{"id":2621,"date":"2010-10-20T18:33:07","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T01:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bspcn.com\/?p=2621"},"modified":"2010-10-20T18:33:07","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T01:33:07","slug":"why-do-so-many-geeks-hate-internet-explorer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/20\/why-do-so-many-geeks-hate-internet-explorer\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do So Many Geeks Hate Internet Explorer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by howtogeek<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s common knowledge that almost every single geek hates Internet Explorer with a passion, but have you ever wondered why? Let\u2019s take a fair look at the history and where it all began\u2026 for posterity, if nothing else.<\/p>\n

Contrary to what you might think, this article is not<\/em> meant to be a hate-fest on Internet Explorer\u2014in fact, we\u2019re pretty impressed with the hardware acceleration and new features<\/a> in Internet Explorer 9\u2014but keep reading for the whole story.<\/p>\n

In the Beginning There Was IE, and It Was Good?<\/em><\/h5>\n

We\u2019ve all been so used to thinking of Internet Explorer as that slow, buggy browser that is behind the times, but it wasn\u2019t always that way\u2014in fact, way back when, Internet Explorer pioneered many innovations that made the web what it is today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a quick tour through the easily forgotten history of the infamous browser:<\/p>\n

1996: Internet Explorer 3<\/p>\n

<\/strong>This version of the browser, introduced in 1997, was the first browser to implement CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Yes, you\u2019re reading that correctly\u2014in fact, it introduced many new features like Java applets and sadly, ActiveX controls.<\/p>\n

1997: Internet Explorer 4<\/p>\n

<\/strong>IE4 introduced a blazing fast (at the time) rendering engine as an embeddable component<\/a> that could be used in other applications\u2014this was a lot more important than people realize. This version also introduced Dynamic HTML, which allows web pages to dynamically change the page using JavaScript, and added Active Desktop integration.<\/p>\n

Even more weird? Seems like nobody remembers this anymore, but IE4 was actually cross-platform\u2014you could install it on Mac OS, Solaris, and HP-UX\u2014and by the time IE5 was released, IE4 had reached a 60% market share.<\/p>\n

1999: Internet Explorer 5.x<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Microsoft invented Ajax. Wait\u2026 what? That\u2019s right, it was this version of IE<\/a> that introduced the XMLHttpRequest feature in JavaScript, which forms the underlying technology behind every web application you\u2019re using today\u2014you know, like Gmail. Of course, the term \u201cAjax\u201d wasn\u2019t actually coined until years later by somebody other than Microsoft, but this release supported everything required to make it work.<\/p>\n

So Yes, Microsoft Innovated<\/p>\n

<\/strong>From IE3 until IE6, Microsoft used all their resources to simply out-innovate the competition, releasing new features and better browsers faster than Netscape. In fact, Netscape 3 Gold was a buggy piece of junk that crashed all the time<\/a>, and Netscape 4 was extremely slow and could barely render tables\u2014much less CSS, which would often cause the browser to crash.<\/p>\n

To put it in context:<\/em> web developers used to complain about Netscape the same way they complain about IE6 now.<\/p>\n

What Made It Go So Very<\/em> Wrong?<\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The trouble all started when Microsoft integrated IE into Windows as a required component, and made it difficult to uninstall and use an alternate browser. Then there was the whole business with them exploiting their monopoly to try and push Netscape out of the market, and a lot of people started to view Microsoft as the evil empire.<\/p>\n

Microsoft Stopped Trying<\/p>\n

<\/strong>By the time Microsoft released Internet Explorer 6 in 2001<\/a>, complete with lots of new features for web developers, since there was no competition and they had a 95% market share, Microsoft just stopped trying\u2014seriously, they did nothing for 5 years even after Firefox was released and geeks started migrating left and right.<\/p>\n

Microsoft-Specific Features<\/p>\n

<\/strong>The whole problem with Microsoft\u2019s innovation is that much of it was done in ways that didn\u2019t follow the web standards\u2014this wasn\u2019t as big of a problem when Internet Explorer was the only game in town, but once Firefox and Webkit came around and started following the standards correctly, suddenly it became a huge problem for web developers.<\/p>\n

