There are many times I hear people complain about Microsoft products in regards to security. It’s something we’ve become used to; auto-updates, clean reformats, anti-virus software, spy ware.
What users tend to ignore is that the people that create these problems are also rational people. Why design viruses and spy ware for a small percentage of the market, when you can design it to attack a large percentage of the market?
While it’s easy to criticize Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and start using Mozilla Firefox, you have to remember that Internet Explorer is over 5 years old and Firefox is less then a few months old and constantly changing. Firefox is a lot newer and controls a relatively insignificant portion of the market which is why we haven’t started seeing Firefox related security issues.
This is not to say that every user should embrace everything that is Microsoft. Users, just as software developers and hackers, are selfish rational people and should embrace whatever product does the most for them. Whether today it is Firefox or tomorrow Internet Explorer 7, realize there are outside influences affecting the success of every product.
It’s common to be the punching bag for an industry when you control the industry.