Internet Explorer loses more browser market share

So just wanted too say every since someone told me about firefox I never used IE again.

I switched over to Firefox earlier this year as well and never use IE.

I haven't used IE as my default browser for close to 4 years, maybe longer (whenever I was introduced to FF). Don't forget that in 2003, IE was still bundled with Mac OSX, which has since changed, so I imagine that has a lot to do with the shift in numbers as well.

Also, since the introduction of SP3 for XP, there is no longer a default desktop icon option under the display properties in Windows. I believe this was due to an antitrust measure, and you must use a registry hack to get the icon back (unless it was previously there.) Just the absence of the icon would turn most "Average Joe" PC users to "something easier."

Death to IE !

The most slow, featureless and pathetic browser i've ever used !
My primary browser is FireFox. But for lightweight internet activity i prefer Safari.

A.CH

I have a Macbook laptop and a Vista PC desktop. I prefer to use Safari on the Mac and IE on my pc because they are quicker for me. I've tried Mozilla Firefox on both and have not been impressed.

I have been using all different types of browsers for the past several years but i have found that Internet Explorer has too many issues. To prove my point you just have to look at the massive amounts of Internet Explorer updates you have to do in one calendar year. If anything Microsoft is shooting themselves in the foot if they keep coming up with security based updates and hotfixes. Goes to show that their product does not cut the mustard.

I use Chrome + IE. I used to use Firefox but ever since 3.0 its been performing like IE, except it doesn't load as fast as IE so I abandoned it.

Chrome is like 90% perfect for me. Theres just a few things like odd textbox issues and its inability to do animated .gifs (I visit forums so this is important) and it has oddball issues when I enter my address for Dominos pizza.

After I was told about firefox, I never looked back !

it was expected

What the heck happened to Opera "the worlds fastest browser?" I love opera. Sometimes it reads code a little shitty, but for the most part, does a great job. Its zoom feature can't be beat. Love editor mode for all those shitty sites out there.

Originally posted by ToxicFish:

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What the heck happened to Opera "the worlds fastest browser?" I love opera. Sometimes it reads code a little shitty, but for the most part, does a great job. Its zoom feature can't be beat. Love editor mode for all those shitty sites out there.

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I hope IE dies and if it does dies good but If not.

Maybe they should think about all the crap they added too it and star t iover but I think not and if any MS peple even read this you suck.

Originally posted by SProdigy:

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I haven't used IE as my default browser for close to 4 years, maybe longer (whenever I was introduced to FF). Don't forget that in 2003, IE was still bundled with Mac OSX, which has since changed, so I imagine that has a lot to do with the shift in numbers as well.

Also, since the introduction of SP3 for XP, there is no longer a default desktop icon option under the display properties in Windows. I believe this was due to an antitrust measure, and you must use a registry hack to get the icon back (unless it was previously there.) Just the absence of the icon would turn most "Average Joe" PC users to "something easier."

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plus if you work for walmart and use the internet too access your account or hours you need too use IE that suxs but I can see why it was the only one used and it is the longest running if you think about it but since IE6 it has gone down hill I would say.

havent used ie in 6 years at least

I agree with atomicxl about Firefox, I too have found that V3 of Firefox seems slower to load and view pages. I still use it primarily and have for years now, but I can see a time that as it gets more popular it will have IE problems...

after i first time use firefox i never come back to IE

Originally posted by wolf123:

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So just wanted too say every since someone told me about firefox I never used IE again.

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Originally posted by ToxicFish:

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What the heck happened to Opera "the worlds fastest browser?" I love opera. Sometimes it reads code a little shitty, but for the most part, does a great job. Its zoom feature can't be beat. Love editor mode for all those shitty sites out there.

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You guys should try maxthon. It's built around IE's engine but it's way better than IE. The only complaint I can think of is that it is slow when running flash apps. I suppose this has to do with the IE engine and will hopefully be faster when IE8 drops a full version.

I, too, have been using Mozilla's Firefox for several years. I much prefer it to IE. The only problem I have w/FF is when attempting a direct link to Microsoft a primarily blank page loads. I always must switch to IE in order to go to Microsoft (updates, help, etc.) I tried Firefox's suggestion to correct that problem, but it didn't work for me. Still using Windows XP.

about Chrome, wasn't there a strong disagreement about how much personal info google would use and store for selling purposes?... I'm sure every browser does this to some degree

Originally posted by borhan9:

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I have been using all different types of browsers for the past several years but i have found that Internet Explorer has too many issues. To prove my point you just have to look at the massive amounts of Internet Explorer updates you have to do in one calendar year. If anything Microsoft is shooting themselves in the foot if they keep coming up with security based updates and hotfixes. Goes to show that their product does not cut the mustard.

