A question about IE...

cdd · Fri 27 Jan, 2006 12.26

Since you're all very clever on these boards I thought you would be the right people to pose this question to...

If Internet Explorer is a free product anyway, what have they got to lose if nobody uses IE anymore? Why are Microsoft so eager to maintain their market share?

I'm sure there's an obvious answer... but I can't see it!

Chris · Fri 27 Jan, 2006 12.42

I'm sure there's an obvious answer... but I can't see it!

Simply, to keep their market share, and people locked into their products using proprietary technologies such as Active X.

I still use IE since it does the job as a web browser, and nothing more. I don't need it to change the music on my media player, I don't need it to tell me the weather, nor do I need it to make my tea for me.

I really don't understand what all the fawning for Firefox is.

(p.s. has anyone seen those videos from Firefox users toeing the party line? Cringeworthy and sheer comedy at times, for all the wrong reasons)

Dr Lobster* · Fri 27 Jan, 2006 13.08

chris is spot on.

it's about locking people into windows.

i've been using linux quite a bit recenly and whilst it's not perfect (nor as stable as some make out) it's a great os and with kde and gnome evolving all the time (and windows being fairly static) these operating systems are becoming a real alternative.

a home user who just surfs, emails, writes documents could get away without evening using windows now. in the next couple of years i can really see linux boxes appearing on the highstreet.

i stick with windows because i develop software and whilst eclipse is a great environment i've not been able to explore it fully to see if it's a viable alternative. wine is pretty inpressive too, i've got quite a few of my own programs running under linux without any problems (more complex apps which use remote databases and raw sockets don't work properly). it will be interesting to see how this develops.

i just hope all this competition pushes the prices of windows and office down. full retail editions of both are not cheap.

Pete · Fri 27 Jan, 2006 16.31

Chris wrote:(p.s. has anyone seen those videos from Firefox users toeing the party line? Cringeworthy and sheer comedy at times, for all the wrong reasons)

oh it's ghastly isn't it. Go knows why anyone ever thought it would be a god idea.

I use firefox over IE for the tabs and I find it a more stable and quicker program. IE just feels so flakey when I have to use it nowadays.

James H · Fri 27 Jan, 2006 18.34

Hymagumba wrote:why anyone ever thought it would be a god idea.

I can assure you, Nick Harvey would never think of such a thing!

cdd · Fri 27 Jan, 2006 21.40

Why do I prefer firefox... well, where do I begin!

> Extensions
> Skins
> Find-As-You-Type Feature
> Adblock (yes, comes under Extensions, but still worthy of note!)
> Tabs of course
> Fancier icon
> Smaller and sleeker
> Built In Download manager
> Superior support for printing out
> Proper PNG support, proper "alt" tag support... all comes under "image rendering" that
> Type Text Into Address Bar And Uses Google's I'm Feeling Lucky feature
> Countless other things I probably take for granted every day!

The only disadvantages...
> Doesn't support some websites (but that's not it's fault)
> Lacklustre Windows Shell integration (again, not its fault)
> I miss Internet Explorer's great integration with Windows Media Player

James Martin · Fri 27 Jan, 2006 21.46

I don't think there's anything wrong with IE.

I don't think it's bloated, it's simple and, for the most part, it's compatible with everything pretty much.

As for security issues, well, if you have Windows properly updated and your firewall sorted out, there should really be no problems.

cdd · Fri 27 Jan, 2006 21.48

James Martin wrote:I don't think it's bloated

Sorry, can you please say that with a straight face now!

80 odd MB and you say it isn't bloated?

And RE I.E. security: I think tehy've gone overboard, I can't browse the internet without that stupid "Information Bar" appearing even when there's just a simple piece of Java Script or something and wasting my time.

Fireboy · Fri 27 Jan, 2006 21.57

James Martin wrote:it's compatible with everything pretty much.

If website owners used correct web language, almost any browser could be compatible with 'everything pretty much'.

Neil Jones · Fri 27 Jan, 2006 22.33

James Martin wrote:I don't think it's bloated, it's simple and, for the most part, it's compatible with everything pretty much.

But here in lies the problem; it hasn't been updated rendering engine wise since IE6 was launched about six years ago. All SP2 did for IE6 was stick a popup blocker on it and that incredibly irriating "Information Bar". It didn't do anything about the browser's limiting webpage rendering abilities in certain areas.

In any case, if people didn't use Internet Explorer only tags, if people didn't build websites as if IE6 is the only browser going and if people didn't use silly scripts that say "you must use IE6 for this site despite it containing nothing that Firefox/Opera can't handle", one could probably put up with it.

As for bloated, if you consider 80Mb as being not bloated, then I'd hade to see what you consider as being bloated.

As for security issues, well, if you have Windows properly updated and your firewall sorted out, there should really be no problems.

The security issues are the Microsoft only technologies such as ActiveX technology (which has had more security holes in it than swiss cheese since it was added to Internet Explorer 4 in 1997) and people's inability to click "No" on the security prompt when inadvertedly installing said dangerous ActiveX controls.

Jamez · Fri 27 Jan, 2006 22.43

Any web designer/developer worth his/her salt will check their website throughly in all of the top 5 browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari & Netscape).

Faceparty doesn't like Opera users. It crashes the browser every time you visit its homepage.