Topic: What Internet Browser do you use?

@V

It is just a browser, but what might be minor differences to the end user are the flip-side of enormous differences in efficiency and costs for developers. It's not even that IE8 is so bad, because they've finally gotten close to a standards-compliant model with this release; the real problem is that Microsoft does nothing to force browser updates, when they should be regarded as being every bit as critical as security patches, and completely mandatory.

Unbelievable numbers of people are still using IE7 or, horrendously worse, IE6, a browser which was made when the technologies on the web barely resembled what they have become today. With so many users still stuck on these problematic older versions and surfing all over the web, developers have to waste hours making their sites compatible, which really means going through a long series of fixes and adjustments, and sometimes doing away with fancier UI elements entirely due to the pain it would be to make them work correctly on old software. Thankfully, other software giants are forcing the change where Microsoft won't; Google, for instance, has officially phased out IE6 for some of its sites, including YouTube. They should ideally go ahead and completely bar IE7 as well, but then they'd have to enter into a whole world of helping clueless users figure out how to update.

WW, you have to remember that there are entire populations and user communities that are unable, or whose machines are either not capable or authorized to update to new software. You might be surprised to learn how many in the international scientific community performing nuclear research are doing so on extremely outdated hardware.

Simply forcing an update to global browsing requirements is not an option. However, I've seen multiple updates to IE8 come across my automatic update alert. And, as it should be, installing those updates is up to the recipient.

If there were really a web-wide swell for an update - say like Facebook making a change that is not compatible with previous versions of IE - then I'd think you'd see more action on Microsoft's part, and angry mobs with torches and pitchforks gathering in Redmond.

That's somewhat fair, but they could still move to a model much closer to that of Firefox, where the browser itself automatically downloads the latest version while you're online, subsequently installing it the next time you restart the program. On the matter of old equipment, I'd actually expect those users to choose something ultra-lightweight and low on resources like Opera.

WW, but they can't do that. Many communities, such as those physicists I mention, work in secure facilities on what are referred to as "trusted platforms." Such platforms are comprised of specific blends of hardware and software that go through months - sometimes years - of rigorous certification. Ad hoc updates are not an option.

Walk it back a bit, too... HUGE populations in the corporate world are locked down to similar degree. IT departments can't blindly trust that such updates will work with their suite of software. They need to be tested and approved before company-wide release.

I'm just saying, there are many many considerations to take into account prior to compelling entire user communities to update such a vital component of the modern computing environment.

Yeah I'm kidding when I say boycott IE. Besides, the idea of boycotting free software is mind-boggling.
But IE is development hell. I need to add so many try..catch blocks just so that my code works across browsers.
It's always:
try { //Firefox, Chrome, Opera
some code;
} catch (e) { //Internet Explorer
some other code;
}

I recall getting an update for IE8 on Windows Update. There really isn't much reason to keep support for IE6, they should have been working on getting IE7 working on the platform(s) when IE7 came out, even if it took this long, they should have it working by now. If IE7 is an issue, you definitely have a long overdue upgrade coming.

Walk it back a bit, too... HUGE populations in the corporate world are locked down to similar degree. IT departments can't blindly trust that such updates will work with their suite of software. They need to be tested and approved before company-wide release.

Yet another instance of the problems I've always had with IT departments (primarily in higher education, my domain). They are certainly charged with security on such a level that caution is appreciated, but they tend to slow down progress to a painful degree, relying far too much on somewhat outdated models of support whereby everything depends upon trusted vendors and glacially slow authorization. In some areas of tech, that still makes a lot of sense, but in others--particularly the web--it just doesn't match well with the way things are changing now. Most of the innovative web development at universities is coming from offices outside IT that are bold enough to build their own systems out of open source languages and frameworks, with no vendor to rely on whatsoever. That's frightening to IT, but can be done very responsibly if you have good programmers on staff and know how to manage the process yourself. Hence the rise of "instructional design" and related departments at universities that run tech projects outside IT's structure, because faculty start seeing what other universities are accomplishing online and realize their IT department isn't going to be any help.

Anyhow, I don't pretend to be unbiased on this, and I'm happy not to be burdened with the kind of legacy support and security issues that IT depts have to wrestle with daily.

I use Safari on my Mac, because it's simple and does what I want it to do...surf the web. I don't really do much with the customization and addons. When I use a Windows machine, I always use firefox if available. It's faster (unless you have lots of add ons) and much more secure, which is crucial for windows machines. I'd have to run Adaware or Spybot around every week instead of every day using firefox. I don't go on particularly virus/spyware prone sites too. Just connecting to the internet gets you some sort of Adware though with IE. Since it's so integrated with the operating system it's also really easy for trojans to bury themselves in there in a way that makes them nearly impossible to remove, even with antivirus software.

Seriously, if you guys are having trouble with firefox, you're probably running a much older machine or are on a crappy network. I don't see how IE is working better for you, unless you're using an older version.

I don't have this problem with IE.

I've always used Firefox, and tried Chrome out a bit but with upgrading to W7 and buying a good virus scanner I just said it and stayed with the new IE. It's really not as bad as I've thought in the past, the internet protection suite I got(which includes the virus scanned previously mentioned) haven't picked up anything malicious yet and there's been a couple months now since I made the transition back to IE.

So you really can't go wrong with any of the browsers, but had you asked me this few months ago i'd say stay away from IE.

Lynx.

8)

Safari. You mac users know what I am talking about. Safari is the mac`s "internet explorer". I could use firefox, but safari is fast and good enough for me.

I hear you can get something on Firefox to download audio from YouTube videos; is that true? If so, I might make the switch, because there are a lot of things I need to listen to for my voice lessons that would be nice to have on hand.

Yep. I use it sometimes, actually.

FireFox, it works fine for me. Internet Explorer sucks.

Well, everyone has their own preference.
Personally, I think Internet Explorer is superior, although Mozilla FireFox (from what I've used so far) isn't so bad.

Well, I'm no longer using Opera. I just changed to Firefox, and they have made a few updates since the last time I used it, and it seems to be much, much better. I no longer hate Firefox.

i use safari.