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All microsoft products are starting to slide with consumers really.

Originally posted by canuckerz:

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All microsoft products are starting to slide with consumers really.

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Hate to sound like a Microsoft lacky, but I would have to say that all browsers have some strong points and some weak points. Have you tried loading a page that uses vbscript in anything other than IE? Not surprisingly it doesn't work. VB is a microsoft product and a closed source one at that. So other browsers will fail to implement vbscript properly (yes, I do admit that firefox 1.0.5 had a plugin for vbscript, but it was very buggy and ended up being dumped in later versions due to the complexity of what it would do and how much it slowed down your browser). Now I am not certain who has all tried IE 8 (beta 2), but I am overall pleased with what it does. I have had firefox barf on me and lose all of my tabs. With IE8 I only lose the tab with the bad code. Mind you sometimes IE ends up losing more than just the 1 tab and it's "privacy mode" actually stores all the data, unencrypted(!!!!) on your local disk. So it isn't the be all and end all. I have also found problems with it's handling of javascript and activeX at times, but I don't believe any other browser supports activeX (correct me if I am wrong). I also love the way how IE is broken with webmail through exchange unless it is put into a trusted site or you have javascript and activeX enabled on all sites (which is a huge security hole). I much prefer the plugin based system of firefox with it's enhanced compatability and neat extra features through user contributions, but those contributions have dropped drastically in the past few years.
Chrome looks "pretty" but some of the background "snooping" it does to make your searches more efficient, seems a little iffy...
Firefox is the safest way to go (if it is set up properly) for protection from most internet security issues such as phishing or clickjacking.
I personally haven't tried safari yet, but it is on my list of things to "test" on my system at work. I want to find out how it handles our webmail setup and our internal website.
Another issue with IE7+ is that it doesn't always work properly with my work's external website (formatting issues that look fine in firefox).
But enough of a rant... just thought somebody should pop up some good points to M$ (although any ver of IE before 8 is crap imo... even if 8 is still beta...)

Regarding IE/MS updates, do you ever notice when FF goes to another version, it's technically an update (ie. FF v 3.0.5) Just a consideration for all of those who chomp at the bit to whine about MS.

Personally, I hate how MS made a ton of defacto standards with IE, including some CSS formatting that doesn't cross over into other browsers or vice-versa. ActiveX can be a blessing or a curse, pending the application. PNG transparency only began working in IE7.

IE8 needs a "compatibility" mode, because it's so F'd up already! And guess what? It SHIPS with the Windows 7 Beta! Grrr... Good thing I know FF already works on the new OS, so I'm safe!

Go with FF and use Adblock Plus as the plugin: for security and less nagging ads, you won't regret it. As for speed, I've noticed no major difference between Chrome and FF, but then again, I'm on a swift moving PC here.

I didn't notice any huge bugs in IE8 beta 2... beta 1 had a bunch of huge bugs (table issues, hidden objects not being hidden, etc), but beta 2 I have been using at my workplace since it came out (give or take 2 days) and haven't had any major issues. I have more issues with 7 than I have with 8 (ie7.0.6001.18000 on vista won't load some webpages... says they are down, but firefox is all good with them. Pages like www.gamefaqs.com, which works fine in IE8). One problem I did find in 8 is that it identifies itself as IE8 and most people who have multiple versions of their website based on the browser detected don't properly recognize IE8 as being "IE 7 or higher"... and for those sites the compatibility mode works perfectly. Haven't tried IE8 on vista yet... plan for testing it next weekend on vista... but will see how things go...

