Okay, first things first we need to clarify that Internet Explorer (commonly known as IE) is a web browser made by Microsoft, and also that it’s currently on it’s 8th major release (i.e. IE8), with IE9 currently in Beta (as I write).
A brief History of Internet Explorer can be found on Wikipedia, which is very interesting reading (sic).
I’ve been designing websites since about 1994 so I’ve used every single version of IE and have seen it take over from the original Mosaic, fight off Netscape and now compete with Firefox as the browser of choice (with IE still accounting for over 60% of all browser usage, depending on which browser usage report you read).
The thing is that 60% is actually made up users of IE6, IE7 and IE8 and that’s where a lot of the problems lie.
IE6 is horrible and should be discontinued as soon as possible. It doesn’t comply with Web Standards making it a pain to develop for (with many developers now just giving up and telling users to upgrade) and more importantly has lots of security issues which are keeping IE’s bad name well and truly alive. Even Google is phasing out support for it as it was responsible for recent security problems.
IE8 is a big step forward, but it’s still not there. Maybe IE9 will finally address the issues, but I somewhat doubt it.
Unfortunately many large organisations still use IE6 and the logistics of extracting it is really slowing down it’s extinction.
Of course a large percentage of the computer users of the world use IE as it’s always been bundled with Microsofts Operating Systems (OS). This explains the market share that IE has traditionally had, but this is changing fast.
Firefox has built up a strong following, initially amongst the development community owing to the way it meets web standards and its use of plugins. This support has spread and it’s now breathing down the neck of IE8.
As someone who builds sites I use IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari (for the PC… I have issues with Macs and their advocates which I’ll save for another Thought), as well as a range of others including mobile clients and accessibility led clients where applicable, so I’m not in that percentage who know one browser and that’s therefore the best.
However, I personally have always tended to use IE as my primary browser as I like to put myself in the shoes of the largest browser audience of the websites I develop.
Now for the first time this ‘loyalty’ is being tested after I was hit recently with a malware attack owing to security flaws in IE8, and by the scope of the pluginsnow on offer with Firefox. In fact probably the only reason I don’t switch immediately is that Firefox takes ages to open on my work PC, and I don’t have the time to figure out why.
So I guess like most of the population (though not my peers) I’m still using IE despite all it’s flaws as it’s convenient and I’m lazy.
However, recently Microsoft has been forced to offer users of it’s operating systems a choice of web browser upon install (OS or updates) and this has seen IE’sgrasp on the market loosen further with browsers like Opera reporting an increase in downloads.
This choice is a huge step forward for browsers and if continued will force improvements in IE. I don’t think it will see the death of it in my opinion as Microsoft is still such an important player in pushing technological advances out to the masses. However, I think people will seriously consider which browser to install when given such an easy choice, and if any of the competition start mass marketing their product to expose their brand to the populous I think a change might well come about.
What browser do you use, and why?
