We might see IE7 before longhorn [Archive]

ADAM Web Design

08-10-2004, 01:47 AM

I wouldn't be surprised to see this happen, but I don't expect to see it anytime soon either.

What people fail to realize is that the most common group of people migrating from IE to Firefox et. al are the technically-minded (and although I'm technically minded, I loathe Firefox so I don't consider myself in that group). And just because the techies do things doesn't mean the rest of the world is going to follow. Many of the features in Firefox are useless and bloated, and the average user isn't going to want them.

Think about a power drill. If some handyman used the new Black and Decker drill and talked about how wonderful it was, would everyone rush out and buy the drill? Probably not, since the handyman's sphere of influence would likely be...well, other handymen. While they might go out and buy the drill, the market share would not be significantly impacted in the short run because they're not telling non-handymen about the benefits they'd receive from using the drill.

The same concept applies to a browser. Just because I like one browser over another doesn't mean I can influence everyone under the sun to use it.

The issues most people bring up with browsers, IMHO, are ludicrous.

"Oh my god, there is so much spyware and so many viruses and security threats out there that attack IE."
1) People need to pay attention to what they're doing, do security updates and all that stuff.
2) MS is one of those companies that is often targeted just because they're big by anti-corporate types looking to take down a major business entity.
3) Security holes exist in everything. There is no such thing as "true security." MS at least is really good about fixing those holes.

"IE doesn't handle CSS properly." First of all, who defined properly? The W3C. And has anyone ever really looked at their site? It's hideous. It may be "proper" but it's a damn eyesore. I'm not the best graphic designer myself, but even I can do better than that.

This doesn't even take into account the errors other browsers have with certain CSS properties: "width: 100%" for a hyperlink comes to mind with Firefox, as does the "xx-small" font size, to name but a few.

So I'm gonna stick with IE even if they don't upgrade. For all of its flaws, I think it's the better product. And I don't see them doing anything to respond to Firefox any time soon either.

Easywebdev

08-10-2004, 05:10 AM

When the US government starts advising people not to use IE then you can be damned sure Microsoft are going to do something about it and quick.

Adam I'm not entirely sure I agree with you on the css standards issue. I feel there needs to be a set standard but as you say "who says so?". Microsoft are under no obligation to make IE compliant with anything unless they want to but as a designer I REALLY hope they do.

As to Firefox, welll let's just agree to differ on that as I can't for the life of me think how you came to the conclusion that it's inferior to IE.