BBSpot is running a story that the US-CERT is recommending wearing finger condoms when using Internet Explorer. For those of you who don't know, BBSpot is a joke site...but this one hits close to home.

I was just discussing with Jason about troubleshooting computers of family and friends who use Internet Explorer, and how it's always spyware central when you get on there. Just yesterday I had to do some tech support at work for a computer running unholy slow, and it was like it was sending out packets saying "please, install crap on me". After a cleanup it's been running pretty well.

I don't know about you, but ever since I switched to Firefox (Firebird) and Thunderbird for my primary web and email clients I haven't had a single virus. I haven't had any spyware. I haven't had any computer issues at all. Plus Firefox has tabbed browsing (yeah, slow your role incorporating that into IE). I have to use Outlook at work, but it's only for my work mail. I use Thunderbird still for all my other email (except GMail, which is webified). I only use IE when I absolutely have to, and my security settings are way high. If I go to a page that I don't absolutely have to be on, and it only works in IE, I skip it more often than not.

The biggest problem is that there are pages that only work in IE. Lazycoder had a good entry yesterday discussing part of this, and he is right that it all starts with the IE team's seeming unwillingness to fix their damn browser. But there is also the issue of the lazy developers who only develop for IE, or only test in IE, or whatever. Personally, I develop and test in Firefox, because I know that if I get it working there it will work in IE 99% of the time. That and the developer tools extensions, and the javascript console that is a holdover from the Netscape days are just invaluable.

The other major issue is that for some reason IT departments (like mine) are unwilling or afraid to make a move to a better browser. Listen, you can still be a "Microsoft Shop" and not use IE as the corporate browser. I'm a Microsoft guy, I use almost all Microsoft products, I make my living off of .NET. But I recognize that IE has severe limitations and impacts my productivity both with its feature set and its flaws. So I use Firefox. That doesn't make me an open source zealot, or a Microsoft hater...I know that there are people in Redmond who also use Firefox as a primary...so where's the harm? Sac up and make the switch.