Internet Explorer's faults Created 18 years ago2006-04-10 16:53:39 UTC by Seventh-Monkey

Primarily for the benefit of BrattyLord and Habboi, I have compiled this list of what I find are generally considered the most serious faults of IE6 and below; these are technical faults alone, not ideological ones (nothing like "abusing market advantage", etc.).

1. It cannot render webpages properly.

Internet Explorer fails to draw webpages according to what are now seven year old CSS specifications. It cannot render alpha-channel PNG images. That standard is seven years old too. If you think that failing to draw webpages isn't a complete failure on the part of a web browser, go away. Computing circles don't wait seven years for updates.

2. It is poorly-secured.

This is more debatable than the above, but people generally find that IE is less secure. Don't bother saying "I don't go on dodgy websites", because eventually, you'll always end up somewhere nasty, even completely unintentionally.

A lot of people seem to think it's no big deal to find scores of trojans on their PC every month. I am certainly not one of them, and I really don't understand the thinking behind this. IE was, years ago, tightly integrated into Windows for legal reasons, at the cost of security.

3. Slow.

On Windows, Internet Explorer is much slower than Opera at drawing most kinds of pages (source). This is a browser with the advantage of being build into the OS, too. Very poor. Firefox and Opera both support HTTP pipelining, which decreases the time taken to actually retrieve whatever is to be rendered from the remote server.

4. Lack of features.

This is, obviously, far less serious than the others. You wouldn't see me here around anywhere near as much if I had to use IE, though. I read every single new post every time I log in. I open twenty or thirty thread pages at once. If I were doing this in IE, I'd have to shift-click each topic link, then tab back to the parent window, and repeat ad luneum. I'd then have scores of pages of varying sizes and positions all over my desktop, and wouldn't be able to find my other applications.

In Opera, Firefox, etc., there are tabs (true child windows in Opera), saving my taskbar organisation. I can zim through, middle-clicking on all the topics marked as new, then right-click and roll up to the next window and get a load more up. I really ought to record a video of a visit to TWHL sometime to show you how massively more efficent it is.

All it takes is a little effort and exploration. What have you got to lose? If I didn't have my trusty Opera, well, I'd have more of a life, I suppose :). I couldn't bear the Web.

Windows users
Opera
Firefox

Other OSs
You're using something better anyway.

1. never noticed

2. firewall, anyone?

3. its faster then firefox and doesnt hog my resources

4. i dont care.

i've used firefox, never again.

1. That's because people code for IE, to the huge disadvantage of people unable to use it (the blind, people on 'phones [growing market]).

2. You don't understand security.

3. That's just nonsense, unless you mean start-up time, or you'd broken FF.

4. Fair enough. That's why I rated it as of the lowest importance.

firefox doesnt hit everything, so i only use the internet explorer patch for firefox when im on yahoo's launchcast. (right now)

so thats the only good thing about it, my POV anyway

ahhahaa!

Brilliantly put, seventh
/round of applause..

1. I checked this in IE and it looks like shit cos it doesnt support .PNG transparency, so the first nag is important also.

2. no doubts

3. This has been proven, dont even attempt to deny that FF and Opera are faster

4. Tabs and total customisability ( IT IS A WORD IF I WANT IT TO BE! ) make internetting a breeze

Firefox is also slow for me..It takes an additonal 10-15 seconds to open the browser...

I have many favourites around 60-100 and I just can't be bothered to copy them into Opera...I didn't save them into a folder sadly...

Even if it isn't secure my Mcafee is just wonderful! It has never let a virus in.

As Pepper said..I don't really care myself and just prefer IE...Simple script without all the additional useless extras like tabs. I love opening them into seperate windows and I have been this way since I used the WWW. You can't convinve me! Besides I've been brought up with IE and just favour it.

I didn't save them into a folder sadly...

What?! thats not even possible. When you bookmark a page, the link and page info gets saved into a folder by default... Its not even possible to change that. If the folder isn't there, you have no favourites.

Habboi, any browser will import IE's favourites.

Yes, Firefox is slow to start up. So? Opera's much quicker, but even if it wasn't, I wouldn't care. Why would you close your browser when you're in the middle of browsing stuff on the Web?

I'm not going to argue much on the features front, because that's a case of what you do and whether you mind fighting with software. I personally want something that does exactly what I tell it to.

paha! Habboi actually blocked me on MSN because he couldn't accept that he'd been proved wrong so badly

Firfox takes so long to start-up because of all it's good crap

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/79/speedtestie1mn.jpg

I'm actually surprised...I had no idea FF did this to my connection...I don't have Opera to test but I'm sure opera is fine...I just prefer IE over FF anyway.

No, it's because IE is already loaded when you start the PC up, and that's mandatory. I'm sure there's a Firefox agent which will do the same if you so request.

PS: Habboi: Very odd. That's quite a discrepancy. I'm about 100% sure that Firefox doesn't actually slow your Internet connection, but it's perculiar. Try a more respected speed test.

rofl, cant ignore the done, but with errors on page notice at the bottom of IE

Habboi, does your comp totally suck? rofl, errors on page.

