Why you should dump IE. - Page 5

TheShadow · 21-06-2004, 21:42

Talking of ActiveX, anyone know how to enable it for Opera?

I need it enabled to run GMail.

Chris W · 21-06-2004, 21:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheShadow

Talking of ActiveX, anyone know how to enable it for Opera?

I need it enabled to run GMail.

Quote:

Opera currently does not support ActiveX, nor does it support VBScript. There are three reasons for this:

Opera Software AS is committed to supporting open Internet standards, recommended by the W3C and other organizations, something neither ActiveX nor VBScript, being license issued Microsoft technologies, are. In addition to this, ActiveX is a proprietary technology which is not available for alternative operating systems.
The second reason is much more simple: There's just not enough market demand for these technologies to warrant the cost of implementing them.
In addition, some reports raise the question of how secure ActiveX is. It has been claimed that ActiveX has serious problems with security, and some even say that the problem is an almost complete lack of security. The same concerns have been raised about VBScript.

from here

TheShadow · 21-06-2004, 21:48

Ok, cheers.

Looks like I'm gonna have to stick to IE for E-mail then.

Richard M · 21-06-2004, 23:32

Gmail needs plain old Javascript, which runs in Mozilla, Opera and IE.

themelon · 22-06-2004, 00:12

Being a Web/Multimedia Designer, I have to say that any designer worth his/hers tupence will test a decent Website on a variety of browsers to make sure it works and displays correctly. If it doesnt work on all browsers in some form..even older ones (we are told to develop for Netscape 3 content still), It is a crap site with a crap designer. I think there is still a reasonable percentage of people that dont use the latest version of browsers still.

Jerrek · 22-06-2004, 00:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

A good example of this is India- not a place renouned for IT, but statistics that i was reading (will find the link later) showed that 92% of home users in India have linux not windows, because it is cheaper. If this trend continues, then fewer people will use IE, and more people will install other browsers, which will in turn lead to development of web content that is cross browser compatible.

MB

I would like to see those statistics. And knowing India, I want to know if they counted all the pirated Windows copies floating about.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard M

OK stop press:
Mozilla will be the dominant browser by then anyway imo.

What are you smoking?

Quote:

Being a Web/Multimedia Designer, I have to say that any designer worth his/hers tupence will test a decent Website on a variety of browsers to make sure it works and displays correctly. If it doesnt work on all browsers in some form..even older ones (we are told to develop for Netscape 3 content still), It is a crap site with a crap designer. I think there is still a reasonable percentage of people that dont use the latest version of browsers still.

I disagree. I would test it on systems the MAJORITY of the people use UNLESS my goal is to penetrate a minority market too.

Richard M · 22-06-2004, 01:01

I totally disagree with that, my newest site (a web development company no less) is perfectly usable in Netscape 4, Opera, Mozilla, IE, text browsers, mobile phones, TV internet and even Mosaic.
You know how?
Because I only use XHTML + CSS 2.1 coded to the strictest of standards.

I don't need to worry about any extra versions of the site for other browsers/devices.

And while we're at it, check out a site only tested in IE:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/s...o/DXTidemo.htm
It looks terrible in any other browser, which is a disgrace for a computer company.

TheShadow · 22-06-2004, 01:26

I decided to switch to Mozilla earlier, and yeah, it's much faster than IE or Opera.

It also has tab browsing too (like Opera), which makes me a happy chappy.

Bifta · 22-06-2004, 09:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard M

And while we're at it, check out a site only tested in IE:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/s...o/DXTidemo.htm
It looks terrible in any other browser, which is a disgrace for a computer company.

Why is it a disgrace that they're offering a demo of the advanced features of Internet Explorer that other browsers can't manage?

Richard M · 22-06-2004, 10:01

I'm not talking about the actual features of the demo, but even the form controls don't display properly.

Bifta · 22-06-2004, 10:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard M

I'm not talking about the actual features of the demo, but even the form controls don't display properly.

I'm not sure how that's relevant, you know you're visiting a page that offers IE only features, even if the form elements did display correctly you wouldn't be able to get any results from them.

Richard M · 22-06-2004, 10:17

Aah well it was probably a bad example to post, there are plenty others out there.
MSDN are usually very good, a large percentage of members use an alternative to IE so I'm surprised they didn't bother to check for compatibility and put a note at the top stating that it uses proprietary IE extensions.

Stuart · 22-06-2004, 12:26

Maybe if Microsoft is a member of the w3c, they should be working to get these features added to the standards for a browser, rather than just adding them to their own browser?

Richard M · 29-06-2004, 05:00

I hate to say "I told you so" but:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3840101.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3847277.stm
Even the BBC are providing links to alternatives...

Richard M · 02-07-2004, 17:10

It's the beginning of the end for IE, now the US government are strongly advising people to switch to alternative browsers:
http://www.wired.com/news/infostruct...,64065,00.html
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0...&tid=95&tid=99

Note that Avant and MyIE are still using the Trident(IE) rendering engine so still have the same vulnerabilities.