IE has two advantages over Firefox: 1) It can create (sometimes) *.mht single-file copies of Web pages. 2) It can open pages built with MS software that was purposely designed so that other browsers would not display the pages properly.

In all other respects, IE is a piece of junk: It often will not open a page at all, it breaks frequently, it has more holes (flaws) than swiss cheese, it is far slower than Firefox, etc., etc., etc. Of course, Microsoft claims that all the things that result in the flaws are "convenience" features.

And, while I am a rant, Norton "Internet Security" is far from secure, its programs for removing viruses, trojans, worms, and spyware often don't work, and its free, single-user, technical service is non-existent. I learned this long ago. My daughter learned it about three weeks ago.

You may be aware of this, but there is a FireFox extension that will save a web page as a single *.maf (open source archive file format) or *.mhtml file (interchangeable with IE's *.mht file format). It can read *.mht files and write their equivalent, too!

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=212&application=firefox

What you say about IE 6 is true, but the problems seem not to reside in the browser engine but somewhere in the superstructure of the program. I have several time had IE unable to browse yet browsers based on it worked fine. That is, all of them except Avant Browser, which doesn't work on my system at all.

On anti-virus protection, a few days ago Microsoft started offering a free-anti virus beta package. (It will cost money when the product is released.) It is called OneCare, and includes such things as automated defragmentation. (If anyone's using Norton and wants something else without paying...)

Stephen Diamond

I'm pretty fed up with the whole IE vs. Firefox debate. I've tried FF a number of times and keep coming back to IE. IE always feels faster and sites render properly. We've never had any security problems with IE on any of the machines here. There is a lot of beat up going on.

I'm also peaved at the way Firefox broke the Extension I wrote for Surfulater in FF 1.5 and also many other extensions. I've written about this at: http://blog.surfulater.com/wordpress/?p=43 and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/powertoolssoftware/message/14964

The simple script at: http://packetstormsecurity.org/0512-exploits/firefox-1.5-buffer-overflow.txt will crash FF 1.5

And finally this post by brundlefly76 at http://discuss.extremetech.com/forums/1004292531/ShowPost.aspx is noteworthy:

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I love Firefox, it is my favorite browser, but I have to correct the article on a point you made multiple times.

FIREFOX IS NOT A 'LEAN AND FAST' BROWSER.

This myth has been perpetuated by the open source community forever.

See comparison tests here:
http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html#winspeed

Firefox is slower than Opera and IE, and has a much larger memory footprint then IE (right now 80MB vs 41 MB in task manager)
(it also has has a history of bad memory leaks, and monitoring task manager right now, there are still some in 1.5).

Its MUCH slower in cold and warm starts, and slower in rendering CSS, tables, and images.
It does have better script speed, however, probably due to IE's ActiveX support.

Firefox is great because it has tabbed browsing, extensions, and themes.
Which, of course, go on to make it even more bloated should you choose to install them (who doesnt?)!

Although slower, it is still plenty fast enough - all mature browsers are.

Both IE and Firefox have their crashes, but the frequency with which this happens is greatly exaggerated by both sides.
Neither crashes often.

Can we all just agree that Firefox is superior in features and move on?

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Neville Franks