Firefox is also slow for me..It takes an additonal 10-15 seconds to open the browser...

Adding /prefetch 1 to the firefox shortcut speeds launching up alot.

Errors? Where? AH!

I have to admit that Firefox takes a long time to start up for me, (about the same amount of time as FlashMX) Still worth it though.

Mines quick

Ie's proven to be a lot faster than firefox though and its not due to being tied into the OS anymore

I find Interent Explorer much faster than Firefox when I am surfing the web,

ALTHOUGH,

I use FireFox when I decided to play Chess on Yahoo or something. It seems to be more efficent when I'm actually using some kind of Java Applet.

So, I use both FireFox and Internet Explorer for different uses.

Thanks for the info

Using Internet Explorer is just stupid conservatism. Change is GOOD!... especially when you're changing from a crippled excuse of a browser to sweet heavenly goodness.

Alex's points are spot on. I can find no dead set, definate reason why people STILL use Internet Explorer. All I hear is stuff like "Oh, it's too different" or some other lame excuse.

I'm sorry, but I WON'T support a browser that does not conform to Internet standards. These standards are set by the W3C (the creators of the Web, essentially). Why do you think pages that render fine in IE look totally fucked in Opera or FireFox? Because the page doesn't conform to the standards and as such, Opera and FF read it as faulty code (as they should).

I certainly hope that people who still use IE are doing so after they've tested Opera and/or FireFox for an extensive period of time. If you haven't, then you are COMPLETELY wrong. I don't care what the hell you say, but a two-day trial is utter bullshit.

By the way, did you know that a while ago, Microsoft setup the Hotmail page in such a way that if an Opera user was detected, the server would send a different version of the site to the user? This prevented us from doing a few things, the most famous being the emptying of the Junk E-Mail box. Don't believe me? Wikipedia it. A couple of Opera dev's found out, which forced M$ to change the site.

Read all 4 and I couldn't agree more.

1. It is OLD. Of course, if I would have been using Win 3.0 for all of my life, I wouldn't have noticed, that it's complete ancient crap. But that doesn't mean, that I can't upgrade to Win XP and see, that my GeForce 6 can render much more colours, than 256. Yes. Perhaps you used to drive a Ford Fiesta, since you got your driver's license. That doesn't mean, that you can't start driving a BMW, just because you were used to your old pile of scrap. That wouldn't be too logical, would it?

2. Opera blocks all popups from any site and asks you, whether you want to have a look at them. Did IE ever ask you, if you wanted to download 20 free screensavers or hundreds of free smileys? I don't think so.

3. It takes Opera/Firefox awhile to load, although they do work faster. Of course, you shouldn't expect your pages to load in a sec instead of 30 secs with Opera on a 56k dialup.

4. Quoted from Hunter's post

1) Ugly as sin
2) No tab system (window-in-window)
3) No customizable toolbars
4) No IRC client
5) No regular updates
6) Slower than almost all other browsers
7) No transfer window...
8) Lack of a magic wand tool.
9) Lack of the ability to auto-fill forms
10) No huge online community devoted to making it look sexy

Yes, you can always sit on a wet rock, eating soggy bread, instead of sitting in a comfortable chair, eating your favourite meal, while watching TV. You might say 'It's not the comfort that matters, it's the TV program!!'. Again - you can keep the rock and the bread, if you've been watching TV with them, and got used to them. Although I know, that I'll be sitting in a comfy chair, eating my favourite junk food, while watching TV tonight.

I'm sorry, but I WON'T support a browser that does not conform to Internet standards. These standards are set by the W3C (the creators of the Web, essentially). Why do you think pages that render fine in IE look totally fucked in Opera or FireFox? Because the page doesn't conform to the standards and as such, Opera and FF read it as faulty code (as they should).

Indeed, and nor will TWHL3. I trust for the sake of Luke, Habboi and BL that IE7 can actually render stuff properly. I'm not hopeful, though.

PS: for pepper, notably, who's still claiming that IE uses less resources than FF or Opera:

[credit: PTS Global Photography]

That's with Opera and Firefox containing five heavy-content pages apiece, whilst IE has only blank pages.

Give it up.

TWHL3 will fully conform to XHTML 1.1. IE6 currently renders it fairly poorly. If IE7 cannot render it properly, then it is your loss.

Simple script without all the additional useless extras like tabs. I love opening them into seperate windows and I have been this way since I used the WWW.

Which mean you open a totally new browser everytime you click a link which is much slower tham waiting, say, 5 seconds for a tabbed browser to start up? That's ridicilus, even if IE started for a split second it would again be overally slower than any browser with tabbed functionality.

it took me a few seconds to realise what you meant, Alex. But then i got ya, Even if one window of IE runs more efficiantly than Firefox or Opera, both Firefox and Opera have the tab system, meaning they can open as many pages in the browser as they want, wheras IE has to open another version of IE. and another. And another. and another.

