Dear Forum Members

It's suggested by some specialist polling companies that IE is slowly but surely loosing usage ground to other browsers, in particular Firefox.

I know that I have moved away from general browsing, over the past 4 - 6 months, from IE to FF because IE is a much bigger target for hackers when it comes to installing malware on an unsuspecting user's PC.

Also, for IE a user has to depend on MS's built-in safety features while with FF you can add all the safety features you need from the range of add-ons available. I also like the fact that FF to will automatically virus-scan your downloads (as long as you have an AV installed on your system), I am not sure whether this feature is available in any of the other browsers.

Suffice to say, I personally prefer to use the resource hungry FF to do general browsing and only use IE as a back-up browser.


Here's the URL: BBC News - Microsoft's Internet Explorer losing browser share


UK Bob

How does FF compare to Opera?

I also heard there is a browser made in China that is quite popular; forgot the name.

Well Blackhorse 70V

As Opera was my main browser I can say this, ever since V10.50 Opera has become less user friendly by expelling all it's widgets (add-ins) which can no longer be activated within Opera, i.e. those that can still run now run outside Opera.

My favourite widget, Flash Video Downloader, and spell checker no longer work and, quite frankly, I can't be bothered to look for alternatives.

I can only say that at one time Opera was snapping at the heels of Firefox in the browser popularity stakes now Opera is behind Chrome and Safari, which is well deserved because of it's recent anti-user decisions.

See the latest popularity stats: Browser Statistics



UK Bob

Didn't MS get into trouble many years back for making their IE forced to be the only one to use on their systems. At least for their updates etc.
I am aware at least one IE version was not designed properly, could not adapt to / read some webpage codings; ie: poor programming.

I think it was in the late '80s. Micro$oft was sued by Netscape because their OS was more friendly to IE than Navigator and other browsers, and they claimed that MS was a monopoly, putting them out of business by giving away IE (Nav. was not free). I think MS had to release sections of their code or make it more browser friendly. Later, the US gov sued over the monopoly thing. And after their most recent lawsuit in the EU, new versions of Windows sold there now include a screen that explains that IE is optional (and I think it also lists alternate browsers).

Blackhorse 70V

The dirty tricks MS used on Netscape Navigator, ensuring that it could not work on every MS developed website, are very similar what they did to other app manufacturers when they released the first stable version of windows, i.e. V3.0 and V3.1.

For example, when DR DOS 5.0 came out MS made sure it could not run under windows, while MS DOS 4.0 up to MS DOS 6.2 ran without many problems.

Again, when other application companies brought out their own version of windows apps, like Word Perfect, Lotus 123, etc. MS refused to release the full windows codes so that non-MS apps ran slowly and/or crashed while MS apps (Word, Excel, Access and Powerpoint) did not suffer with these non-MS type problems.

Now, this is all ancient history but shows that behind the public face there is a ruthless predator.


UK Bob