Internet Explorer Usage Drops to less than 50%

[dude]

We all knew it was gonna happen... IE popularity ratiing, however, is still greater than that of Congress.

Read it HERE.

[Chris James]

Interesting. I still use IE to get here, old habits I suppose. But I have had a rough time with Firefox in the past, including a load of viruses passed along cheerfully. I have strengthened my protection but until IE really F's me up I will probably stay with it.

[eric312]

I got tired of IE a long time ago. It took forever for a page to load and it would freeze up all the time. I switched to Firefox and have had no problems since.

[Cole Parker]

I keep hearing that, Eric, from people who know a lot more about this than I do. So, I loaded Firefox. I've used both it and IE. Firefox is OK, but I prefer IE. I suppose what your use it for determines which system is best for you.

C

[Merkin]

I'm with you, Cole. Better the devil I know than the devil I don't. Of course I was among the last to give up on my Beta video recorder and my Laserdisc player.

James

[blue]

I use Firefox, and lately, sometimes Safari. Google Chrome is making progress. I dislike Internet Explorer.

When I do web pages, I have to work around IE's non-standard ways. They have been lagging behind on web standards for years, and they have so far not done a lot on upcoming standards, some of which are admittedly experimental, but are being supported in the other major browsers. I don't know when they *will* support the new standards. If IE would support the standards, web developers could concentrate on more important things.

[Bruin Fisher]

I didn't realise we were giving succour to a coven of Luddites...

As Ben says, IE is horrid. Firefox, or Chrome, or Opera, or if you use a Mac then Safari, anything but IE.

Take a moment to think, those of you who prefer IE, why you prefer it. Isn't it because it's the one you learned first? You had no choice when you first used a web browser, you had to learn how to use it. Now, when you try another, say Firefox for instance, you find it initially unfamiliar, foreign. So you go back to IE. Wrong move - give it a fair crack of the whip - stick with it long enought to become thoroughly familiar with it, discover the features that are better than IE. Also, a lesson in rendering engines might convince you: the web was designed to be universal - not dependant on particular hardware or software. Web pages were to be written to an open standard and browsers could support that standard so that a page would look the same no matter what browser you use to view it. Many years ago, however, Microsoft decided they knew better and veered off from the standard, implementing a set of 'extensions' of their own, and wrote IE to support those extensions. Now web designers had to design pages either to look right in IE or to look right in any of the standards compliant browsers, but not both. Microsoft thought they had such a commanding presence that everyone would fall into line with their proprietary extensions, but that isn't what happened. IE became a pariah in the web design community and in some cases designers had to write two versions of their sites, one to work in IE and one to work everywhere else. Add to that the fact that IE was full of security holes so that malware could infiltrate an IE user's computer and do damage or leak his personal information and you see why techies hate IE. To be fair, MS have worked long and diligently over the years to improve matters, and IE is far less colander-like than it once was, and also it supports the HTML5 standards (mostly) but it's still not as good as the rivals. Nowhere near as good. And they all have a history of being standards-compliant, playing nice with other people, and security-conscious, preventing malware getting a hold of your delicate bits. In the light of all of the above, it's interesting that IE use has only now fallen to 50% - for a long time until quite recently it was up in the 85-90%. This, of course, is because it comes with Windows and the average user sticks with what he has. Now in at least some markets Microsoft has to incorporate an offer to install another browser as part of the first-time setup, and maybe that's had an effect on the statistic.

I can be dogmatic with the doggiest matics!

[Merkin]

Three Luds is hardly a coven, but we'll take all the succour we can get.

[Cole Parker]

Note that we Luddites are the ancients among us. Live long and prosper.

C

[Gee Whillickers]

Bruin's right.

IE is a horrendously written, insecure, non-standards-compliant, slow, cludgy, pig of a browser. True, it's far better than it used to be. But MS only caved in recently and because they had little choice. The latest version kind of works. Sort of. In a way. And only grudgingly and only because MS finally felt their hand was forced. Now, IE is only a distance third or fourth in useful browsers, instead of actually off the list entirely.

Now, IE is merely ridiculously slow to render, only semi-non-compliant, and only hijacks your searches and input some of the time, provided you ensure your settings are correct.

Really, listen to him. It's like trying to get a friend who still uses a corded dial phone or a TV with no remote control and a dial to change channels to try something new. They say they like the old one. They say it works for them, that it's all they need. Then, if you can actually get them to try the new one long enough to see its advantages, they wonder why, and how, they could ever stand that old piece of junk.

I mostly use Chrome these days, though Firefox is still installed and I use it sometimes too. Either of these, if you're on windows, is far and away superior to IE. More secure, far faster, far easier to customize with add-ons to make it do what you want, and much, much more standards compliant to ensure web pages show up on your screen the way the webmaster intended, rather than the way Microsoft thinks would be best for their bottom line.

Internet Explorer really, really, really sucks. Really.

Don't use it.

[Camy]

It's horses for courses and a personal thing. If you're used to using IE then don't pay attention to anyone else. It's like having that elecrikery thing fitted. Me, I won't have it in the house. There's nowt wrong with gas. And wind power's free with beans.

Umm.

[Bruin Fisher]

What am I like - accusing others of being Luddites, when we have a shiny new and very lovely e-book of our very own work available at a bargain price right here on AD - but I like so many others are hanging on for the 'old-fashioned' paper version which will appear 'real soon now'. We all like things the way they always used to be, methinks. Britain has been metric for weights and measures for nearly forty years now, but I was in a shop this afternoon to buy screws and they were sized 1”, 1½”, 2” etc.

Luddites of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your comfort zone!

[Cole Parker]

I still say, I've used both Firefox and IE, I have both installed on my computer, and for what I do, IE is better.

I also got support from Merkin on this, and as my respect for him has no bounds, then I'm justified in my opinion. Furthermore, if I needed a furthermore, Colin, who knows more about computeres that all of us put together, also uses IE. So there!

C

[Bruin Fisher]

Ah, but Colin only uses IE as a penance for being younger and more handsome than the rest of us...

[Cole Parker]

I don't know about that handsome part. I've heard he has warts on his nose.

C

[The Pecman]

I'm with you, Cole. Better the devil I know than the devil I don't. Of course I was among the last to give up on my Beta video recorder and my Laserdisc player.

No, that was me! :)

(A loyal Macaholic and Safari user.)

[Bruin Fisher]

I don't know about that handsome part. I've heard he has warts on his nose.

C

Your hearing's not what it was, Cole. He has noughts on his hose - little embroidered symbols up the sides of the tights he wears to play Romeo in his school's production. Very fetching he looks in the skin-tight garment too. He's got a lovely b***, you know!

[Lugnutz]

[Merkin]

Eh? You say Colin either wears shorts or no clothes?

[Lugnutz]

I don't see a problem there.

[Bruin Fisher]

Nor me

[colinian]

Sometimes Cole gets his tongue in front of his eye teeth and it blurs his vision. Or it's his overactive imagination. Whichever.

Colin

[Camy]

Opera's good.