IE vs. Firefox
When I told my geeky friends that I'm starting a technology blog, they laughed. I was asked, how could I write about technology when I yell at technology. Good point. I do yell at electronic devices. I told them the blog was going to be my place to vent my frustration.
I'm involved in a web project called TheThunderbird. An online magazine at the UBC School of Journalism. When the website was being developed, it looked fine because it was lacking content.
When we started to plug-in content to various fields, it looked perfect on a Mac, but the moment we tested the page on a PC, it was "sick." It looks fine on Firefox and even Safari, but it looks broken on Internet Explorer. Who uses IE anyway?
Microsoft's IE has been and still is (unfortunately) the standard for internet users. But, web browsing as we know it has reached a tipping point in the '90s when IE had some serious competition - from the makers of Mozilla - Firefox 2. And today it's not only getting the attention from the geeky set.
Internet users have been switching from IE after several security problems emerged with IE. Microsoft issued patches to fix the problem, but bandaids are temporary solutions not permanent fixes.
Firefox on the other hand is lauded by its fans for its download speed and superior user interface. It has a great pop-up blocker and tabbed browsing, which IE does as well with it's version 7.
Unfortunately, the biggest downfall is that IE comes with Windows therefore people generally resort to what's already there. Also, most websites are built using IE and don't show up properly on Firefox.
I think it's time we stop using IE and move to Firefox. Developers are switching to Firefox and maybe IE's dominance will soon be short lived.
I'm involved in a web project called TheThunderbird. An online magazine at the UBC School of Journalism. When the website was being developed, it looked fine because it was lacking content.
When we started to plug-in content to various fields, it looked perfect on a Mac, but the moment we tested the page on a PC, it was "sick." It looks fine on Firefox and even Safari, but it looks broken on Internet Explorer. Who uses IE anyway?
Microsoft's IE has been and still is (unfortunately) the standard for internet users. But, web browsing as we know it has reached a tipping point in the '90s when IE had some serious competition - from the makers of Mozilla - Firefox 2. And today it's not only getting the attention from the geeky set.
Internet users have been switching from IE after several security problems emerged with IE. Microsoft issued patches to fix the problem, but bandaids are temporary solutions not permanent fixes.
Firefox on the other hand is lauded by its fans for its download speed and superior user interface. It has a great pop-up blocker and tabbed browsing, which IE does as well with it's version 7.
Unfortunately, the biggest downfall is that IE comes with Windows therefore people generally resort to what's already there. Also, most websites are built using IE and don't show up properly on Firefox.
I think it's time we stop using IE and move to Firefox. Developers are switching to Firefox and maybe IE's dominance will soon be short lived.
posted by Anna Kat at 7:53 PM
2 Comments:
According to the W3Counter - a web stats toy - 25 per cent of people worldwide are using Firefox to browse the internet. This stat comes from December 2006. And it's exciting. Maybe it's because more and more people recognize that IE is a bad idea for life. Maybe it's because web developers urge people to switch to Firefox because they're tired of patching their CSS for the horror of a browser that comes with Windows. Maybe it's because internet geeks burn incense and pray to the gods. Whatever the reasons, let's continue to tout the good.
Safari and IE don't even allow one to edit blogs or websites using content management programs the easy way. With Safari and IE you actually have to know code...who knows that? I can't believe I used anything but Firefox before.
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