Tax on internet explorer 7

posted on June 14th, 2012, 2:14 pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18440979

I love australians, you win the internet for this.

tl;dr - australian retailer kogan.com charges people more money for using IE7 because their tech staff have to spend more time making sure the site works in the old browser (but really it's to encourage people to switch).

posted on June 14th, 2012, 6:14 pm

Just one more reason to use Firefox

posted on June 14th, 2012, 6:20 pm

One of the first things I do when installing a new copy of Windows on any machine is install the current versions of Chrome (using the enterprise installer so it's available for all users of that machine -- I loathe the default installation of the program files into a user's profile), Firefox, and Internet Explorer. No excuse to use an older browser.

posted on June 14th, 2012, 7:06 pm

No excuse to use an older browser.

Agreed. We're looking at you 28% of China who still use IE6

posted on June 14th, 2012, 9:20 pm

One of the first things I do when installing a new copy of Windows on any machine is install the current versions of Chrome (using the enterprise installer so it's available for all users of that machine -- I loathe the default installation of the program files into a user's profile), Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

That's pretty much what any computer user with a modicum of sense does, gets other browsers. that's all IE<9 is good for, downloading better browsers. IE9 is barely acceptable, it scrapes through.

I'm also not a fan of Chrome's install behaviour, I'm also not a fan of it's updating behaviour either. I don't keep an install of chrome, because it takes too many liberties with your computer. IMO they designed it as a browser for idiots who don't understand what a browser is.

Firefox is my choice, with Opera as a secondary browser, because I have a lot of respect for Opera, the Opera developers are clearly talented and have vision.

Firefox has a huge browser share for a browser that doesn't have the billions of money of M$ and Googl€ to back it. Firefox is closer ideologically to my preferences too.

Agreed. We're looking at you 28% of China who still use IE6

There's no point in them upgrading their browsers, their internet is censored and bowdlerised to a depressing degree. They probably don't care about upgrading. Also part of their stickiness is the fact that they pirate win XP so much, and I'm not sure if M$ allows updating browsers on XP without passing the stupid Windows anti piracy bollocks.

personally if i knew shit about web development I'd make my pages refuse to serve content to ie6/7, i'd just display a message that says something along the lines of "your browser is obsolete and insecure, please update it".

posted on June 15th, 2012, 1:31 am

That's pretty much what any computer user with a modicum of sense does, gets other browsers. that's all IE<9 is good for, downloading better browsers. IE9 is barely acceptable, it scrapes through.

I'll have you know I use IE9 as my main browser and I don't have any problems with it.

Firefox is my choice, with Opera as a secondary browser, because I have a lot of respect for Opera, the Opera developers are clearly talented and have vision.

Firefox has a huge browser share for a browser that doesn't have the billions of money of M$ and Googl€ to back it. Firefox is closer ideologically to my preferences too.

I also use Opera as a secondary. However, I can't abide by Firefox's stance that they should release a new browser every six months. You may get features faster, but the software never stabilizes, not to mention upgrade pressure. It's moronic.

There's no point in them upgrading their browsers, their internet is censored and bowdlerised to a depressing degree. They probably don't care about upgrading. Also part of their stickiness is the fact that they pirate win XP so much, and I'm not sure if M$ allows updating browsers on XP without passing the stupid Windows anti piracy bollocks.

I'm pretty sure that you can get IE without a licence check, and I know XP supports IE 8 (though not 9). Besides, if they're pirating Windows, I'm sure they can get a copy of IE.

By the way Myles, you probably just got this thread banned in China .

posted on June 15th, 2012, 2:31 am

One of the first things I do when installing a new copy of Windows on any machine is install the current versions of Chrome (using the enterprise installer so it's available for all users of that machine -- I loathe the default installation of the program files into a user's profile), Firefox, and Internet Explorer. No excuse to use an older browser.

Yes, that is a pain with Chrome. I face this often at my work.

EDIT:

I'll have you know I use IE9 as my main browser and I don't have any problems with it.

Yeah, the newer versions of IE are much better. I still prefer Chrome but I do not have an undying hatred for IE anymore.

posted on June 15th, 2012, 2:57 am

Heh, that australian knows how it's done.

I've been using Opera as my primary browser for about three or four years and I'm very happy about it. It behaves just fine.
I keep an outdated install of Firefox around (every time I update it the next patch comes out like three days after that), but I'm using FF mostly to test my websites anyway.
I think we all know FF changed that version system because so many noobs thought that all other browsers were better because they had higher version numbers. Noobs may have no idea, but there are sooo many of them that it's being felt when some change their browser because of that.
What I've read in this thread so far just strenghtens my opinion that chrome is a noob browser from google that exits to mess with you...

posted on June 15th, 2012, 3:02 am

Chrome may be a 'noob' browser, but it is the most stable and clean to use. Sometimes easy to use doesn't mean its bad, it just means it was well designed.

Personally I find FF clunky and has way too much junk and ui, opera was very annoying to use for me, and despite its slight speed increase, it didn't flow as well as chrome. You can say its because its more complicated, but I don't consider it a good thing. the new IE is very nice, but it is still IE and just as fallible.

posted on June 15th, 2012, 6:28 am

Firefox is my choice, with Opera as a secondary browser, because I have a lot of respect for Opera, the Opera developers are clearly talented and have vision.

