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I have internet Explorer myself........but i keep running into people who say IE sucks and others are better. Iv never used anything else and am curious whats better about other browsers like Firefox and such....and if it would be worthwhile switching from IE to one of them.
Firefox slows my comp way down with all the processors it uses. I do not prefer it over IE, but that is my own opinion xD
Phrostphyre

Google Chrome all the way. I <3 it.
Kim Site Admin

The reason I hate Internet Explorer is that it is designed to be broken.

Let me repeat that, because it is pretty shocking: It is designed to be broken.

Back when Microsoft was even more of an unchallenged monopoly than it is now, they decided that they didn't want anyone to be able to compete with their browser, Internet Explorer, and break the choke hold they had over the internet through it. So in order to make it seem like all other browsers weren't any good, they purposely made Internet Explorer interpret code in ways that are completely wrong and counter intuitive.

Now, it was still possible to make things work in Internet Explorer, but only if you were willing to write all your code in strange, hacky ways that were completely wrong.

Because they had something ridiculous like 90% of the market share, small companies or one person operations (LIKE ME) were faced with an impossible choice: We only have the budget and time to program one website, but to make it work in IE and ALSO every other browser on the planet, we will essentially have to make the same site twice. Because almost everyone only had the time and budget to do one, they would decide to do it wrong so that the 90% of people using IE could see their site. The other 10% would see their site looking broken and think, oh, it must be because only IE is a good browser, and switch back to using Microsoft's product. This is exactly what they wanted to happen. They produced a garbage product, but were so dominant, people thought it was everything else that was broken.

But developers were so disgusted with these practices, that many of them took the time to make everything twice anyway, because they wanted to be able to do things the right way. Thanks to the incredible hard work of thousands of developers thumbing their noses at Microsoft by doing untold amounts of extra work, and protesting vigorously, it's getting to the point where Firefox and Chrome have equal or greater market shares than Internet Explorer. So again, people with only the time and budget to make a single site have to decide, do they make one that caters to a broken browser, or do they do it right so that the growing majority of people using some other browser can see it properly. And so Internet Explorer is falling into the same trap it tried to lay for other browsers, and looking like it breaks more often than others. The big joke is, that's because it's designed to suck.

After many years and many versions, Internet Explorer is less broken than it used to be, as they've realized it was a mistake to make something that sucked on purpose. But it still retains a great deal of its ancient problems.

This site definitely looks and functions worse in IE than it does in other browsers. I do my best to make it at least usable, but as a single person, it is very difficult for me to support two versions of the site. As we only have 10% IE users here, they obviously get less attention. The redesign I'm working on should be much better for IE users, but it's still nearly impossible for it to be quite as good with the resources I have available to me.

And that's why I don't like IE.
I have to use IE when I'm on my school computer. It's terrible. Right now I'm on Firefox, and I'm pretty content with it :)


Amazing explanation of IE, Kim
Phrostphyre wrote:
Google Chrome all the way. I <3 it.

Mmm, Chrome.
I think it looks great in IE >> It must be god-like in other browsers. I rarely have any problem on this site, other than the two incidents I reported, and one wasn't really a major thing. So good job keeping on top of IE coding for us that use it!
Kim Site Admin

More info on Internet Explorer trying to win the internet by ruining it for everyone else: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish

Kuroi, here is an example of something that doesn't work in IE that I haven't wanted to waste time fixing.

news-comments-chromevsIE.jpg

In IE, the news comments all crash together, there's absolutely no spacing between them, it's very confusing to tell apart who said what because it's all a visual jumble. I've left it alone because it doesn't stop anyone from using the site, it just looks a bit ick, so it's very low priority to spend time on. It does frustrate me though.

In a month or so that won't happen anymore, but it's not because IE got magically better. ;)
Oh, wow Kim. That's pretty messed.

(On a total side note, anyone here remember Netscape?)
Don't worry too much on the IE thing... nothing about the way it is now bothers me. And if something does come up, you know I will let you know.

I'm just glad I can have decent RPs for once. As long as I can read and respond, we are set!
Trying out Google Chrome now. I notice a few differences. xD But this site loads a lot faster now, instead of in IE
Kim Site Admin

Dylan wrote:
Oh, wow Kim. That's pretty messed.

