What browser do you use to surf the web?
I was reading this pretentious girl’s website today, and she was bitching about people who use Internet Explorer. I happen to use IE because I prefer the way it renders websites. I used to use Netscape exclusively until their development team decided they didn’t feel like adding any new features to it.
And unlike a lot of people out there, I am not necessarily that interested in having the latest, greatest designed site in the universe. If you can view it and it doesn’t look like crap, I’m happy. I also don’t like people who think just because they like something better, it’s the only thing everyone else should be using. Kiss my ass you snobs. Good for you that you prefer -insert software here-, that does not mean you’re superior to anyone else, so step off your high horse already. There’s nothing more annoying than people who have to brag about what they have and how it’s so much better than what anyone else has. That’s all objective anyway.
That being said, I did decide to look into the other browser alternatives, particularly because Joe and I have been hit with spyware too often recently. I was reading this is particularly because of how IE is so integrated with Windows; it’s easy for parasites and the like to get into your system folders and wreak havoc on your machine. It happened to me at work two weeks ago and I managed to “fix” it, other than an error I get upon startup that I cannot fix without access to the Registry, which I do not have. Leave it up to my I.T. Department to disable RegEdit but still allow me administrative rights to my machine. Not that I’m complaining – I like being able to download and install things. :)
Joe ended up having to reinstall Windows this week due to a parasite that wouldn’t go away. Personally, I think there should be a way to prosecute the website owners where this comes from. I got my parasite from visiting a website with restaurant listings and before I knew it, my machine was downloading and installing programs without my consent and I couldn’t even get them to stop in time. It was very frustrating. It’s no longer safe to do casual surfing online without the fear of jacking up your machine.
I ended up downloading Opera and Firefox to try them out. So far I prefer Opera because it has a lot of neat features, particularly how it handles pop-ups and new windows. I did notice that both new browsers render this journal a bit funky, so I may work on that in the coming days if I’m up to it. But everything else looks ok.
Which reminds me – another thing that aggravated me off about this girl is how she was all high and mighty about people designing their sites using tables. Well excuse me Miss Know It All, but some of us do not have the time, nor the knowledge, to design their sites in nothing but CSS. Maybe you should just shut up.
Anyway, can you tell she touched a nerve? Yes, I design with tables, because I know and understand tables and they give me the result I’m looking for. If perhaps the default layout that MT provides didn’t go all funky, I wouldn’t have been forced to use tables to correct it. But I digress …
I came across this really awesome software (free, mind you) called Yahoo Pops. It’s really cool because it allows you to read your Yahoo Mail from your preferred email client on your machine without having to upgrade to a premium Yahoo! account. Very nice.
People amaze me what they choose to complain about. Who really cares what browser people use? I use IE as well, but only because that is what came on my computer and I’m the kinda gal that requires simple and obvious computer things.
Thanks for the Yahoo email thing, I’ll have to look at that as my Yahoo is constantly going over my limit!
We must’ve been reading the same person’s website because as an IE user (who also happens to have Mozilla installed), I had the same reaction. And even though I do happen to have another browser installed on my computer, she really annoyed me because basically what she’s saying is that IE users need to download another browser (preferably Mozilla because that what she uses and therefore we all should be using it) just to view her site. Like her site is so special that I have to go download a whole other browser just to view it. Pfffft.
I hate all browsers except the one I’m using. But if you’re a good designer, it DOESN’T MATTER what browser someone is using, your website will look the same in all of them, so she should get over herself. Also, I find layouts designed in CSS to be boring and unimaginative. They do not render the same in all browsers unless you use the very basics– which makes for an extremely cookie-cutter layout. I only use CSS for site-wide font and color management. That’s it.
Nicole, CSS isn’t complicated, so don’t give her credit where none is due. It’s much more complicated to design a site using CSS *and* tables and getting it to appear the same on all browsers and all platforms. Or as close as you can possibly get. She sounds like a lazy dolt who would rather bitch about people’s browsers than design her site so that it works in all of them. It’s not the fucking difficult, but this is what happens when you get morons who don’t know a damn thing who think they’re designers. Hehe!
I have to say that the only CSS sites that are boring and unimaginative are those designed by boring and unimaginative people. Because I’ve seen some phenomenal sites based on CSS for layout and display – only not a single one of them was a blog or a journal or diary. CSS is very worth learning and putting to use. I REALLY hate the fucking “all-css-or-die” snobs who shun tables entirely. Tables are useful, fast and easy, render correctly (and not slow) in nearly every version of every browser, and in some cases you just can’t get done what you want done with CSS alone and yes you need tables.
That aside, it’s so not worth arguing over browsers. Yes, it’s okay to strongly prefer one over another, but they all have issues, every one, and it’s not possible to design one perfect site that renders identically in each (or even “good enough” in each, depending on what you’re doing in your design) (caveat: if your site is disgustingly simple, then maybe yeah). If you’re a serious designer, I think you should try to make sure your site renders well in major browsers – and that’s really not hard to do. So there’s no point getting crazy about what browser your site visitors use. It’s okay to INFORM your user if there are design-related issues in certain browsers, but get off your high horse already.
On Windows, I think IE is the best browser, it’s the only one I want to use on Windows. I also develop sites and applications for IE and it’s by far the best for web programming. On the Mac, I use Safari and I think it’s definitely the best. But I’ve got other things to say about Mac browsers and I think I’ll write that up in my own journal.