Grrrrrrr….. Windows Internet Explorer!!
With work on theSnowSite, and also work on a few other web projects (see Quartz, Court Park Properties and one to be announced – coming soon!) I decided to buy a Windows laptop so I can easily check how things look in different browsers.
What I have found is that if website is developed on a Mac and tested in Safari the chances are it will work, and display the same in:
- Firefox on the Mac
- Camino on the Mac
- Netscape on Windows XP
- Opera on Windows XP
- Firefox on Windows XP
Now, if you look at the above list you will see one browser missing – yep, you guessed it Internet Explorer on Windows XP.
It is amazing. Windows Internet Explorer (IE) consistently fails to meet internet standards. I think it is very telling that six browsers seem to meet standards and one doesn’t…. Coincidence? I think not!!!
What is most annoying is because it means ‘solutions’ have to be developed twice, once for Internet Explorer and once for every one else. Having been forced to use IE on Windows I just can’t understand why people use it. Firefox on Windows is soooo much nicer.
On the plus slide IEs market share is slipping, in 2002 it was around 85 – 90%, it is now down around 60% (Numbers from: http://www.w3schools.com/). Let’s hope that IE market share continues to slip and Microsoft decided to fully adopt internet standards, or at least make their browser behave like all the other browsers out there, in an attempt to get back some market share….
Update (17th April 2006): Hmmmm…. Just found some different figures online for browser usage: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=0 which puts IE at 85%. Most depressing….