Firefox has a huge browser share for a browser that doesn't have the billions of money of M$ and Googl€ to back it. Firefox is closer ideologically to my preferences too.

Firefox is my personal browser of preference, due almost entirely to NoScript. I do use Chrome for Google sites (eg Google docs), and IE 9 for when I have to use a website with Silverlight (specifically the D&D 4E character builder), but overall, Firefox is my prime.

Yes, that is a pain with Chrome. I face this often at my work.

Google does provide an alternate installer to install Chrome system-wide, and I use that to install Chrome on the reference machines for student lab images.

posted on June 15th, 2012, 11:21 am

I'll have you know I use IE9 as my main browser and I don't have any problems with it.

I refer you to my statement that IE9 is barely acceptable. If I used it I wouldn't have any problems with it, just other browsers go further and do better. Compared to their previous IE offerings M$ really outdid themselves making IE9 tolerable.

An analogy is that a vanilla ice cream is acceptable, but a chocolate ice cream is better. IE9 is vanilla ice cream, other browsers are better flavours.

I also use Opera as a secondary. However, I can't abide by Firefox's stance that they should release a new browser every six months. You may get features faster, but the software never stabilizes, not to mention upgrade pressure. It's moronic

Akshully it's every 6 weeks, and it doesn't force new features, any feature that's not ready just gets delayed to a later release. Several of the releases have offered very few new features, giving mainly bug fixes. The features take roughly the same time, the only thing that's changed is the version number goes up faster as a marketing tactic to keep up with Chrome (appeases the "noobs" as zap puts it).

And now Firefox updates silently like chrome, too.

I'm pretty sure that you can get IE without a licence check, and I know XP supports IE 8 (though not 9). Besides, if they're pirating Windows, I'm sure they can get a copy of IE.

I seem to remember when I had to download IE8 on my xp machine that it asked for WGA validation (which passed as I actually own a legal copy of XP, I know it's surprising to hear I own a legal copy of something, it came with the computer 8 years ago, I also have an OEM copy of vista from my laptop).

Who would wanna pirate a browser anyway? that's like going into tesco and shoplifting vegetables. better browsers are free.

By the way Myles, you probably just got this thread banned in China .

Nice, I always wanted to see the great (fire)wall of China up close.

I do not have an undying hatred for IE anymore.

That's how I feel, they finally released a version that doesn't make you want to facepalm with a brick.

Personally I find FF clunky and has way too much junk and ui

In version 4 they changed it and it now has the same amount of UI as chrome basically. 1 line for firefox menu/tabs/window controls/etc and a second line for back/forward/refresh/url/etc all main browsers look the same now.

one thing the other browsers will never have is the plethora of customisation firefox has. that's its main strength imo.

posted on June 15th, 2012, 12:18 pm

All i know is that over the years I've come to hate IE with a vengeance.

My parents still prefer IE, but that's simply because when they see something different when it comes to computers their brain seems to shut down.

I've tried chrome and although it has some interesting features, personally i prefer Firefox.

The only thing which i would like is a little bit less memory usage from FF

posted on June 15th, 2012, 12:47 pm

Yeah, I have used FFs new version, but it still seems clunky to me. It certainly is not as small as Chrome in the UI and it is mroe of a memory hog. It is never as fast and trying to install addons is not nerely as easy as chrome. I personally love Chromes "undo" button. It sure is a stable browser and all, and it might have better compatibility than chrome in some cases, but I am willing to sacrifice that(and my privacy I guess) and use chrome.


You know.... I think we have had this argument before.... I believe it died because someone(I think it was myles) started arguing that there is no evidence to show any one is better than the other and it is all personal preference. ...

posted on June 15th, 2012, 1:08 pm

The only thing which i would like is a little bit less memory usage from FF

that's always been firefox's greatest weakness. thankfully they're making lots of progress on it, my firefox uses around half the memory it used to. hopefully they'll continue to make progress on it.

It certainly is not as small as Chrome

Both browsers have nothing below the url bar other than scroll bars. I measured the two bars at the top (tabs and url bar basically), firefox uses about 7 vertical pixels more on my screen. out of hundreds of vertical pixels that's practically nothing. size wise all the major browsers use almost the same amount of screen space for gui.

about addons, i've never had any issues installing addons, click install, push ok, restart browser (more and more addons don't even need the restart). addons update silently. flash player/java/silverlight/acrobat handles their own updates outside of browsers, so browsers don't get a say in them. in the past things were different, maybe it's left negative impressions on people.

You know.... I think we have had this argument before.... I believe it died because someone(I think it was myles) started arguing that there is no evidence to show any one is better than the other and it is all personal preference. ...

yeah, that sounds like something i'd have said, browser war arguments usually turn into personal preference. i certainly don't think chrome is a bad browser. my main objections to it are the way it behaves as a program, install path and the way it updates take liberties imo. my argument in this post is that most browsers are almost identical looking these days. a formula has been established for web browsers.