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.'"

Microsoft's reasoning is flawed

[Anonymous Coward]

They claim they don't want to support all the standards because it will break poorly coded website. Well, there's an easy solution they already somewhat support... turn on the correct rendering engine with doctype switching! Regular users with badly coded sites are unlikely to have a correct doctype (or any doctype at all) that would trigger this mode. Standards supporters win, and users win.

Re:How to tell users to boycott it when...

[lukewarmfusion]

After my third time removing spyware from my wife's grandparents' computer I did the following:

1. Install Firefox.
2. Change IE shortcut to Firefox.
3. Rename Firefox icon as "Internet"
4. I told them that their computer was slow because of the IE and AOL browsers.

This worked wonders. These are the same people that were told to defrag once to make your computer faster and interpreted it as a "defrag every day."

Some PHP Code...

[Compholio]

if(strstr($HTTP_USER_AGENT, "MSIE") != FALSE)
{
print "You are running an outdated, boycotted, browser - please upgrade:<BR><BR>";
print "<A HREF=\"http://www.spreadfirefox.com/\"><img border=\"0\" alt=\"Get Firefox!\" title=\"Get Firefox!\" src=\"http://www.spreadfirefox.com/community/image s/affiliates/Buttons/180x60/get.gif\"/></A><BR><BR >";
print "<A HREF=\"http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08 /02/1853256&tid=113&tid=218\">IE 7.0 Technical Changes Leave Web Developers, Users in the Lurch</A><BR>";
exit;
}

Re:Advice

[LordHunter317]

Except that other browsers pretend to be IE (e.g., Opera) or can be configured to pretend as such (e.g., Konqueror, Safari).

The above is the exact reason why browser detects are no longer used in Javascript: The user agent doesn't tell you jack or shit.

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

[Red Flayer]

Sure, and eliminate 90% of my market?

Not likely.

No company that depends on selling MS for its livelihood will boycott MS (read: PC Retailers, which is the only place to hit MS in the pocket).

Companies cannot afford to boycott MS (too many apps not transferable to other platforms, and too much short-term cash loss).

Re:Ok with me

[Feral Bueller]

and what do we do with all our windows software?

just stop using it and throw away all the money we spent on it?

This is the same bullshit that M$ has used to justify gimping web development for almost 10 years now. Throw it away -- it's CRAP. Continuing to sacrifice standards and innovation on the altar of compatibility for a sub-standard operating system and it's hamstrung retarded cousin the IE browser has become a tired and specious argument.

Microsoft fanbois are sad and depressing. Wake up. Smell the coffee:

1. Apple to ship Intel boxes, at this rate before Microsoft ships a new operating system.
2. Paul Thurrott recommends boycotting IE7
3. Apple ships a multi-button mouse

I guess it's going to take Cthulu rising up from Puget Sound and devouring Redmond before you hairless chimps get the message and stop shitting all over web development.

Re:Acid2 test looks fine in IE7

[David Horn]

Oops. Well, I thought FireFox renders it badly, but IE makes me want to vomit.