You may or may not have heard me moaning and complaining about Internet Explorer (IE) when it comes to web development. IE is the default web browser that comes with Microsoft Windows. About half of you are using IE to view this post. If you don’t know what you are using to view this post, then it is probably IE. There are several versions of IE that are still in use, from version 5 to version 8 which is still in beta. Most people use 6 or 7 with the majority using 7. Version 7 is the default version in Windows Vista, version 6 is the default in Windows XP, and version 5 is the default in Windows 2000.
The reason I moan and complain about IE is that it’s a hot mess of rendering bugs, specifically IE6 which is still used by a large number of people. It was written about 8 years ago when the web was very different. Now there are all sorts of new technologies and standards, but IE6 doesn’t support many of them, and never will. You see, when IE6 was released Microsoft essentially had a monopoly on the browser industry. About 95% of internet users used IE, so they decided they didn’t need to devote any time or money to making it better. They let it languish for about 6 years, an eternity in the software business. While it was languishing, new technologies and standards were developed and new browsers started popping up that were more compliant with the new standards.
Finally, after losing about 15% of their market share, Microsoft decided to release a new IE, IE7. IE7 is much better than IE6 as far as standards compliance, but it still has some of the same bugs. Previous to IE7, developers had used special hacks to make their web pages work in IE6, but now those hacks no longer worked. This was fine except that some of the bugs that the hacks fixed were still in IE7. Now new hacks had to be developed just for IE7. What a pain in my ass!
So now whenever I am developing a new theme for my site, I have to look at IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox, Opera, and Safari to make sure everything is rendering correctly. Thankfully Firefox, Safari, Opera, and IE8 render everything about the same and I only have to really worry about IE6 and to a much lesser extent IE7 and to an even lesser extent Firefox Mac (which doesn’t render the same as Firefox for Windows or Linux for some strange reason) when it comes to rendering bugs.
That’s the problem, now you can be part of the solution! The best thing to do is to download the latest version of Firefox or Opera immediately. Both of these browsers work great, are quick, and work on the three major platforms (Windows, Linux, and Mac). Mac users can also use any browser based on Webkit (like Safari or Omniweb) or Camino which is based on the same rendering engine as Firefox. If you are on a Mac and still using IE/Mac, remember that it’s down the street, not across the road. If you are a Linux user, you should already know what you are doing and should be using a modern browser.
And now for you Windows users. If you are using a version of Windows prior to 98, you need to take that computer to a recycling center and buy a new one. Pay someone to haul it away if you have to. If you are using Netscape, stop… just stop. If you are using Windows 98, Windows ME, or Windows 2000, you should be able to "upgrade" to IE6 at the very least. To be honest, if you are using one of these operating systems, you should just go ahead and send your computer to the recycling center as well if you can’t get a copy of XP or Vista (or some version of Linux). If you are using XP or Vista you should be using Firefox or IE7 or 8. If you are viewing this on IE6 on XP and cannot upgrade, that means you are viewing this from work and your boss just called and told me to tell you to STOP SURFING THE WEB AND GET BACK TO WORK!
April 11th, 2008 at 11:33 am
I think there are now fixes for it, but what do you think about the Firefox memory issue?
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/apps/story/0,10801,111065,00.html
Jason has now decided that he prefers IE7 to Firefox because of this…
April 11th, 2008 at 11:50 am
That is an old article about Firefox 1.5. The current version as of this writing is 2.0.0.13 and Firefox 3 is just around the corner. FF2 solved many of the FF1.5 memory issues and FF3 will have less of a memory footprint than IE. That’s quite a feat considering IE’s advantage of being part of the OS.
The main problem that most people have with FF memory leaks is not a result of FF at all, but the addons they have installed. Many addons are created by individual developers without rigorous testing. Some addons are created by people with limited programming experience and they don’t know how to protect against memory leaks.
Oh, and Jason is a notorious Microsoft fanboy and apologist. I’d take everything he says with a grain of salt.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I have been misrepresented! I use IE7 only when visiting sites where certain ActiveX controls are required; I hate MS’s habit of mucking about with “standards” as much as you do. As usual, Melissa only half-listens to what I say; I mention memory leaks because she likes to leave FF open all the time with 50 tabs open and then bitches because the computer seems sluggish. I don’t know where she got that article, but it wasn’t from me. The point isn’t “is it the browser or the addon”, the point is the problem can be solved by just closing the browser! And yes, FF3 seems to solve most of those problems, but it’s still in beta.
And just because I don’t hate MS with the same vehemence as many computer nerds hardly makes me a fanboy!
April 12th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Good point about leaving FF open all the time. I almost mentioned that closing FF is a good solution for memory leaks, but then I remembered how much those sorts of “workarounds” piss me off.
It kinda boils down to knowing the limits of your system and software. FF can be open for days on end with only a few tabs, but if you have more than 10 or 12 open, you’re going to start seeing a decline in performance.
And what sites are you going to that still require Active X? I haven’t seen one in a couple of years. Only South Koreans should be having to deal with Active X.