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Should Microsoft drop IE ?

IE thumbnail image

The introduction of IE 7 Beta has me thinking that Microsoft should get out of the Browser business.

I'm sure MS can provide a comprehensive list of strategic reasons to continue yet as a user I can't think of any beyond browsing their Operating System.

Why dump it?...

  • Operating System version snobbery continues.
  • Incriminating me too catch up to competitors and standards.
  • Adding another level of complexity to web design.

Why not just concentrate on building a strong secure Operating System that ships with, or links to a range of fine standalone Web Browsers?

IE for Mac died without a ripple, so why not IE for Windows.

The latest flurry of activity can only be seen as reaction to lost market share and reputation. Many may say better late than never while I ask, why even bother ?

01 August 05 in : News and Resources, Browsers

13 comments

Comment by James on 01 August 05 @ 20:53
I think in many ways you're right John, I only use IE to test sites in rather than a personal choice of browser. Even my parents use Firefox these days!

MS do seem in many ways to be spreading their reach a bit too far and possibly dropping something big might work in their favour?

We'll see I guess but I'm not holding my breath and will d/l IE7 when it's available.
Comment by Anunnaki on 03 August 05 @ 23:39
you see, microsoft is not about creating good things for the rest of us.

Bill Gates never wanted to do anything, nor had he ever interest in having a mission, or something equal esoteric :P

It is about getting rich and powerful.

(On the other hand, if Apple was only trying to get rich or powerful, they'd do business differently than they do, now wouldn't they)
Comment by Christain on 04 August 05 @ 06:30
I just want to tell you that since yesterday I have not been able to see your website with IE at all ... Isn't that ironic?
Comment by John on 04 August 05 @ 08:54 Email
Yes, just woke up to that little surprise myself..

!!!
Comment by John on 04 August 05 @ 09:20 Email
It seems to be related to Adsense or Google in some way.!!
1. Google can't be accessed at all right now
2. Remove the Adsense Ad and all's Ok

Ok, now Google is back "online" the IE error no longer occurs.

The conspiracy theory has been busted
Comment by Christian on 05 August 05 @ 05:10
:-)
Comment by Lachlan McDonald on 07 August 05 @ 00:29
Microsoft shouldn't have released another version of thier browser until they have made something that actually stands up to todays competition.

This release only complicates things further. Designers and Developers suffer as a result.
Comment by John Pierre Delizo on 10 August 05 @ 10:10
While microsoft is continuing this snobish type of business, here in the philippines users became more aware thanks to the opensource community who are contineously doin a great effort in promoting software like the best browser we encountered here, firefox, many thanks to the developers. Internet Cafes are booming here, most of them run Windows but personally its not their choice, most games run on windows but if they have a choice, they would rather not use windows and the crashey IE. As we intro other way than the microsoft way, computing life seems more uncomplicated and very easy, its very tedeous using their products. Like IE. I say my vote, Dump em (IE) and they must divert their attention to making the OS more stable!
Comment by Mike on 09 November 05 @ 09:26
Just because you "think" doesnt mean its intelligent. Microsoft can do whatever they want to do and, trust me, if the sun blows to pieces then Microsoft AND President Bush would both be blamed before the 8 minutes this planet had left were up.

Stop the whining PLEASE.
Comment by Mike on 09 November 05 @ 12:24
people like John Pierre Delizo are dangerous because they spew their written vomit in such ways that those who are even less educated (if you could imagine) actually believe him.

first, fireflops stinks. when SCROLLBARS do not appear when content dictates they should - that sucks. when the entire content shifts left - then right - then left again as the page is rendered, that sucks. when they've got a darn good number of hackings against them, well, that sucks. see, software is software and it does NOT matter what "name" is on it (i.e. Microsoft or Firefox or Apple or Linux). It WILL be exploited. Code is developed by HUMANS and if you are going to even try to suggest that the humans coding Firefox are not capable of developing exploitable code, then you're really too far off your rocker to be saved.

Oh, show me the guy who has the gun to the heads of all these people who are running Windows - but "its not their choice". They can buy or download any of the shoddy star-nix operating systems they want to and run them instead and no one would give a damn.

Bottom line is, 95% of the time when IE or Windows or some other Microsoft software "fails", its USER ERROR and trust me - I spent over a decade supporting clueless users and you're right up there with them all John.

Stop the whining, please, its OLD already.
Comment by John on 09 November 05 @ 12:43 Email
Dear Mike,
I'm glad you found this old post and made such a constructive and friendly contribution.
I spent over a decade supporting clueless users and you're right up there with them all John.
...Anonymous and prepared to get personal, in that generalised anonymous way.
Stop the whining, please, its OLD already.
Your right there Mike, posted way back in August but you managed to dig it out. Well done.
Comment by Armand Gilbert on 12 November 07 @ 15:43 Email
Mike obviously is not a web developer and doesn't know what nightmare it is dealing with ie. Just this week I've lost another 10 hours trying to code a web standards based site for Microsoft's POS browser.
Its problems are that it doesn't implement half the CSS2 standards, requires non standard coding to recognize alpha transparency in .png images. Microsoft should drop IE.
Comment by SneakyWho_am_i on 22 September 08 @ 18:22
Ha! I can dig up even older posts than anonymous Mike!

John, the sad fact is, your post is STILL relevant. Microsoft should still drop IE, it still does more harm than good. There should be an icon on your desktop "The Internet" that helps you download a proper browser. Oh, wait, there is.. it's just heavily camoflagued as a method of actually exploring the internet :-(

Anonymous Mike has obviously never tried:
- Acid 2
- Acid 3 (Webkit 100%, Gecko 87%, Presto ???%, Trident 18%)
- Writing any HTML in his life
- Writing any XHTML in his life
- writing any CSS in his life
- Writing any javascript in his life

Out of those four technologies, Internet Explorer only supports two*. It is the only "modern" browser than can make this claim.
* If you call that support

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