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Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 7 - too little too late
Oct 19, 2006, 17:05 GMT
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Older Talkback
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I agree with a lot of what this article says.
IE7 only just manages to catch up with open source browers. Even then they are still behind in my opnion. Firefox is just ahead with security concerns and leagues ahead with extensions and themes. And tabbed browsing, a feauture IE7 boasts about, has been in Firefox for ages. If you have not ever used Firefox, please try it at http://www.getfirefox.com. Dont be scared its very easy to use and safer than IE. And if you want a chuckle visit http://wwww.ie7.com ;)
Thanks
Yeh, Firefox is the way to go. It now has roughly 10% of internet users, and it has gained most of them in the last couple of years. 10% of all people who use the internet; thats a lot of people who like it. Why dotn you join them ;) www.getfirefox.com to get the free download, if you dont like it you can just uninstall it. But you wont want to lol :D.
Ignite The Web - Get Firefox
nice advertisement for ffirefox.
The idea that FireFox is mroe secure than IE is just plain incorrect www.firefoxmyths.com
IE 7 is a failure. Among other things, they've reorganized the standard button layout for browsers. It doesn't take long to find stuff, but the first time you want to click back or refresh the first thought is 'where'd it go?'. Usability is key.
Also, they're years behind on CSS compliance. Take the acid2 test (google 'acid2') with IE 7, Opera, and Firefox. Opera is perfect in it's standards compliance. Firefox is getting close. IE 7 is.. well.. one word: horrible. Come on guys, get with the program.
Maybe in another 10 years we'll have a version of IE that actually works.
I use both IE and Firefox. Both are good products with good features. As for IE being insecure, well users are to blame a lot of the time. If you download and install spamware/antivirus, don't blame MS, learn to use a computer. I'd say IE7 and Firefox are very similiar products. It'll come down to what people are familiar with. The big advantage at work though is that IE can authenticate with our Intranet seamlessly.
Just want to give the IE7. I donwnloaded and intstalled it, but it wont start up. IE7 actaully will not open and it held window XP hostage until I reboot the whole system. Thank goodness for system restore.
I hear people saying that MS missed the boat because they are just playing catch up and not really innovating. Well, let's hear some specifics. What specific features/capabilities did they not include that should be in IE7?
To judge either way on security is absurd. It's been out only two days!
Firefox has lots of security holes on record as well.
Note: Most serious business users that require VPN, Sharepoint, and actually productive work suites can only us IE. Firefox might be cool, but it does nothing for business.
Funny that no one mentions how FireFox copied most of it's popular features from Opera, which is likely where Microsoft also got a lot of ideas for IE7.
I agree with most of the people here... Internet Explorer 7 is Firefox Lite.
Poor tabbed browsing, improved UI. No extensions that I know of... reason I don't know is because after using IE7 for a minute, I had to get back to work with Firefox 2.0 RC3 and take care of real business.
What IE7 (my understanding thus far, which isn't too broad*) needs:
Extensions
Themes
Real-Time Spell Check (and multi-language dictionary packs for international users)
Improved Integrated Search (add search to search bar using search engines that return results using http headers)
Improved RSS Management
Automated (yet user-intervene-able) safe plug-in installations
So in 2011, IE8 would ideally include all of the above.
And still... it'd be equivalent to one of the greatest browsers available 5 years prior.
* I haven't used IE7 in depth, so I may have missed a few things.
Personally, I use Opera and like it better than either Firefox or IE. I still use IE for some web services that are not yet Opera compatible, but I won't even download IE7. I am not a Microsoft hater - I use many of their products. But IE7? No way.
I disagree! I think MS did a fine job on IE7. I guess it's just become fashionable to slam Microsoft.
Someone already posted a similar statement but I wanted to reiterate it because it seems that people ignore this or are ignorant of it (especially those who have the power to write columns).
IE isn't copying tabbed browsing from Firefox. Firefox was not the originator of tabbed browsing (not even it's parent Mozilla). Tabbed browsing was a feature in Opera long before Firefox even existed. Even then Opera and another company (BookLink Technologies browser 'InternetWorks') both came up with tabbed browsing in the same year so it is difficult to say if Opera was the first (both around 1994!).
Sure, IE7 is Microsoft playing catchup, but playing catchup doesn't necessarily mean it is inferior. Intel's chips were inferior to AMD's for the past couple of years and now with their Core2 chips they've jumped ahead again. Judging from the RCs, IE7 is not the Core2 Duo of browsers .. but it is foolish to write IE7 off simply because it takes the excellent features from one browser and incorporates it into itself.
A lot of comments about how great Firefox is,however as a browser it is totally unstable.As an example a number of times that I have opened it only to find that it had gone back to its original settings with no bookmarks or short cuts.
I use Opera and Firefox as my web browser, Multitabbing has been a feature we
have all got so used to. I love the widgets and themes you can use in Opera in addition to a whole slew of fully functional tools like blocking pop-ups,etc. and cookies, clearing cache and cookie is just two mouse clicks.
In Firefox you have themes and extensions that allow one to enhance their browsing experience far beyond anything IE 7.0 can do.
So when I read the Redmond sychophants blowing their horns, I downloaded IE 7.0 to check it out. I have XP SP2 with all the latest updates, but to my dismay
I could not install it, it pops an error message that is not fixable.
I had to uninstall Symantec antivirus, Zonealarm, so that I could install, as per the instructions on their website, then there is a whole bunch of registry and permission issues, then searching forums and I could not get the darned thing to work, BTW I work as helpdesk support in IT, and I see an apocalyptical nightmare building up here, try to help some 70 year old dude who is trying to upgrade to IE 7.0, who is computer illiterate.
MY advice stay away from this sorry piece of a browser program that is being trumpeted as the browser of the future. You do not believe me here Googler 'IE 7.0 installation issues' see the plethora of problems and tons of disattisfied people you find. Plus the humiliating aggravation of genuine advantage verification, we are all thieves until proven innocent is not a right way to treat someone who has bought your software with real money.
If I were Bill, I'd fire the goons who produce this junk, sell my company and go support the open source community, he has made enough money it is time he used it to produce software truly for the masses, and leave the bald monkey to run the show at Redmond.
Yay for Opera!
Yay for Firefox!
Break your Windows, Change your Vista, go Linux!
what about the fact that IE is far more responsive than firefox?
ie7 loads pages faster and switches tabs and windows quicker, and does not hurt rest of the apps running on my desktop.
As a consumer i'd say ie7 is far more usable.
I just downloaded IE7 and crashed my machine :(
talk about pickin' flyspecks outta pepper- i'd
like to see all these critics live on the difference
between web browsers !
IE7... big whoop. Yay, it has tabbed browsing... been doing that for years now. Yay, it's more secure... been more secure for years now. Yay, it's more compliant... whatever, been doing it all with FF for years now, and more. Anyone who says they prefer IE over FF has either been paid, or doesn't have a clue. Faster than FF?... haha.
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