(On a total side note, anyone here remember Netscape?)

I DO I DO! Those were the days when the browser wars were just starting to get ugly.

Kuroi, I'm glad nothing bothers you about the way it displays in IE. :) At least that's one of us! I hadn't expected Chrome to be faster, but it's great to hear!
Yuka

I use Firefox :)
Well as some of you know I have multiple computers i'm doing work on. 3 to be specific right now. And as I finish them I'll be putting a different browser on each so I try out different ones. I got friends who all have different types with me being a old fashioned IE guy and they all try and tell me to get the one they got so I'm gonna explore my choices. Heh. I will however say it will most likely be Chrome I wind up with as I've heard more and seen more good stuff about it.
Sanne Moderator

I stopped using IE decades ago because it's also prone to virus infections leaking through. BECAUSE IE is used mostly in businesses these days, bad people focus on finding holes in IE to shove viruses at you to infect computers and bring down entire comapnies' computers to stall productions and such.

The reason FireFox and Chrome are less likely to suffer is because everyone has access to and work on their coding. It's the beauty of OpenSource. Enthusiastic developers can find these security holes much faster than paid employees and bring out a bug fix quicker, which means that Chrome and FF are more secure than IE. They also allow a ton of add-ons, like popup blockers, email notifications etc. and make using their browsers easier.

Firefox however had some serious issues with Flash player lagging like hell. I was playing a lot of flash games and even though my computer can run new games on pretty high settings, it wasn't able to play these flash games smoothly. That's when I decided to try Chrome.

Now I won't use anything other than Chrome. Because it's a Google product it's linked to all the other Google products I use, like Gmail and Google+. Chrome will synchronize my bookmarks, my preferences, my custom themes, my add-ons etc. with my Gmail account. This means that if I install Chrome on another computer, all I need to do is sign into Gmail, set Chrome to sync with my Google account and I have everything back in my browser exactly the same way it's on my own desktop! I don't need to go through the hassle of manually backing up my bookmarks, or writing down which add-ons I have to download them one by one again.

Plus Chrome isn't unnecessarily loaded with tons of things I don't need. I've found that Firefox has been including things in their latest updates that I don't want or need, so while I have FF installed, I really don't use it anymore.
Ilmarinen Moderator

I used Netscape, waaaay back in the day! Hooboy!

I switched to Firefox for the longest time and it served me well, but after a while I noticed a serious amount of bloat. It was really slowing down my system. Then I tried Chrome, and it's just wonderful... I only worry about supporting a monopoly. But, well, hey, I like the product!
I remember Netscape! My grandparents only ever used it, so I'd use it any time I visited them. Back In The Day.

I switched from IE to Firefox, which I liked until it began lagging. I switched to Chrome only for cool Toolbar games like Nethernet to come out for Firefox. But by then I had already fallen inlove with Chrome, and couldn't make the jump back, even for neat-o games.
Aaah Netscape. All the computers at my dad's office had that back in Texas, in the 90s.
And remember when you got onto the net? The fax-machine-wannabe noises? We used to jest that the Devil was trying to get into the system via that stuff.


Now, lessie... I used IE for the longest time, and the only reason I switched to FireFox this year is because it has an ad blocker, and IE ads kept giving me viruses in one sort of another and I was convinced to stop using "Internet Exploder". I wanted that stuff gone, so to the ad blocker I went.

I've never really noticed a difference in processing-- slower computer, that sort of stuff. Granted, I don't use 10000 customized ad-ons like some FF users do. But I am happy that the ads are, in theory, gone now, so there's that for ya.
With IE, RPR would take 5-10 secs to fully load. With Chrome, it takes less than 2. I knew it had to be my browser, since I have the best internet available in my area, and I have been secretly wanting to try Chrome to get full use of it. I'm in love.
I've only ever used IE to download Firefox. And then I used Firefox to download Chrome. And then I used Chrome to download the interwebs.
I personally prefer Chrome for day-to-day use because it has a very sleek design and works really fast. Also never had any security issues with it. Firefox isn't too bad either, especially because it has a lot of customizability in the form of plugins. The only real downside I ever found to FF is that it's so fat. SO FAT. Although that's mostly because I don't have that much RAM to begin with and my Vista eats it up like I eat up hamburgers.

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