Why IE 7.0 must rely on XP SP2

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 20 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

I’ve seen a lot of press coverage over the last week or so about Microsoft’s plans for Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0. One of the major gripes seems to be that it will require Windows XP service pack 2 (SP2).

So what’s wrong with that?

One of the main reasons that people are moving to other browsers (e.g. Firefox) is that IE is perceived as insecure. SP2 is a major security update for the Windows XP desktop operating system. Why provide a new (more secure) browser product to people who do not use the latest security patches on their operating system?

SP2 has been publicly available since August 2004 (6 months ago). The temporary blocking mechanism to hold back automatic SP2 deployment from Windows Update is scheduled to expire on April 12 2005. There is no point in IT Managers burying their heads in the sand and ignoring SP2 any longer. I will concede that Microsoft should have shipped v4.0 of the Application Compatibility Toolkit alongside SP2 (after all, application compatibility is probably the largest barrier to SP2 deployment) but it amazes me that so few organisations have made the move to SP2 after all this time.

For those who are not even using Windows XP, whilst the extra functionality in IE 7.0 may be useful, Microsoft is a product and technology business and it needs to maintain its licensing revenues through getting people to adopt the latest technologies (especially whilst strategic products are being delayed by major security rewrites).

If an older platform is seen “good enough” then fine; but “good enough” shouldn’t just be about functionality – it needs to consider the whole picture – including security. It may be that the risk assessment considers remaining on a legacy (possibly unsupported) platform is more favourable than the risk (and cost) of upgrading. That’s fine too – as long as that risk is acceptable to the business.

My recommendation? Organisations who are using Windows XP should fully test their applications and carry out a controlled upgrade to SP2 as soon as possible. Those who continue to use older operating systems (especially Windows 9x, ME, and NT) should urgently consider upgrading. Then keep patch levels up-to-date, for example, by using Microsoft Software Update Services (SUS) and the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA). IT users can’t continue to complain about the security of the Microsoft platform if they won’t deploy the latest (or even recent) patches.

Mozilla Firefox – make the switch today!

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 20 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

Alex Coles showed me the Firefox browser last week and ever since then I’ve been hooked! With the recent (and highly-publicised) run of flaws in Internet Explorer (IE) resulting in bodies such as US-CERT advising users to consider switching to an alternative browser, the browser marketplace has been opened up again, leading to IE’s market share slipping and the Mozilla website reporting 3,592,687 million downloads of the Firefox preview release as I write this (1.3 million of which were in the first week).

So why is Firefox so great? Well, for a start it’s fast. It takes about the same time as IE to launch, but seems about 4 times faster to render popular websites (e.g. BBC, or The Register). Previously, I had thought it was my connection that was slow – not my browser! One of the major features is tabbed browsing – I wasn’t convinced as to the difference between multiple tabs in a single browser and multiple copies of a browser, but it just seems easier to work with! Installation is easy too – it’s compact (at 4.5Mb) and even imports my IE settings. Like the latest IE version, it has an integrated popup blocker; but it also includes integrated search tools for Google, Yahoo and others in its toolbar. It just seems more elegant.

Actually (much to my own surprise) I’m becoming a bit of an open source fan. I use FeedReader as my RSS aggregator and now Firefox is my browser of choice. I’ll probably start looking at the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client too.

Internet Explorer is not dead – it still holds more than 90% of the market, but as Firefox rises in popularity, perhaps Microsoft will look seriously at a full redesign, including a host of new features? We can but hope.

Get Firefox!