the day right now.

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