In my many travels on the Interwebnet, I stumble across many different comparisons- Opinion A is different to Opinion B, Product A is cheaper than Product B, Language A is easier to learn than Language B, and so on and so forth. One thing that I stumbled across today was the subject of Internet browsers. This is a subject that I've touched upon before, but this time, I found myself drawn to it for a very simple reason.
Everyone hates Internet Explorer.
I decided to go to Google and ask the question "Why is Internet Explorer considered bad?" and Google found no results. Same with Bing. Both search engines gave me other options, though, and I decided to read through some of them. From what I can tell, people don't like IE (Internet Explorer) because it doesn't display websites the same as other browsers such as Opera and Firefox, and that there's security risks invloved with using it.
This is bullshit. I don't see the big deal here. Okay, so web developers need to find workarounds for their pages to be displayed identically with all browsers. I hate to tell you this, Mr. Web Developer, but that is your job. You are the one that is paid to make a webpage that will be displayed identically on every browser being used. If you need to make a workaround for your precious page to be displayed on one browser, then you have to do it. That is why you call yourself a web developer, because you are making Internet pages that everyone can view. You're not making webpages for people only using, for example, Safari can view. If you were, then you would be a Safari Web Developer. But you're not. Deal with it.
As for those security issues attatched to IE? In case you people didn't notice, it's not about your web browser that puts you at risk, okay? It's the very fact that you're connected to the Internet in the first place that puts you at risk. If someone wants to gain access to your personal files, they'll do it via your web connection. Hackers don't give a damn what browser you're using. If there's a way for them to get onto your computer and steal your information, then they'll damn well do it. These security issues won't mean diddly squat if you've got decent, up-to-date anti-virus and firewall software. Hey presto, it's instantly harder to gain access to your machine.
I decided to have a look at the stats for this blog prior/during the writing of this post, and I discovered that the top three browsers that are used to view this blog are Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. The combined percentages of Opera and Firefox users is 33% while the percentage of IE users is 54%. Yes, you read that correctly. The majority of my readers use IE while the people who use Firefox and Opera combined is just over half that number. There are currently 21% more people using IE than Firefox and Opera combined, and I think that tells you something.
And because I'm feeling incredibly kind, I'm going to spell that out for you all elitist snobs out there.
There's nothing wrong with Internet Explorer.
