Group: Internet Explorer share slips below 90 percent

Now if some kind hacker out there would use their knowledge of IE buffer overflow exploits to download & install FireFox on the remaining ~90% of machines still running IE...:D
 
I must say I dislike the fact that Firefox is not always compatible with IE's mutant standards; this forces me to view non-standard sites in IE every now and then. Overall , Firefox is definitely the better user experience. (as a developer though, I loath it :))
 
Yeah sorry to disappoint all you Firefox fanboys but I've had no exploits or spyware in years ;) It's a simple matter of having a firewall and keeping up to date with patches (which is a non-issue with Windows Update). I did try Firefox for a while but prefer Avant.
 
What about themes, the built in tabbed browsing, blocking images from forgien sites (ie not from originating site - not sure if you can do that in ie) and the fact that it is open souce, and that (i think) there have been no viruses aimed at it yet.

Just make life easy - if its the layout install a new theme
 
Avant has tabbed browsing, pop-up and ad blocking, RSS, theme support and all the stuff that Firefox has (that I use anyway) except it's IE based.
 
Actually. Netscape 8 seems promising, though maybe not. What it does is uses both IE/mozilla engines. It uses IE engine for trusted sites like windows update ect. Or you can specify too. And mozilla engine for non-trusted sites. This is a really good solution.

However.

I hate the AOL advertising that goes with that browser. Ads that appear in the browser (ie. not webpages, like the free opera).
 
Skint said:
Hmm, FireFox is the only browser that supports CSS3, well.. so far.. SO BAH! :P And btw, FireFox v1.0.4 has been released, www.mozilla.org
Click to expand...

That's the current problem with Firefox, they issue a new release every month and you have to basically re-install. The average user will quickly become frustrated with this so they need to implement auto-updating.
 
Perdition said:
Avant has tabbed browsing, pop-up and ad blocking, RSS, theme support and all the stuff that Firefox has (that I use anyway) except it's IE based.
Click to expand...

Cool, a Flash filter. I hate Flash, downloading... :D
 
Please don't knock flash - it has some excellent uses !

Firefox to me is more of a lifestyle choice than anything.
I sent mozilla a donation and got myself a funky mozilla tshirt.

The reason I like them is because I like the underdog - the dedicated team of people willing to work thier asses off for the good of the common netizen - that really means something to me.

While microsoft can throw millions at R&D, here we have some renegade OS enthusiasts creating a browser from the ashes of Netscape and succeeding.

I have always felt that people who are incredibly microsoft-centric are missing out on the general joy of computing in general.

Using firefox feels like your part of some great club of computer lovers.
Using iexplore feels like nothing at all - everyone uses it - boring.

iexplore = 60meg download
firefox = 5meg download

avant ? - sorry, that's not a browser, it's a skin with some nifty features.

iexplore = runs on two operating systems (within reason - support for Mac has been dropped)
firefox = runs on multiple operating systems and embraces web standards.

Those are my reasons ! :D
 
I use XP as my OS so IE is integrated, makes the size issue moot as I don't have to download it. Avant is a just over a meg and you're right it is a skin but adds all the features that IE users were missing.

I use a web browser more than any other app so I need it to do what I want with minimal fuss. Basically I use the most efficient tools to get my work done, open source or not and Avant suited me better than Firefox. While computing is my main hobby (since I was 6) I don't have time to fight with software for the sake of being "part of the club" :)
 
That's the current problem with Firefox, they issue a new release every month and you have to basically re-install. The average user will quickly become frustrated with this so they need to implement auto-updating.
Click to expand...

Well, I really don't mind downloading new versions of FireFox everytime its released, actually.. I can't wait to download them. FireFox is, in so many ways, better than IE. Well, for me anyways. For example, www.deviantart.com ... theres a CSS 'hack' that you can use to change the skin of deviantart, by changing the content of userContent.css, its insane.. I love it, but guess what... it doesn't work in IE :P And don't forget the -moz-border-radius... Mozilla's own 'version' of the border-radius which we will be seeing in CSS3 (Whenever that is...). Though it only works for people using FireFox, it still looks good :D
 
Perdition said:
I use XP as my OS so IE is integrated, makes the size issue moot as I don't have to download it. Avant is a just over a meg and you're right it is a skin but adds all the features that IE users were missing.

I use a web browser more than any other app so I need it to do what I want with minimal fuss. Basically I use the most efficient tools to get my work done, open source or not and Avant suited me better than Firefox. While computing is my main hobby (since I was 6) I don't have time to fight with software for the sake of being "part of the club" :)
Click to expand...

It's more than that and I'm sorry you don't see it that way.

I've been into computers since age 11 (1979) and to me, having seen the changes over the years, firefox or rather the mozilla foundation represents something very profound.

Microsoft have been infinitely profound during thier development, as have Apple, IBM and Sun.

Yes - in the final analysis, a computer is a tool and you use the tools best suited to yourself to complete your tasks, but there's something to be said for the manufacturers of those tools.

In the case of microsoft, they've been pretty damn nasty in thier wheelings and dealings to get where they are today.

The day that iexplore 4.0 was released was a milestone - I resisted the changeover for a good 6 months from my trusty Netscape 4.0, until I realised that iexplore was better and made the switch.

Some years later, I've made the switch to firefox for the same reason - it's better. I took over 1 year to make the switch.

Firefox is so much better than iexplore, it's hard to explain unless you give it a chance.
 
I was also in the Netscape camp, used it since version 1.0 until version 4.0 like you but also realised at that point that IE was much better and reluctantly made the switch.

Firefox is better than vanilla IE, I don't deny that, but when there's an IE based browser that has all the features of Firefox (that I use) then the choice isn't so clear. I prefer an IE based browser purely because practically ALL webpages support it. You can argue until you're blue about W3C standards and bad webmasters not supporting them but at the end of the day you can't force them to change overnight, so until the day I don't have to worry about websites rendering correctly I'll stick with the browser that works.

Believe me I did give Firefox a chance but just prefer Avant. I have nothing against Firefox (though irritating fanboys are another issue ;), not you but some) and in fact support it as it forces MS to wake up and catch up.
 
Perdition - it has to do with web standards too.

Mozilla is a proponent of web standards, microsoft is not.

What web standards means is simply that content should be viewable across the widest audience possible.

Microsoft want to control this.

Open source says NO ! - you MUST NOT control it and create a closed loop.
A 1984 orwellian loop.

But now I go too far ... :D
 
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