Windows Guru Calls For IE7 Boycott

Anonymous Cowherd writes "Paul Thurrott, a journalist that usually writes about all things Windows related (and sometimes about Apple affairs too), made a call in a recent article to boycott Internet Explorer, due to Microsoft's approach (continued in IE7) of not supporting web standards: 'My advice here is simple: Boycott Internet Explorer. It is a cancer on the Web, and must be stopped. IE is insecure and is not standards-compliant, which makes it unworkable for both end users and Web content creators... You can turn the tide by demanding better from Microsoft and using a better alternative Web browser. I recommend and use Mozilla Firefox, but Apple Safari (Mac only) and Opera 8 are both worth considering as well.'"

Re:Ok all you web designers out there ....

[NineNine]

You go right ahead and do that. Those of us poor slobs that actually pay our bills based on our web sites will be supporting IE 7, though.

Re:Acid2 test looks fine in IE7

[FnH]

visit http://www.webstandards.org/act/acid2/test.html#to p [webstandards.org] The image in the article is the reference image.

Re:Firefox can't even pass acid2...

[Trillan]

You write "can't even" like acid2 is critical or trivial. It exercises part of the CSS standard that Firefox has trouble with, but that does not mean Firefox's CSS support is no better than IE's.

Get the facts guys....

[Momoru]

All this IE won't pass the Acid test on purpose hype is a little out of control. Where that comes from is this [msdn.com] article from yesterday where the IE developer says:

our top priority is (and will likely always be) security

First, let's be happy about that. Obviously the more serious problem with IE is the security issues.

He then says:

I want to be clear that our intent is to build a platform that fully complies with the appropriate web standards, in particular CSS 2 ( 2.1, once it's been Recommended).

and further more:

It's pointedly not a compliance test (from the Test Guide: "Acid2 does not guarantee conformance with any specification"

So neither the author nor half of slashdot read anymore then the hyped up Slashdot headline. He specifically says they will be fully compliant and are making that a large issue. Cripes, if you want to have credibility, at least get the real facts straight.

"better"

[Khashishi]

Each horizontal band line is a separate test or group of tests. Clearly, gecko renders more lines correctly than IE. "better" can be quantified.

Re:what the hell?

[jiushao]

Which is why the already expressed intention of the IE7 development team to fully support CSS2 is a good thing.

The article however is screaming about the IE team saying that they won't aim to pass the ACID2 test for this release. I don't see a problem with this, the point of my previous post was that it is not worth it to worry about getting the browser in line with standards perfectly on every front when no other browser passes the test anyway. Getting the CSS2 into a good known functioning state for baseline web development is the right priority. People going paragraph-surfing on w3c.com and making up tests that no browser passes is not something to take much notice of until then.

To reiterate; Fix what is most needed (and they are apparently bringing up a lot of broken functionality to the standard) first, and maybe worry about what the W3C is whining about some other decade.