The Great MS Blunder - IE

[thehorse13]

This story comes to us from Slash-dot which links over to PC magazine. More or less, the writer goes off on why Internet Explorer was the worst thing the MS ever came up with.

Interesting rant.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ZDM/story?id=1884077

[tinker]

If IE wasn't directly integrated into Windows it might not be _so_ bad?

[preacherman481]

Well, what do you think of his solution? What would happen if Microsoft were to do what the author suggests? What would they have to lose if they no longer shipped Windows with IE? Obviously they would have to rewrite parts of the OS to replace the functionality of IE. How expensive would that be? The question I would like people to answer for me is, what advantage does MS gain from having IE as the dominant browser? What advantages would they lose if people no longer viewed the Internet through IE?

[brokencrow]

Hey, he stole the words right out of my mouth!

[ZT3000]

John Dvorak continues to rant as he wipes crazed spittle from his chin.
The guy used to make sense, years ago, but anymore he simply rants for rants sake.
He continues to setup straw men in argument, then tear them down and his inane conclusions are the result.

It'll take more time and energy than it's worth to correct Dvorak's cranky remarks. For every error that gets corrected and explained, he'll spew out a ton more.
I simply have stopped reading his articles and ignore him. Too bad, he used to be on the mark.

In my opinion, the greatest vulnerability IE has is supporting Java apps (invented by Sun) and Javascript (a Netscape product), neither of which are a Microsoft invention or product. In fact it was years ago Microsoft stopped shipping Java support, but still manufacturers include it in a bundle.

But I'm sure ActiveX (a Microsoft product) is not far behind in terms of vulnerabilities, although I have FAR FAR less problems with ActiveX then I do with Javascript. In fact, I have NO problems at all with ActiveX.

Even if Microsoft's products were perfect, people would bitch and complain because, I think, they simply wouldn't be happy doing otherwise. It's a fact of life. A lot of people are simply unhappy campers and they don't even know why, nor do they want to change.

If Linux was King of the Hill, they'd bitch about how dated the graphics are or how command line intensive it is, or how much compiling and configuration it needs or the name sucks. Anything!

Preacherman481, I think MS gains by having IE because they can offer a well-rounded OS to the public. It doesn't need tweaking or third party programs to do it's job. Sure a whole industry of software creation has evolved around Windows, and for that matter, every OS, but it stands upon it's own merit. As for what they gain from having IE as the dominant browser, I'd say mindshare and the thoughts I stated above.

I also think the only thing they'd really lose by dumping IE, is the constant bitching, deserved or not.

I used Opera when it first came out and nobody really knew it's name. The first versions were okay, then around version 3 it was great but after that, it crashed more than a group of old folks on sleeping pills. Constant problems and every minor version fixed the previous problems but induced new ones. Somewhere around version 5 in 1991 I threw in the towel.
I gave it one more chance in version 6 with a trial which could not calculate dollar amounts on particular websites when purchasing something. And yes, I emailed support more than I care to remember, sometimes they said they'd fix it and sometimes it was on a list to be fixed.
Goodbye, never looking back, I'm missing nothing.

Let's not talk about Netscape. Everybody who knows anything knows they made a fiasco out of their browser. Crash, crash, bloat, bloat, slow, slow..

I run an IE based tabbed browser. I run it because of tabs, tab grouping, quick zooming, quick searches, auto-refreshing, autologins, mouse movements and other nifty features I've grown used to. None of the features I use are security related or popup or spyware related.
All the features of my browser which stop ActiveX, filter javascript, stop popups or stop scripts I do not use and are turned completely off. No problems, no crashing, GLORIOUS!

Gotta run. MS is giving me a one month series of free live Webcasts on passing their certifications.

[rapier57]

Yeah, I've read John for years with my hand firmly over my wallet and my BS meter set to high sensitivity. He does take liberties for the sake of his point, and I wouldn't bet the farm on his predictions.

Keep in mind that the original intent--back when we were naive about the Internet--was to have a fully Internet connected desktop. Windows' Explorer was the core engine for the file system as well as the web browser. Users still want this level of flexibility, but they are also begging for security. Gotta have a balance somewhere.

[thehorse13]

Preacherman brings us some interesting questions. In fact, they're well thought out and intelligent.

Thinking about the future and trying to predict what MS will do won't be easy. If I had to guess, I'd say that right now they're strategic vision doesn't include dropping a product that they have invested so heavily in. Even with Firefox and Opera picking up expatriated IE users, most vendors still write their products optimized for IE.

Now, I do personally believe that IE is ****. However, removing it from the MS product line would be like taking down the statue of liberty. IE is a symbol indentified with MS just as monuments are symbols.

Anyway, enough of that. You guys get the idea.

--TH13