Internet Explorer Inefficiencies
I don’t know why IE has such difficulty rendering prefectly good code. I finally got my theme set up just the way I like it (well, mostly anyway, there are still a few more things to add, but it works, in Mozilla, Firefox, and other broswers! on multiple platforms!), then I tried looking at it in Explorer… Ugh. The right floated images work… sometimes. Some work, some are centered, with the background color spanning the entire page width, even though the code and css are identical. Then I checked it in IE on a Mac, even worse! One of the header images doesn’t even appear, the right-hand portion of the header just floats in space, with a blank area to the left of it, and none of the sidebar backgrounds show up!
So the moral of the story is… dump Exploder! Use any other broswer: (Mozilla, Firefox, Camino), Opera. If enough people do this, maybe Microsoft will fix their broken software. But if a majority keep using it despite its poor performance, they have no reason to change it. I, for one, am tired of breaking my code to fit a broken application. If you’re viewing this page with IE and something looks not quite right, blame MS, not me. And please, do us all a favor, and start using a browser that works. Thanks.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:53 am
The problem I have had with using alterative browsers is their functioning stops when using financial websites that require high security. Many times these financial sites are written only for Explorer.
June 13th, 2006 at 9:13 am
I can understand that. I still keep a copy of explorer for those situations, but typically use the Mozilla suite or FireFox for most of my browsing and webwork. If I encounter a site that only runs on explorer I’ll open it up. But I’m finding that as more consumers utilize the better browsers, less sites are limiting themselves to IE.
For instance, I use VistaPrint for business cards and some other business printing needs. Many of their on-line editing features were limited to Internet Explorer, and moreover, to an IE version not availble for Mac, my platform of choice. So to edit my docs, I had to use IE on a PC somewhere. Now I can do most, if not all of my editing in the browser of my choice on either platform.
I think of it like the Sony Beta tragedy. Beta was a superior product, but VHS manufacturers established better early market positions. Sony finally succumbed and adopted VHS and Beta went the way of the dinosaur. So, as consumers, we can let Microsoft dominate the browser market, and forever be using a crappy product, or we can use the better product whenever we can and hope the financial sites and others will catch on.