Comments on: Browser War: Speed vs Usability

By: Elmer

Elmer — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 05:45:30 +0000

Personally, I’ve been an IE fan because for one, I’m more familiar with it and it generally works on all the pages that I frequent. I’ve had overall good experiences with FF and from the little bit that I used Chrome, I enjoyed it, it was quick and slick. Overally, I’d say that IE still gets my vote at the end of the day. I thought that IE5 and 6 were overall blank but they did the job. IE 7 and 8 are definitely big steps in the right direction. Granted that you can say that they copied a lot of the other features that Firefox pioneered, but they’ve also made a great upgrade. I’ve been running Vista (Which I love BTW) and IE loads up quickly in general with all 4 of my homepages.

By: THE MOLITOR

THE MOLITOR — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 22:06:39 +0000

THE END IS NEAR!!!!

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/04/10/prepare-for-automatic-update-distribution-of-ie8.aspx

By: THE MOLITOR

THE MOLITOR — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:40:10 +0000

I understand that you use what you’re familiar with, and it makes sense to use IE6 if nothing else is available. My problem isn’t with you. It’s with Microsoft making it so hard for users to upgrade.

Again, I’m not trying to bash MS. I LOVE my Xbox. It’s just Internet Explorer that I take issue with.

You can still use IE6 for viewing themolitor.com, but you’ll get a nice little message if you do ;-)

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:37:25 +0000

I still use IE6 at work because I don’t have any other choice. So if that means I can’t view themolitor.com anymore, you’re going to have to take up this argument with IT. Rumor has it that we’re upgrading to IE7 sometime this quarter (and Vista if you’re looking for another MS product to bash), but Firefox will never be an option at work. It’s out of my hands.

And for home use, I use IE because I think it’s easier to use. Perhaps it’s just because that’s what I’m used to because I’ve been using it for years, but Firefox does have some things that annoy me and has some settings I don’t like that I can’t figure out how to change. The plug ins aren’t an issue for me because I haven’t seen any that I would ever use. I route all my RSS feeds through Outlook, not either browser, gmail too.

And I agree with Nate, with a broadband connection, difference in load speed is negligible.

For me as a user, there’s no compelling reason to transition to Firefox when I’m perfectly happy with IE. But I’m willing to make this one concession: I’ll start viewing themolitor.com on FF (when I’m at home).

By: THE MOLITOR

THE MOLITOR — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:17:11 +0000

Good points.

I think people still use IE6 because it doesn’t have an upgrade feature built into it, so users never know there are newer versions available.

That’s why it’s so important that the web developer community stop supporting it and let people know they need to upgrade.

This website is dedicated to stopping IE6. Check it out!
http://www.stopie6.org/

By: Nate

Nate — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:53:51 +0000

well hey there I thought I’d weigh in :) My personal opinion is that the difference in speed that the browser actually loads the page is probably negligible. Thus I’d say it’s more important that the browser loads the page right. But then, what is right? That is the question! If we’re taking w3 as a standard, ffx is a couple billion miles closer than any flavor of ie, but then, in some respects, chrome is even closer. However, chrome can’t even load the google earth browser version correctly(at least it couldn’t about 6 weeks ago when I tried)…. hmm, seems ironic. So more “standards compliant” unfortunately does not translate to “loads more pages correctly.” In the end, loading a page correctly is only determined by what browser the developer intended the site for. And, as a developer, I need to design for what most people use. http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp So, my pages have to work in both IE (including 6) and ffx. Others just aren’t that important…. yet

By: Satyajit

Satyajit — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:44:20 +0000

@Scott – the level of IE as a browser is trailing behind Firefox/Safari/Chrome (and even Opera) by good 6yrs or more. While IE6 is horrible for any web standards support, IE7 & 8 have become little better (by copying the features), but still have a lot of catch up to do.
FF makes me very productive (with all its add-ons), so I have never looked back at IE in last 5yrs.

By: THE MOLITOR

THE MOLITOR — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:13:25 +0000

Some make the claim that FireFox is slow, but I personally don’t think it is. Even if it were the slowest, I’m willing to wait if it means I get to see the page the way the author intended.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:17:31 +0000

I’ve never used Firefox is it really that great? Sine you said the page loads properly does that mean you wait longer?

By: THE MOLITOR

THE MOLITOR — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:42:29 +0000

Well, you’re half right. I have a justified hatred for Internet Explorer (especially IE6), not MS in general. IE has so many bugs in how displays websites that it’s the sole cause for much rework that I have to do when developing.

All that aside, FireFox has some really cool plug-ins that makes life a little easier. Such as Gmail notifiers, RSS feed notifiers, cool PDF readers, etc.

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:42:10 +0000

I thought the only 2 reasons for using Firefox were: a) you are one of those people with an irrational hatred of MS or b) you’re a web developer who likes it because it’s easier to design for than IE.

But seriously, I have both installed on my pc and use IE 90% of the time. I find it more user friendly.