Though for my job I am forced to use additional browsers on occasion for testing against our own web applications, I normally prefer to have no other browser installed than Internet Explorer 8.

The simple reason is that adding another browser to a PC simply adds potential vulnerabilities and provides absolutely no additional protection whatsoever, this is a fallacy created within the mythology of computing generated by the masses who perpetuate the myth.

The reality is that the reason Firefox makes a PC 'safer' is because the user in front of the keyboard can not accept certain potentially dangerous downloads such as ActiveX, since the browser simply doesn't support them and which though often necessary for some important uses, can also contain malware.

The deeper reality is that by ignoring the maintenance of Internet Explorer and in fact the entire PC, these same users often leave themselves wide open for malware that take advantage of any of these entry points, whether operating system or application based attacks. In fact, some of the exploits actually occur simply because the user chooses to accept a download (socially engineered malware) and results in the compromise of the browser as well, upon which the blame is incorrectly laid.

An example of the depth of this fallacy is shown by the results of independent testing of several of the most popular web browsers security, regularly performed by NSS Labs.

http://nsslabs.com/browser-security

Note that though Internet Explorer 8 beat Firefox by a small amount in the Phishing tests, it was statisically a tie due to the margin of error. However, none of the other browsers were really even a close third, which is surprising since two of them use some of the same 'back-end' information sources as Firefox, so their implimentations are somehow not as effective.

On the other hand, in the Socially Engineered Malware testing, Internet Explorer 8 left the other browsers completely in the dust. This is in large part a result of the efforts Microsoft is placing in their SmartScreen technology.

So it's really time to stop helping to perpetuate the myths and start looking for real solid test results that support the claims being made. I understand that these are difficult to find, since so much of the 'known' information out there is simply conjecture and belief (mythology), but it's time that those with a brain began to use them.

Bitman