Some interesting reading for you KDF:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/index.php?p=103
I don't discredit the fact that FF issues are patched more readily, but people still become somewhat embroiled on the FF fanboy bandwagon. But I believe this article presents an argument for your first point regarding the scale of exploits exposed.
What it doesnt list is severity of the exploit, as with most IE exploits it leads to total system takeover, can the same be said for firefox ? no because it is run at user level permission and any exploit cannot escalate with out somehow exploiting another vulnarability.
Also there was a somewhat critical exploir released last year which allowed a user to hijack your computer via running remote based Javascripts from a html page which targetted the favicons and sidebar aspects of the browser.
Which was quickly fixed and again brings up my previous point that the expliot could not have escalated to affect system files in any way without first using an additional exploit.
Please KDF don't insult me with useless comments questioning my knowledge, the scope of my argument in my initial post was regarding someone (yourself) questioning the security of an MS product, this is somewhat hypocritical given FF's track record. Since its become popular its seen more exploits and hacks than IE has seen in probably 2 years. And undoubtedly theres many more to come.
Count IE exploits (and their severity) vs Firefox's exploits, add into that the response time to fix released, add into that the fact that I can make changes to it myself if I so wish, add in to that the security of running firefox in a Jail and I think I will stick with what I have got thanks.. my point about IE being inherently flawed by design remains, and nothing will change that until they remove it from the core OS. Windows by design is inherently flawed for simmilar reasons.
As for Linux, well i shall point you here:
http://www.computing.co.uk/vnunet/news/2122458/linux-hacks-hit
Oops, looks like your source used deeply flawed methods and forgot to add the important bits in... http://www.serverpipeline.com/52500233
I'm not looking for petty arguments about software, and im not looking to be insulted - if you can't discuss something witohut using a derogatory manner, then i suggest you don't debate matters with people. I rest my case.