Internet Explorer: the silent killer
I'm always a bit surprised when someone tells me that they use Internet Explorer - and I often respond by asking them whether it is by choice.
Apart from those who have a gun held to their head, I'm not sure I get why people still use IE, in any of its forms.
Recent estimates show that IE is still used by over half of all Internet users. Firefox comes in second with about 31 per cent, and Chrome is next with about 8 per cent.
Of course, the methods they use to count the numbers can be skewed by a number of factors, but it's a good general indicator.
Internet Explorer has been noted by some to be the slowest among its peers for rendering websites. Using a browser performance test known as Acid3, IE8 scores 20/100, where its competitors score 100 per cent.
Apart from tests like these, word-of-mouth (or word-of-blog) reports call it buggy and unstable. Most savvy users install an alternative at the first available opportunity.
The funny thing is, Microsoft still seem to think it's the greatest out there - have a look at this ridiculous browser "comparison" from MS's website. That's about as fair and balanced as Fox.
One standout line is: "Firefox and Chrome have more support for emerging standards like HTML5 and CSS3, but Internet Explorer 8 supports standards commonly used by the websites you visit today."
So what they are saying is "don't worry about pushing things forward, just stick with the old way".They also fail to mention that Chrome and Firefox generally support those old standards as well.
That kind of think-for-the-now mentality looks like an excuse to me. It reminds me of Bill - that old phone on the TelstraClear ads (although I'm actually rather fond of him - more than that over-excited hipster TC).
I've used Chrome and Firefox for ages now and have had very few, if any, problems with web pages not running correctly.
In fact, I completely uninstalled Internet Explorer almost as soon as I installed Windows 7. I gave IE8 a chance, but it seemed as slow as a Sunday driver compared to the alternatives, so I uninstalled it and haven't looked back.
So why is Internet Explorer still dominating market share?
I put it down to a few factors, the first being the abundance of older websites which were optimised for Internet Explorer.
Also, "Internet Explorer" has become synonymous with "browser" for many people. The first browser many people think of, because it has been that way for so long, is often Internet Explorer.
It's the known brand - like Glad Wrap, Bandaids or Hoover.
Another huge factor in IE's dominance has to be that it comes standard with Windows, and a vast proportion of Internet users just don't care enough (or know enough) to install a new browser.
There is probably a correlation between the high sales of Windows 7 and the continued dominance of IE. I reckon Windows 7 is great - but IE8 is a cancerous growth which should be removed as soon as operable.
Microsoft plans to bring out their IE version 9 pretty soon, and the latest beta build has apparently scored 95/100 for the Acid3 test... still not 100 per cent though.
I'd love to think that Microsoft is going to miraculously iron out their issues, but it's a long shot. Still, I will be giving IE 9 a go.
It would probably take longer to teach non-techies the benefits of a different browser than it would to wait for Microsoft to sort its browser out.
So until then, we patiently wait, and we write blogs like this one.
If I am wrong about Internet Explorer, do tell me why.. do you use Internet Explorer? What for? Tried other browsers? Which do you use, and why?
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Ok, I'll bite :) I use IE8. It works. Nuff said. I don't CARE if web pages "load" faster in FF or whatever, we're bound by crappy internet access speeds in NZ anyway. That has a far larger effect on web user experience than anything a browser can do in rendering pages and executing javascript.
Chrome - ever since a beta version - so fast and easy. Only down side is there is an IE bug that kills the PC sometimes and the fix is (apparently) launch Firefox before Chrome so IE8 doesn't kill the PC.
Not only am I using IE, but I'm using IE6! :-O
My excuse is that I'm currently working in a large organisation that gives its users no control over the software installed on their computers. They rely on a lot of internal systems that were developed for IE6, and as is usual in large organisations, inertia wins the day.
Whenever I have the choice, I use Firefox or Chrome. I prefer Chrome on my home machine because I have it linked up to my TV and surf from the couch, which means I need to zoom to read the text, and for some reason Firefox doesn't seem to zoom my favourite sites properly. But when I'm using a traditional computer setup, I prefer Firefox.
Maybe you should do a bit of research before making claims like "where its competitors score 100 per cent." No current browser scorces 100%. Firefox 3.6.8 scores 94/100, Chrome 5 only 83/100, and doesn't even render the page properly.
A score of 95/100 is about is as good as you're going to get, and to be honest, a really impressive effort from the Microsoft IE developers.
"The five failing tests are all in areas of the SVG specification that are in transition; SVG fonts and SVG SMIL animation. The SVG working group is considering making SVG fonts optional, as WOFF fonts—which Internet Explorer 9 will support—appear to be the standard that has gained momentum. In a world with widespread WOFF support, SVG fonts are unnecessary. The Mozilla project is taking a similar stance. Acid3
SVG SMIL animation is in a similar situation. There is overlap between SMIL and the CSS3 animation capabilities, and until these specifications have been brought into line and coordinated, the SVG working group believes that it's better that Microsoft avoid implementing the standard to avoid perpetuating a design that's soon to be obsolete." arstechnica.com http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/06/ie9-platform-preview-3-video-audio-canvas-and-fonts-too.ars
Now don't get me wrong, I use Firefox and Chrome as my default browsers, but at least get your facts straight.
I'm not a fan of IE and have always tried to use alternatives, Netscape and Opera in the early days (loved opera's extra mouse navigation before mouse buttons 4+5) and Firefox or Konqueror now. There were few times when IE did seem to be best option though. There was a time that it did just work well, as long you knew what you were doing and didn't load it up with toolbars and didn't just install every activeX applet that was thrown at you. I think it would have been around 5.5-6. IE isn't even an option for me at home now anyway. No more M$ for me thanks to Sabayon Linux. I do however have to use IE at work, which sucks. It's ran through a thin client so it's not that flashest to start off with and my work uses a heap of web portals pretending to be applications for website management, intranet management, accounting and multiple media libraries. A whole heap of things where having a right-click would be handy.
At work we use IE6. No, regrettably that's not a typo. We really do use IE6. Why? Well, I put it down to stupidity. The fact is large parts of our IT infrastructure were designed to work with IE6 back when it was new, and they won't work with anything else. The fact that one day IE6 would be obsolete and it might be better not to restrict our functionality in this way apparently didn't occur to our IT department.
At home I use Firefox.
I use Safari on my Mac at home, no problem there. Here at work we have the choice of Chrome or Firefox, no IE anywhere in sight.
I told Mum to swap to Firefox as soon as she got her new computer, she wasn't happy about the change at first, but now loves it.
Many internet applications only work with (or are warranted to work with) IE. Hence it is pointless using another browser as any faults that appear are unsupported regardless of the correctness of the browser rendering. In fact many apps work around faults in IE and appear wrong in browsers that implement the standards properly. Twisted world huh?
I fell out of love with IE, years ago. I found much favour with Firefox, and it keeps improving, including easily setting Ixquick as the default search engine--not bing or chrome, Ixquick. (check it out). My second choice of browsers, and only by a narrow margin, is Opera. The people at Opera have been extremely good at fixing the bug reports I have sent in, both in Windows and Linux. Firefox has fixed some, too. But I do still have IE on my computer. Why? As a webmaster, I need to see how it renders, and if people tell me they have a problem, I can go and look and see what they see. That's my only reason for keeping IE.
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Also theres those of us forced to use it on work PCs with no choice in the matter. I'd be interested to see the data on browser use if office and business users where factored out!