Security Holes and Crashing<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Since Microsoft decided they didn\u2019t need to try anymore, and they didn\u2019t keep up with the competition from Firefox and other browsers, bugs and security holes just cropped up left and right\u2014really terrible ones, too. For instance, this code is all that is required to crash IE6:<\/p>\n

<script>for(x in document.write){document.write(x);}<\/script><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, the screenshot at the beginning of this section was a live example of testing out this particular bug.<\/p>\n

IE7 and IE8 Were Too Little, Too Late<\/p>\n

<\/strong>It took 5 years after IE6 for Microsoft to finally get around to releasing IE7, which added tabs and made the browser slightly more tolerable, but for web designers it was still a nightmare to deal with, and only complicated the issue since now you had to make pages render correctly in two lousy browsers instead of just one.<\/p>\n

It took another 2.5 years for Microsoft to finally release Internet Explorer 8, which greatly improved CSS support for web developers, and added new features like Private browsing, tab isolation to prevent one bad page from taking down the whole browser, and phishing protection. By this point, most geeks had already moved on to Firefox, and then some of us to Google Chrome.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the Real Reason Geeks Hate IE<\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Just because we\u2019re geeks doesn\u2019t mean we hate everything that\u2019s inferior and outdated\u2014in fact, we often love retro computing\u2014that\u2019s why we love Atari, NES, Commodore 64, etc. We take pride in our geek knowledge. So why\u2019s Internet Explorer a different story?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a couple of reasons that fueled our hatred of the buggy browser, and finally put us all over the edge:<\/p>\n

Supporting IE is Like a Fork in the Eye for Web Devs<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Here\u2019s a sample of a day in the life of a web designer: You spend hours making sure that your page looks great, and you test it out in Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and even Opera. It looks great, awesome!<\/p>\n

Now you open up IE and the page looks like somebody put it into a blender and hit the Whip button. Then you spend double the amount of time trying to fix it to look tolerable in IE6 and IE7, cursing loudly the entire time.<\/p>\n

Geeks Forced to Use Internet Explorer\"\" <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>And here\u2019s where we come to the real issue\u2014the whole reason that geeks can\u2019t stand Internet Explorer:<\/p>\n

Geeks everywhere were forced to use Internet Explorer at work even when there are better browsers, forced to support it for corporate applications, forced to make sure web sites still work in IE, and we couldn\u2019t convince everybody<\/em> to switch to a better browser.<\/p>\n

Geeks don\u2019t hate something that\u2019s inferior\u2014but they do hate it when it\u2019s forced on them.<\/p>\n

The Good News: The Future Might Be Brighter<\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thankfully it seems like Microsoft has finally learned from their many, many mistakes in the browser world. They are below 50% in the market share wars<\/a>, and they\u2019ve finally learned to focus on using web standards.<\/p>\n

Internet Explorer 9 is about to be released, it\u2019s got a shiny new interface that looks a lot like Google Chrome<\/a>, blazing fast hardware acceleration, and supports HTML5 surprisingly well\u2014in fact, it\u2019s so much better that 34% of our readers said they will switch to IE9<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Microsoft is billing Internet Explorer 9 as the browser that\u2019s going to change the world, and they aren\u2019t wrong\u2014they just aren\u2019t mentioning that they were the only ones holding the web back<\/em> with their anemic browsers. And now that mess is finally over.<\/p>\n

\n

Here\u2019s hoping they\u2019ve truly learned their lesson.<\/p>\n

Bonus: Incredibly true, I say.<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by howtogeek It\u2019s common knowledge that almost every single geek hates Internet Explorer with a passion, but have you ever wondered why? Let\u2019s take a fair look at the history and where it all began\u2026 for posterity, if nothing else. Contrary to what you might think, this article is not meant to be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2623,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621\/revisions\/2623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}