http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,120087,00.asp
some interesting points. Is firefox really that much better than internet explorer?
I.E. should stay. We need it for obvious reasons mentioned in the article. 
I believe that’s a question to put to Microsoft.
Since IE is a part of the operating system and used
for certain important things like updates, they are the ones to make any changes.
I personally use an IE based browser as my default browser and there are many
alternatives for the usual browsing function.
For most things, you don’t have to use IE if that’s your choice.
copycat…
??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???
Don’t think the Big $$$IE$$$ will be going anywere Mr Micro $ :o wil see to that
Not impossible but getting harder to update XP without it!! :o
IE has to stay , if your a windows user, for obvious reasons already stated.
A point I’d like to make is that MS Internet Explorer is in my opinion, and through experimentation, the weak link. This is off the top of my head, I’m not trying to write a definitive guide to browsing.
1.
If I use IE exclusively, as default browser I have to virtually disable ActiveX
, Flash animation, clean all cookies and IE cache files, regulary.
1.a:
After setting up a Computer from scratch with WinXP pro, on dial -up , with no access to a firewall or Anti-virus, as the person didn’t have any on disk/available. Then Downloaded/installed ZA free, then Avast! Home, and Ad-Aware Se, for starters. Went to Microsoft Update for all the critical updates . Using default Win XP pro installation Browser IE6 . After downloading all critical updates, from MS we had 43 tracking cookies, level 7 on Ad-Aware’s threat assessment. And 3 Backdoor Trojans, which Avast! picked up. I then downloaded FireFox 1.0.6.0
This would be the way a lot of people without a good knowledge of security issues would go about things, in my opinion. Just install OS , get MS critical updates, SP1, SP2, etc.
Was an experiment for me, to see what vulnerabilities we had.
Generally, I would install a Firewall , and AV software after setup of the operating sytem, before going on-line. I found it very enlightening to see what happened with WinXP pro , no third party software , and going straight to Windows Update page and doing the above; which I knew would be risky, but it was critically dangerous. And I bet a lot of General Windows users do the same.