A Perfectly Cromulent Politics Blog
When procrastinating from law school, I write about politics, tech, or whatever else I'm interested in. Feel free to tweet me up (@devinjohnston).
When procrastinating from law school, I write about politics, tech, or whatever else I'm interested in. Feel free to tweet me up (@devinjohnston).
Posted by Devin Johnston on May 13th, 2009
I want to take a quick break from politics to urge my readers to do something very important: stop using Internet Explorer. There are about a million and twenty-six reasons not to use the Microsoft web browser that comes bundled with Windows (some of which are outlined later in this post). Instead, I strongly encourage you to use a better, safer, and faster web browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. When I design websites, I deliberately include features that do not work on Internet Explorer as a way to reward people using a proper web browser. For example, the navigational tabs you see at the top of the screen appear rounded in Firefox and Chrome, rather than clunky and square as they appear in Internet Explorer. In fact, most of this website won't render at all in older versions of Internet Explorer.
What prompted me to write this blog post is something that I read on Mashable. Ben Parr writes that "Internet Explorer is dying: really, really, really slowly" (emphasis in original). The basis for this claim is a nifty longterm trend chart put together by Asa Dotzler showing Internet Explorer's share of the browser market declining from more than 90% in Late 2004 to less than 70% in early 2009. This trend is encouraging to web developers who have been struggling with Internet Explorer's refusal to adhere to web standards since the very beginning of the worldwide web.
I long ago gave up compromising my coding to facilitate Internet Explorer's refusal to play by the rules. I can afford to do this for a couple of reasons. First of all, my site isn't really that important in the grand scheme of things. I make no money from this website, and I pay very little to keep the server humming. Second, I'm not using bleeding edge techniques that break the site in the most recent version in Internet Explorer. In stead, I use current best practices for XHTML and CSS and let non-compliant browsers shame themselves by rendering the page incorrectly. Third, an unusually high percentage of the visitors to this site have already gotten the message and have move away from Internet Explorer.
Ever since I started tracking statistics on this site (which started around October 2006, though I've been blogging much longer than that), about 46.62% of my visitors have accessed the site using Firefox. By comparison, only 43.22% of this site's visitors use Internet Explorer (Safari and Chrome also account for a non-negligible share of visitors).
Part of the reason for the unusually high rate of non-IE browser adoption among visitors to this site is that I occasionally write about topics such as technology, software, and web development. Internet Explorer is very disliked by those in the tech community, particularly web developers who spend countless hours debugging their sites due to IE's peculiar rendering quirks.
There are more reasons to dislike Internet Explorer than I have time to write about, but the following are some of the highlights:
I am going to end by once again encouraging you to download and use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Chrome is the fastest web browser available and will you will immediately notice how much faster pages load with it. Firefox is unrivaled in terms extensibility and third-party add-ons. I use both browser for various purposes and I strongly recommend both of them. You have nothing to lose by trying them out, and you may very well find that you have a more enjoyable browsing experience with them.
</rant>
Spread the word and fan the winds of change:
This page is at least a month old. Feel free to read it, but you might also want to check out something a little fresher:
firefox
Posted by janfromthebruce (not verified) on May 13th, 2009.
I only use firefox now. Since I have both a laptop and a regular computer, and frequently travel, I can go on the internet, and no matter what computer I am using, I can open to my webpage with all my favourites.
Firefox keeps both updated to the same window.
IE
Posted by pale (not verified) on May 14th, 2009.
I see this argument all the time. LOL.
"I don't like IE, I don't agree with people using IE, and darnit! I just won't make the site useable in IE!"
They may just tell you to take a flying leap. It's rather high handed.
If some people are also like me, they may just not bother coming back. :)
Some of IE useage also has to do with the level of competence, whether they are on work computers, etc etc.
I use both FF and IE (Have IE6 on one PC, and IE7 on the other) for testing purposes. I make an effort to be sure my sites are readable in both.
My server stats on my own site tell the tale. 40% of all visitors are on IE. Seems rather pushy to tell 40% of people that they are not welcome unless they conform.
just sayin.
Today's Statistics??
