IMHO, Geeks don’t cotton to thinking of themselves as borg pawns.
geeks think?
Now that FireFox has become such a bloated hog (currently running 201,000k for me right now), I’m more than willing to go to IE9 if they make it good.
Chrome is simple too sparse, but I use it as the default. Opera is too “busy”.
This article misses the big reason geeks hate IE - the “ActiveX” framework that lets someone fritz with your system files via the browser.
Firefox is what I have used for several years now. The two reasons: Tabs, which I use CONSTANTLY, and security. Because Firefox is not integrated with windows, even if you fully exploit it there are only so many places a hacker can go. It is like IE has the keys to the building, so once you get him, you have it all. Firefox just doesn’t have as much power. Even if it gives you it’s keys to it’s parts of the building, there is only so much malicious stuff you can do.
I still stick with Firefox because with the right combo of addons (Adblock, Greasemonkey and NoScript in my case) I can strip down every webpage to just what I want to see, and never have to look at a distracting and bandwidth hogging graphic, ad, or animation unless I -want- to.
I don’t have time to read the whole article right now but I just want to chime in with a new reason to hate IE:
IE 8 has some pop-up when you start it (I don’t have it now and I don’t remember exactly what it says) that implies that you should get IE 8 now (even though you already have it!!!) and the only choices are DO IT NOW and REMIND ME LATER.
I mostly use Chrome and Firefox so I run into this infrequently (on other people’s computers) but it is highly, highly, highly irritating, as so much of MS can be.
My helper is a handful!
This is a hoot, thanks!
I’d only add that many of us were FORCED to use IE and only IE by corporate “preventers of information technology” who had bought into the Microsoft mythology hook line and sinker, and were more than anxious to express our defiance in whatever ways we could, including running other browsers at home, and I daresay, even installing them on our work computers - what audacity!
IE7 had the same problems Office 2007 and Windows Vista has,
They took a simple and easy to use interface and moved/hid everything leaving you to spend hours trying to hunt down simple functions that were easily found in previous versions.
FireFox with the NoScript plugin is the way to go. It keeps you from experiencing the internet version of “grab your ankles, hold my beer, and watch this.”
I always say nothing makes the current version of IE look good quite like the next 2 versions. Every version of IE has been a pain, ugly, slow, piggish, tons of annoying “security” features that mostly stop you from browsing but never seem to slow down the malware. And MS has maintained the remarkable streak of always making the next version worse in every category. So the IE6 you fought hard to avoid when it came out becomes the IE6 you’re desperately protecting from automatic updates now that 8 is out. And in a few years you’ll be guarding against the evils of 10.
I started out with Netscape [dial up days]. It was ok, until around version 4.7. Then it became a nightmare and crashed on many websites.
IE4 and 5 were just getting started.
About the time I found FR, I also found a web browser [Fastbrowser Pro] that was IE6 based and had tabs. I still use it for FR, because it has some add-on features that later IE versions do not support.
I also found Firefox and stated using it around version 0.7. It was okay and the extensions/add-ons were nice, but it sucked up memory.
I tried IE7 and immediately deleted it, because it lacked many features. I also tried Google Chrome and deleted it for the same reason.
I am still on XP sp2. I still use Fastbrowser Pro for FR and Firefox 3.6.3. Some versions/upgrades of Firefox have been monsters, destroying profiles and files. When I use Fastbrowser Pro to look at Youtube videos, Youtube gives me a warning that the browser is out of date — but the videos still load, so I keep using Fastbrowser Pro.
I tried a later version of Chrome. It was faster than Firefox, but doesn’t have comparable extensions/add-ons that Firefox has.
One program that I use has already warned me not to use it with IE9, as IE9 will corrupt its files.
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I keep thinking about a new computer with Win7, but so far, for home use, I haven’t been able to justify the cost vs home use.
Cause it sucks? Because in an attempt to stave off monopoly accusations, MicroShaft knitted it so closely into Windows that it probably has the access to do more damage than a third party browser? Cause it's sort of the AOL of browsers?
I tried going back to IE, because I am running a 64 bit OS, and thought I’d like a complete 64 bit brower.
Yuck.
Ditto to a number of the points people raised. Iam going to raise one more small but important (for me point).
I go to NUMEROUS websites that have usernames and passwords. Sometimes I have to guess at one or the other (was the user name an e-mail address or not? Did I have to capitalize the password?)
Anyway, when I make my best guess, Firefox submits the entry, while asking if I want it to remember. If it loads properly, I say YES. IE will not submit the entry UNTIL I tell it if I want it to remember. If I say YES and I’m wrong, I have to go through it again, with IE auto-entering the wrong info. I hate that.
I’ve never used IE as my regular browser. I went from Mosaic straight to Netscape Navigator.
Geeks are logical. Being asked to support inferior crap is illogical.
As stated above, American geeks in particular; are a recalcitrant lot, and we won’t stand for illogical direction for very long.
We’ll always find another way.
“It’s common knowledge that almost every single geek hates Internet Explorer with a passion”
Maybe geeks do, but professionals don’t.