[NTLUG:Discuss] Browser Security Question?

[Robert Pearson]

In response to the browser and www.math.com question---
fredjame wrote---
>In the event that your get stuck having to use IE, may I suggest
>Win4Lin?  I use Win4Lin 5.x and run Win98 with the latest IE, with great
>success, for those very few occasions that I absolutely need it. (OS
>Mandrake 9.1)

brad angelcyk wrote---
>WINE or Crossover Office to run IE...

Greg Edwards wrote---
>Try Opera.

My question is:
Does running Internet Explorer in an emulation or virtual machine mode
over Linux make IE any more secure?

Opera may be a little different. I understand Opera to be Linux with
some sort of emulation layer that allows Microsoft's most popular
applications to run natively. much like WINE. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I know people who use VMware and CrossOver Office and they do not seem
worried about the Security leaks. I'm not sure why?

I haven't heard much about Apple and Mac OSX since I am not on any
mailing lists for those products.

Since the problem, as I understand it, is the Security model Microsoft
chose compounded by the holes in ActiveX. Wouldn't this make IE
vulnerable everywhere?

Anecdote:
Sun and Microsoft were in a race to the finish line with Sun's Java
and Microsoft's ActiveX. Sun beat Microsoft to the punch and announced
Java first. When a Microsoft executive, not Bill Gates or Steve
Ballmer, was asked about Sun's triumph he stated, "Those guys at Sun
have bumped onto a sandbar and think they have discovered a whole new
Continent! We'll bury them with our new product."

I'm still waiting... and Microsoft is waiting on C#...

Disclaimer:
I have used Firefox on Windows2000 for months now. I am very happy
except for, what appears to be, Microsoft's attempts to make me
unhappy with Firefox. I also use Firefox on Linux and prefer it, as a
browser, over Mozilla.

Thanks,

Robert Pearson
rdpears at gmail.com