Internet Explorer is getting PWNED

And just so you know, 1 page open in Internet Explorer takes up more system resources than Opera open with 6 pages open.

cheese.com?

its the number 1 cheese resource

im sure it is.

Dont be slaggin on cheese dot com biatch.

Ish ultimate. And yeah. Opera > everything

www.opera.com

7th, i have a cleu about security, just dont need to overdo it.

FF takes a hell of a time to start-up compared to IE. I mean i only use it to look at webpages. IE opens instantly. Tab system? Didnt like it a bit. I may got 3 screens but i cant watch 3 frickin pages at the same time.

It uses less resources at my computer.

Prove it.

As for security, that's not "over-doing" it, that's basic security.

For me its over doing it, i dont need all those fancy useless things.

Removed FF from the computer, i aint never going to touch it again.

Anyone ever heard of PREFETCHING? It will greatly expedite your FF loading time and is very useful.

Adding /prefetch 1 to the firefox shortcut speeds launching up alot.

Nobody ever listens to logical sollutions

I'll stay with internet explorer.
How we use the internet is our own problem right?

Exactly...Anyway I'm not interested in this thread anymore...It bores me..Heh sounds like a quote from somewhere.

I used to be all "IE is fine and everything!! OH I'm gay!" and then I just buckled down and got Firefox. I havn't used IE for anything since. IE to me is like going out in winter with a coat that has holes everywhere, and it's covered with mud. Firefox is like a brand new blazer.

As for this thread's heading, internet explorer doesn't have any faults, because it IS a fault.

Opera is GREAT everything looks better in it.
Habboi you sound like my dad or my brother, they use IE for so long they get used to it, time to move on to bigger and better thing.

Just take the plunge Habboi, we'll be here for support if you get too scared.

IE is a joke. I've used Firefox since it was first in the public (Phoenix 0.2 is when I started using it semi-exclusively). Even then, when it was plagued with bugs, and was merely a cut down version of Mozilla with a new UI, it kicked the living shit out of IE. Of course now I'm using Opera (I keep Firefox installed for compatability purposes and web development purposes of course, even though Opera can handle almost everything thrown at it). I'd never touch IE again in my life, especially the lack of tabbed browsing, who the fuck wants to fill up their taskbar and their RAM with multiple IE instances just to have multiple sites open at once? With the number of pages I regularily have open at once, I'd need a 2-tier taskbar at 1600x1200 for it to be bearable if I used IE. People who use IE and refuse to switch to Opera or Firefox are just masochistic noobs who don't have the willpower to quit using their precious IE.

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/792/tasks9lg.jpg

Just another shot there for you on my computer.

OPera has TWHL, IRC and a picture up and IE has um my hotmail trash can. Wow look how great IE is going up again Opera.

Good luck with your stupid IE, now lets all hope it won't last much longer.

You guys earning money for saying all these things?

I used firefox for a while.
I didn't notice ANY difference at all.
Oh, woaw, it blocked pop-ups.
Wow, it can open links in one of theese bookmark thingies that appares in the toolfield.
I don't like any of those functions.
Why?
Well, I don't brows around on many different websites.
Mostly, I'm on TWHL, or, newground perhaps,
or some other forum.
None of these has pop ups (exept new grounds, wich, btw firefox can't block)
I don't want them to make bookmarks out of 4 pages.
I want them down there at the bottom of the sceen.
Sure, firefox takes up less memory than IE. BUT
I have 1 gig wich is enough to open IE and run MSN.
I don't run IE at the same time that I run a game.
So, I have no use for that ether.

Therefore, I find firefox more annoying than IE.
And therefore I use IE.

We should use what we like or need.
I personnaly think that this thread is stupid.
No, please don't ask why I replie to the thread if I think it is stupid.

I'll say no more.

Why did you reply to the thread if its stupid madcow? Why?

Ok really I'm fine with you using IE and all but TRY SOMETHING NEW WITHOUT JUST PUTTING IT DOWN AFTER 5 SECONDS.

EDIT:Don't complian about FF going to slow. look for something called fasterfox it should cut down the waiting time.

FF has used up 250meg of memory for no reason (memoryholeeeee), I love it to bits but I must say its rather quickly going down the microsoft 'add more features rather than fix broken bits' route

IRC client in a web browser is 100% bloat.

jobabob: Opera could cheerfully use that. If you set its RAM cache to 249MiB ;).

Of course now I'm using Opera

Heh, heh, and from such a Firefox zealot previously. It took you, what, about half an hour of Opera?

IRC client in a web browser is 100% bloat.

telnet.exe: 75,776 bytes. It takes text from the command-line, processes it slightly, and sends it to a server. It takes text from the server, processes it slightly, and displays it. Hey, that reminds me of...

I don't care how much resources it takes. I want a web browser, not an internet suite.

Opera has millions of features, yet it takes up less RAM than Firefox or IE :roll:. Not bashing FF here, FF's memory usage is a "feature" which caches all forward/back pages for each tab in their entirety in RAM, which by nature will consume memory. I believe there is a setting in about:config that will turn it off or reduce the level of caching, but I don't know it.