Microsoft vs. Mozilla
ARRGH!
That's about the extent of the reaction of web developers and designers to Microsoft's stubborn refusal to develop a browser that works with the world-wide standards of web development code. The manner in which Microsoft Explorer handles basic web code: CSS, DHTML, HTML, XML, PHP, and image transparencies is akin to a baboons handling of a Porsche 980...in the winter... in a snowstorm.
Microsoft has had years and millions of dollars to get their act together in regards to W3C standards of web development code.
Yet, even with all their millions and their so-called experts they apparently can't handle doing the simple job of creating a standards compliant browser that will conform to the rules used by all web developers as the basis of site design and development. While Firefox - open source, relying on donations for development - is nearly fully compliant with W3C code principles.
I can write code and design templating all day and throw it up in Firefox and be assured the page will look exactly as designed, scroll smoothly and load quickly.
I have been working on designing Joomla! (open source) content management sites and playing with various templating. It is so much fun and so easy that we are in the process of converting the main Athyrius Design site to a Joomla based project. I finished the site design and we are just about ready to deploy. You can see a sneak preview at www.athyrius.com/joomla .
But of course yesterday I then had to turn around and spend another day and a half developing fixes and writing a separate CSS code sheet to make up for Explorers seeming total confusion on how to handle basic code. We do this on every site. It is still not quite complete on the Explorer side, but getting there.
If you look at the site in Firefox right now, you will slide like a ball-bearing on ice down the pages- and most pages on the web. Clicking through the site is instantaneous. The images are tight and crisp, the text bright and clear, almost white. The layout is perfectly set. On the gallery pages, there is no loading time whatsoever (unless you have a realy bad connection).
If you are on Explorer, as you scroll down you will notice your screen pausing, hiccuping, lurching down the page like a drunk heading down Main Street. The text shows as a rough, muddy grey, the .png images look blurry, muted, and oversized and yes, you will have a slight load time on the galleries. Navigating from page to page will take longer than on Firefox or Opera.
I have had to write separate code for Explorer to even allow the header image to show on this page, put in a transparent .png 'fix', write a separate .css code to link in with various fixes for Explorer, and the site (and every site that is shown in Explorer) still looks rough, out of focus and hesitates on scrolling because of the horrible way Explorer handles basic screen re-draws.
All web developers and designers have to do this on a constant basis for every site they create. We basically have to develop the same site twice. Once; the correct way using world-wide standards, and then a second code write/re-write/fix for Microsoft Explorer.
Search Google for "Explorer CSS fixes". You will find 1,850,000 search results (as of today). CSS is a basic code used in the layout of websites, and has been used for years now.
All designers have had the experience of developing something cool for the web, and been unable to use it because no matter how much they wanted to deploy it- it would never work well in Explorer. Right now I would love to develop a really exquisite site using layered transparencies, but I seriously hesitate because of the hours I know would be tied up in simply getting it to work right in Explorer.
Where the rubber meets the road is that because of Microsoft's stubborness, or lack of foresight, or arrogance, hundreds of thousands of man-hours, and millions of dollars are wasted every single day in this business. I would love to know how much money U.S. corporations waste yearly on man hours alone in making up for Microsoft's recalcitrance in simply developing a web standard compliant browser.
What I really don't understand is why most have not boycotted Explorer by now. But then, if you have never tried an alternative such as Firefox or Opera you probably think the entire web is one slow, muddy mess. It would be like living under cloudy skies for an entire lifetime, not knowing what the world looks like when the sun shines.
If you have never tried an alternative browser, I encourage you to go to Mozilla.com and download Firefox for free. It is very lightweight and a fast download. The controls are just like Explorers, so I promise you won't get lost or confused. You will notice one thing immediately - everything is suddenly crisp and smooth and fast.
And you will probably never open Explorer again.
I went through the nightmare of making a cross-browser page myself. I ended up buying "Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes" from the Sams Teach Yourself series. It's written in the same manner "Idiot's Guide" books are.
Microsoft is lazy to fix any of these issues because IE is not a big selling point. Its a free program that comes with Windows. They know many people will upgrade their OS before they'll worry about the browser. What is a true shame is that this sucky browser has total market dominance. Maybe, as the baby boomer generation gets older and Gen X & Y starts taking over corporate America...they'll be more browser savvy.
Thanks for your comments Jon. I feel your pain. Imagine now having to do this on a regular basis, building sites using complex css/php, interactive galleries, and layered graphics. Because of various Explorer 'fixes' it is just about impossible to create a site that validates fully with W3C. Especially not with all the bells and whistles our clients wish for.
As far as market dominance is concerned, Explorer only holds this position because Microsoft has arranged for Explorer to come pre-bundled on most of the operating systems sold today. Fortunately, Firefox and Opera are quickly gaining on Explorer, despite the fact that people have to go out of their way to download them specifically.
Here is a link to an interesting article by Matt Cutts (head of Google's Webspam team) from a year ago showing some interesting Firefox vs. Explorer stats.
"At Pubcon in Vegas, the speakers did a bit of 10-second market research on 1000+ site owners and webmasters. The questions were: “How many of you use IE as your primary browsers? Now, how many of you use Firefox as your primary browsers?” By my count, among the savvy webmasters who go to Pubcon, Firefox users outnumbered IE users 2 to 1 or 3 to 1."
I found your article funny yet very poinet. I'm running on a i mac OS9 and when i tried to get up and running it was like the caveman seeing fire for the first time. i'm running on netscape and i'm still having problems with my kids tring to do flash gaming. I use my computer for graphics but still feel i'm writing on cave walls. if anyone who has any suggjestion i would love it!
thanx
cavewoman seeing the light
It's politics - MS is keeping the world locked into MSWorld. Bean counters still routinely commission code work explicitly for IE… think of "all" the corporate sites you hear about that "require" IE!
Surely they could have easily made IE W3C compliant if they wanted to.