With the new design of my site I feel even more obliged to ask my readers to use Firefox over Internet Explorer. Saskboy gave me a reason to write this little plea.
While the arrival of IE7 is imminent, it still doesn't make sense as anyone's browser of choice. I've converted a few people from IE6 to Firefox 1.0 or 1.5 and not a single one of them has yet to look back. I do not allow people to use IE on my computers, and as a result some have been "forced" to switch. They use it on my computer, like it so much, and begin using it on their computer.
This website simply does not look correct in IE6. At all. It doesn't even have native support for transparent PNG images, which breaks almost every image on my website! Upgrading to Internet Explorer 7 fixes some of the issues, and the site actually appears almost as it should, but it still looks better in Firefox.
I've spent a little bit of time toying around with IE7 and just don't enjoy it. The interface is awkward, and very hard to get used to. I'll keep it installed on my machine, but only because there are some websites out there still that force you to use it (remember the Census fiasco?).
Firefox 2, which is at most a few weeks away from general release (Firefox 2.0 RC2 is available for download now) and beats IE7 in every category I can find. The interface is cleaner, simpler and easier to use; the tab functionality is more intuitive and much more user-friendly. It is faster and safer.
It just doesn't make sense for anyone to be using Internet Explorer any longer... unless you are a Microsoft employee. In which case, I still argue you should switch to Firefox.
Get Firefox and make the internet a better place.
Tags: blogging, software, websites
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Ah, but if you have to ensure cross-browser compatibility for professional purposes, you simply cannot forgo it.
I agree that Firefox and Safari for the Mac are simply superior. However, sheer numbers mean that good web design 'has' to be acceptable to IE. It still has the vast majority of browser market share and is not likely to lose that any time soon.
It's a necessary evil in the web world, I'm afraid.
Point taken. I'm not necessarily referring to design and development people forgoing it, rather I am attempting to convert some everyday web users.
I tried a little to have this site work in IE6 completely, but just couldn't do it with all the transparent PNG's I'm using. So far in IE7 the only problem I've found is the "nav/search bar" is a little taller than in Firefox.
Since IE7 is just around the corner, I've decided to not worry too much about IE6 for the time being.
James, when you're a monopoly like a big bank, or ebay or something though, you could essentially require your users to install Firefox, and make substandard IE support. You can beat users with a big stick, when you're the biggest or best game in town. That's what Microsoft does after all.
I am sorry to say that I have yet to switch. I don't really see the difference on a good number of web pages. My brother has Firefox and I have used his computer more than once.
Is it all just asthetic, or what am I missing!?!
Tracey,
With my site I think most of the problems are asthetic. However, I can't know for sure as I've upgraded to IE7 (which, if you're going to stick with IE, I recommend you do as well), although I would call not having native transparent PNG support more than an aesthetic issue. This is easy enough to see with IE6 as most of the images on my site have an ugly grey background behind them.
Firefox is about more than just aesthetics though. Once you spend a few days getting used to it, it truly improves your internet experience. For instance, at this moment I have 13 websites open, all accessible with one click of the mouse. Sweet.
I like with the user-friendliness of Firefox. I've been using it for about a year and I love it. It has much better functionality over IE and it does make most sites look better. I still have to adjust some of my websites to look better in IE7, but if everyone would just switch, it would be so much less work for me!!! Cheers!
Hey Stephen, I really like the new look. Congrats! It looks cleaner and more modern. Now I want to redo my site. ;-)
Thanks Todd, much appreciated. Still have a few tweaks to make, but oh well. Hopefully I don't have to redo it again for a long, long time.