full-disclosure - HP urges users to erase Netscape to avoid security problems

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Message-ID: <04Jul5.103022cest.118632@fd.hif.hu>
From: adam at nhh.hu (Szilveszter Adam)
Subject: HP urges users to erase Netscape to avoid security
  problems

Barry Fitzgerald wrote:

> Heh.
> 
> The article has the following quote:
> 
> "On other platforms, such as Linux, Unix and the Mac, Explorer is less 
> of a threat."
> 
> Uhh... yeah, you could say that it's less of a threat on GNU/Linux and 
> Unix... non-existance will do that.

Ummm, perhaps people have a short attention span, but IE used to exist 
for Solaris and HP-UX at one time. (It was in the 4.x version) But I 
doubt it has been maintained since. (Heck, I even have a Unix binary of 
the then NetShow player, which has later mutated into Windows Media 
Player the hog, replacing the small and dull video player from win95 
days... i plays older .asf streams/files all right.)

And yes, from the article it really looks to me that HP was talking 
about the long-discontinued 4.x (pre-Mozilla) version of Netscape, which 
used to be available for many platforms and has seen steady use even 
after 6.x came out, because

1) it was a lot smaller and faster esp in the beginning (remember, at 
the time Mozilla leaked memory like a sieve, and was so slow that you 
easily could go for a coffee break, this is what allowed eg Opera to 
jump into the fray and strike it big)
2) it had an integrated Java Virtual Machine (albeit a fairly antiquated 
one) which helped platforms where a plugin was not available
3) it had the familiar look-and-feel whereas the new Mozilla look really 
took some adjustment
4) it was included on just about any installation CD etc just like older 
version of Acrobat Reader were, to access HTML docs.

And yes, *that* browser is full of bugs by now... even though for a 
while, Netscape/AOL used to put out minor bugfix releases in silence, 
exactly because they knew it was used by many...

Regards,
Sz.