I stopped using Internet Explorer in favour of Firefox some time ago, not because I hate everything to do with Microsoft – I’m writing this post on machine running Windows XP, and still do a lot of work developing solutions using Microsoft technologies – but because Firefox is a better browser. Internet Explorer always seems old fashioned and clunky when I use it now, I like my tabbed browsing and handy add on toolbars; the fact that sites that use web standards display as their designers intend them and the lessened threat from virus infection.
“Why you should dump Internet Explorer” is written by an MCSE, making it a refreshing change from articles that simply bash Microsoft, and putting forward a good case for switching to another browser. Then you could always download the new release of Firefox and give it a whirl.
One Comment
You mentioned two reasons for moving to Firefox..
Firstly, the toolbars. Did you know that Google have developed a brilliant addin for IE (only), called the Google Toolbar. Firstly, it blocks popups and secondly it integrates perfectly with the search engine. When you type in search terms into the toolbar and press enter, the search will be run and the search terms will become buttons on the Google Toolbar. You just have to click on them to find where they occur within the page. Plus, the toolbar has a form auto-filler and displays the Google page-rank of the current page.
As for tabbed browsing, I have used this in Mozilla and Opera, comparing it to running several IE instances, listed on a vertically-docked start-bar. I prefer IE’s “tabbed browsing” experience. For me it works just as well, and you can potentially arrange several browsers on one screen. Also, the browser is well supported by the OS, it loads in a jiffy. I don’t find that the taskbar gets cluttered.
As for sites using web standards and being displayed correctly, what about all the sites that were coded for IE? I have a hunch there are more sites out there that render “as the designer intended” when browsing with Internet Explorer