I have been using opera sense version 3. and that most people that are click point type, do not get what Opera is about, it is not just the zoom, it all the short cuts for apps, text editing mail integrated download manager with bit torrents included, the choice of viewing pages with or with out images or flash on so on history quick search to topic or any thing you would like, you can and skin if you like to read or to manipulate the browser to via voice, there is more to opera then just being fast, security adding or blocking, pop adds. just going to see a page the way you would like, not to see add with external software, the ability to configure the browser, the way that you would like in all facets, most will let you pick some things but like Opera, and yes I have used Firefox, IE, Chrome, but there the speed it is not the same, when use the plug ins in Firefox it got slow, Chrome was the same, and dose registries of where I go and what I see dose bother me, and the cleaning of then take to long, with Opera I just tell when I live to clean and that is that, no cookies , no history in less then two seconds it is gone, organizing bookmarks with comments saving sessions when doing a search or mi favorite place to read to load in one shot, to start where I left of the last time, there is more to Opera then just the speed, and as much as little of intrusion like you would like from a browser, the only thing I EI is updates that is all, well even on my new Dell it is Opera and it has that so call new crash master vista with the new Ananias of so call security, that is why for security I relay on SUSE 11, and for that peace of mind, and a lot less of losing of data.

Been a fan of FF for years now.

for years i used only IE, simply because i didn't open my eyes to other options.
when some issues and bugs started to rise up, i finally discovered firefox and it became the browser i use most of the time. i partly agree about the decreasing speed issue in v3, because for me it only takes a little longer to load at first when logging in windows, but then it picks up and it's still faster and smoother than IE.
as already mentioned above, some features such as Activex still run properly (if at all) only on IE, so i still need it. also IE is the most compatible browser for right-to-left languages than any other browser i've tried.
i also tried safari, Maxthon, avant and opera - all of which i didn't find very useful. so without much expectation i recently also gave a shot to google chrome, and i was pleasantly surprised with it. i now use it with some web sites that IE load too slowly and FF also have some issues with.
so FF, IE for its few advantages, and google chrome are my choices.
make yours wisely.

@ Dragula96
Reminded me of a neat pic I ran across. I love the toe nails and body hair on this pic btw...

Anyone try Flock? It's built on Mozilla's Firefox. Pretty neat browser.

Maybe Microsoft should focus on what they are good at.

Wondering what that might be? How about suing people, stifling innovation, and forcing crappy products onto their customers.

But hey, they did invent the registry and the blue screen of death!

I use IE because it's compatible with everything. I'm too lazy to switch back and forth from FF to IE, for example to run an Active X app.

I have a lot of Add ons that will only work with IE too so anything else really isn't an option.

Unfortunately, the masses write code for IE.

IE runs very low in my computer that why i change to MF.

Originally posted by ericg8:

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But hey, they did invent the registry and the blue screen of death!

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What happened for Operas share? :(

Uninstalling IE is a major pain in the ass! I was trying to clean up some spy/adware stuffs, uninstalling FF, easy.... Uninstalling IE? Simply can't be done! Well, i downloaded the uninstall pack, but after uninstall the thing, it still shows up in the program list, what gives? Anyhow, i gave up... Not that i don't like IE, i only use it when there's no other browser available (like on a friend's computer or something). Browsing on FF is very natural, drag and drop, open in new tabs etc... I'm sure you can do those in IE too, but like i've said, if you need to do a clean up, uninstall IE is a pain...

Dragula96 - good one but the fox should be biting e's ass not its back.

M$ and Apple have been way too arrogant for way too long. Yes, we owe these giants a great deal of thanks but not loyalty. They are far from their lean-mean roots. Apple, working out of a garage, M$ with programmers in t-shirts pulling all nighters surviving with complementary all night pizza service. Chances are, the clowns (new management) wouldn’t even hire the same rogues that made their companies great. They would be viewed as trouble makers. That is their problem any sentient being who can see stupid ideas for what they really are, are trouble makers.

Both companies continue to polute their applications with worthless features to already bloated applications to prove to the world that everyone should continue to buy upgrades. At least Apple seems to come up with big new ideas from time to time. Neither company realizes they are rotting from within. This is the first sign I what I have suspected for years. M$ is starting to accelerate in its decline. Some lean and mean company will steal their show and that will be it. Maybe Google will be that company. Apple really doesn't have a show to steal. Ipods and iphones will see heavy competition this year. I expect they will lose market share. That festering puss they call management will make the difference. They have treated their customers like cattle for decades. That only works well for cattle.

Both Apple and M$ are going through what IBM went through in the early 90s. They were able to survive by cutting back and by cleaning house (removing the top layers of management).

Actually, I hope M$ and Apple should be so lucky.

Concerning this. I haven't used IE for a very long time. Recently I have been learning a new language and a lot of the online help site do not work with FF at all.

Is there anything on the market that emulates IE without the bloat and problems of IE ?