Why You Don’t Want to Use Internet Explorer!

I am on a mission. A mission to eliminate Internet Explorer from every computer on the planet! Okay, I know……it’s probably NOT going to happen, but hey, I can dream can’t I?

Internet Explorer has become my nemesis. The most evil of web browsers. The antithesis of a waste of precious pixels and valuable bandwidth.

Why do I have such a dislike for IE? I thought you’d never ask! Somehow, Microsoft has wormed its way in to just about every computer that ever leaves an electronics store. Innocent consumers take home their new machine, plug it in and – voila – Internet Explorer is already installed and they can immediately surf the web. That’s great….might I suggest you immediately surf to Mozilla and download Firefox, or perhaps Safari or Opera, or any of the other browsers out there that, hands down, have it ALL over IE?

Chances are, you’ve never used any of the other web browsers, and my heart goes out to you, because you have no idea what you’re missing. Fortunately, you have me to fill you in! Let’s start with speed. In almost every speed test I found on the internet, IE came in last for page load speed, CSS rendering speed, JavaScript speed and browser cache performance.  This means that you’re more than likely sitting around waiting for pages to load, instead of enjoying them.

Secondly, let’s look at how IE renders a page on the internet, compared to other browsers. This is what’s most important to me. Most websites are built with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) these days. Using CSS for a site’s layout greatly reduces the amount of code in the individual pages, compared to the old days of using tables for the layout. Less code means less in the way and the page can usually load faster, assuming of course that the images have been properly optimized. Knowing this, one would think that Microsoft would want IE to be compatible with all CSS features, so that pages would be properly rendered and the site’s visitor would receive the full effect intended by the designer. Sadly, this is not the case!

As a designer, depending on the site I am building, I typically have at least one IE bug to work out, sometimes more. From not rendering transparencies, to overlapping content areas (divs) to increasing margins on elements, I have yet to build a site with CSS that IE can properly interpret on the first go ‘round. Not only is this frustrating and time consuming, but unnecessary! If other browsers can properly display the CSS, why can’t IE?

If you’re an IE user, your web experience is being unnecessarily hindered. In many cases, the sites you visit may not display the way they might in other, more compliant browsers. Venture out into the wild blue yonder of the internet and find another browser! Go ahead, I dare you.  Here’s a list of other browsers to try, just in case the adventurous side of you kicks in and takes over!

Mozilla Firefox – http://www.mozilla.com

My favorite, and there are numerous skins, and more add-ons and plug-ins than you can shake a stick at to further enhance your experience.

Google Chrome – http://www.google.com/chrome

Good speed, has some cool add-ons too, but doesn’t compare to Firefox.

Opera – http://www.opera.com/

I haven’t used this one much, primarily just to make sure that a new site will display properly before I launch it. It’s gaining in popularity however, and also has some add-ons and widgets for downloading.

Apple Safari – http://www.apple.com/safari

Has a cool “top sites” feature that displays the screen shots of the top ten sites that you visit.

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