Posted by Sebastian Alucema (not verified) on May 14th, 2009.
I've been reading your blog for 1-1.5yrs. I read it through google reader. thank you thank you thank you so much for the full text and not just a blurp. because of that, I never really visit your site and I'm a Opera browser user.
I came to your site today to see the rounder corners on the tabs and was surprised to see square tabs even though I've heard that Opera is the most standards compliant browser available. Anyway, what do your stats tell you today about what browsers came by for a visit?
I feel it sucks that Opera didn't even get mentioned...I'm a big fan.
Sebastian: About 6% of
Posted by Devin Johnston on May 14th, 2009.
Sebastian:
About 6% of visitors to this site use Safari, although a much higher percentage are Mac users. I didn't mention it mostly because I don't use is, so I can't really comment on its performance.
Pale:
I'm not saying IE users are not welcome here. I'm just saying that I'm not willing to spend countless painstaking hours making everything render consistently in a non-compliant browser. This means that IE users will see a site that is slightly less attractive, but still perfectly functional. I think that strikes a good balance between the desire to make the information accessible and my unwillingness to write non-compliant code or use ugly hacks to get everything "just so".
I have to use IE at work.
Posted by Brian (not verified) on May 14th, 2009.
I have to use IE at work. The only thing worse than using IE is using an old version of IE before tabbed browsing.
ironically, tho', I _am_
Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on May 16th, 2009.
ironically, tho', I _am_ using a diff browser (Firefox) and your page _doesn't_ display correctly (or acceptably): it's completely mushed against the left margin, which makes it harder to read & reflects on you poorly _as_ a webpage designer, so please correct.
Anon, I've tested the site
Posted by Devin Johnston on May 16th, 2009.
Anon,
I've tested the site pretty extensively in Firefox, as well as using BrowserShots to get a sense of how it renders in different browsers, platforms, screen resolutions, etc. I've not yet encountered any difficulties getting the page to render properly in Firefox. Perhaps you could give me some additional info (OS, screen resolution, Firefox version number) and possibly a screen shot so that I can address the problem.
Thanks,
-D
I share your enthusiasm...
Posted by Werner (not verified) on May 16th, 2009.
...for Firefox. Chrome, however, was a major disappointment in my view (and after some testing).
However, there may be several million reasons not to use IE, but there is one simple reason for many users out there not to change IE as their default browser.
I use Firefox all the time, but my settings show IE as the default browser. Why? Because in my line of work, I require special proprietary software that, for some reason (no clue, please don't ask me why), only runs (or even opens up) if IE is the system's default browser.
In my initial joy over Firefox, I set my default to Firefox and kissed IE good-bye, only to discover the next day that a vital proprietary application I need daily in my work wouldn't open anymore (it's also one that requires a special dongle to be stuck into the computer).
I wasted a lot of time before realizing that it was the change in the default browser that had precipitated that needless disaster.
So, I changed the settings back, and the application opened up again and ran like a charm.
I still use Firefox all the time, but I cannot change the default settings or, heaven forbid, remove IE from my computer system. I wish I could, but I suppose I am what they call "captive".
NB: This is not Microsoft's fault, though. It's the maker of the application in question that's at fault, for integrating its software so tightly with IE -- of all things!
mushed left margin
Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on May 17th, 2009.
I'm using Firefox 3.0.10 on Windows xp home w. a 15'' crt monitor @ 1024 by 768 pixel res. And it's not cuz I've over-ridden your selected font in the content tab of Firefox -- I've still got 'allow pages to choose their own font' selected. Tho' I might have applied the 'Clear Type' feature to windows
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ClearType
maybe it has something to do with that.
Thanks for the info, Anon, I
Posted by Devin Johnston on May 17th, 2009.
Thanks for the info, Anon, I will look into it.
:)
I gave up the use of IE long
Posted by saracarrol (not verified) on September 19th, 2009.
I gave up the use of IE long before. The primary reason was that it’s the slowest browser available in market. I tried Opera for several months but I got problem with sign in facebook through Opera so now I’m using Firefox. Over all fire fox is a very comfortable and perfect browser. I don’t know why the hell people are still using IE!
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