Re: [PCTECH] Alternative browsers

[Vern Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Inline responses

Vern

At 05:08 PM 7/7/2004, you wrote:
> Multi-faceted post:
>
> 1) Does the mere presence of IE make it "hazardous" or do you actually have
> to use it to be vulnerable?

Don't know - my version of Eudora can use IE features, so it might be a 
problem for me.

> 2) Is anyone using Firefox?  I'm wondering how stable it is (it's beta) and
> how soon it will shed the beta tag.

I've used Firefox - mostly works well - was using 0.8 of it and had a few 
very minor issues, nothing to write home about. It did not handle WebEx, 
the web meeting service, at all - had to use IE for that.

> 3) Does Firefox have an email client (yet)?

No, probably only in Mozilla

> 4) If an email client is important to me, should I hold off on Firefox and
> use the latest Mozilla (which has an email client)?  If you're using
> Firefox, what email client are you using?  (free is good!)

I've used Eudora for years - there's a free mode, fewer features, a 
sponsored mode, with ads, and a paid mode, no ads. <www.qualcomm.com>

> 5) Don't laugh, but I just upgraded my Win95 box to Win98SE last week.  The
> box is only 233MHz & 128MB ram, so my choices are very limited.  The Win95
> was originally loaded back in '97 over a Win3.11 install, and I've never
> done a scratch install until I did the Win98SE upgrade last week.  All of a
> sudden my PC is a lot faster!  Anyway, it seems as though I was somewhat
> protected by using Win95 because all of the vulnerabilities that were being
> exploited were "newer" technology that MS added in after Win95, i.e. the
> Sasser virus only affected XP (& 2000?), so my trusty Win95 box was largely
> unaffected.  I am connected to the internet via cable with a Gigafast
> router/firewall, and I use Norton AV and Spybot.  Is it a fair question to
> ask whether I am in good shape?
>
> TIA, db