Internet Browsing And You

I sorta forget that other people don't always keep up with the latest trends when it comes to Internet browsing.  Hell, I don't even keep up with all the browsers. If you use Avant you're officially the sad nerdy version of a hipster.  And heaven forbid I run into someone using K-meleon- which is Firefox's shunned Windows-only cousin. 

The point is that there are more ways to view the Internet than the amount of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.  That being said, I'm pretty sure all of you have the same picture when it comes to your choice of Internet browser.  This:

So... that's the kid from Up fighting with a furry?

Now, I'm not here to defend everyone's favorite browser for getting another browser.  If you don't know which one that is, have a hint: the one eating glue.  I use Firefox on my main computer because it has several add-ons I need to function (LeechBlock, FireBug and Chatzilla are the big three I use almost every day).  I've got Chrome on my netbook because it was shiny and new back then and I wanted to try it.

So, why does everyone hate IE?  Well, you probably first started avoiding it when your "computer" friend told you it was the worst thing ever.  This video sums it up fairly well:

It's a two minute video, but the important part is in the last stretch when he rants about IE.  You see, for a long time, Internet Explorer didn't play by the same rules as everyone else when it came to browsing the web.  Writing an application that worked for all browsers sucked because IE did things differently, so you'd have to tack on a lot of extra IE only code.

Then Microsoft pulled the stick out of their ass with IE 8 and 9, and made their browser Document Object Model compliant.  Or DOM compliant to cut down on typing, but don't confuse this with Marcus' gay lover in Gears of War.

Also known as the overcompensation duo

 So, in today's great world, developing for IE is just as easy as Firefox, Chrome, or Opera, as all of these browsers now follow the same rules (DOM).  I hope I just ruined some pretentious asshole's day with that one.  Wait, if that didn't do it, this will: as a programmer, you have no excuse anymore to say that developing for IE sucks.

Well, no one gives a shit about what's easy to write code on.   If that was the case, we'd have converted you people over to Linux a while ago.  And I know that- so I asked my Facebook feed, also known as the most fair distribution of people on the planet, why they thought IE sucked.

Almost everyone that replied complained about IE's speed.  Valid point.  Aside from the fact that IE recently beat Chrome in speed tests, and has historically beaten up on Firefox.  In fact, if speed was the only thing we judged browsers by, Opera would be launching nukes while everyone else was still working on gunpowder in the Civilization series.

What does this mean?  Not much.  IE still sucks at loading CSS style sheets (which is how 90% of graphics are done on the web) and recently has started taking close to 11 seconds to boot from a cold start.  Those are the two things that come to mind when you think about browser speed, so IE still feels slow.

But IE does a damn good job at dealing with multiple tabs (better than Chrome and Firefox in that regard) and running JavaScript (also known as animation on the web).  Is it any better than Firefox or Chrome?  Probably not- but its definitely comparable and not a glue huffing castoff from another age.

Also, (for your enjoyment) here are a few other reasons I got as to why people don't use IE:
"It's not as pretty as Firefox."
"I use Safari because [I'm not allowed to use] non-native browsers."
"BECAUSE IE WAS INVENTED BY THE MAN!!!!"

Thanks to everyone who answered my random Facebook poll.  Please don't flame me to hard.