OT: A Little Info for Those New to the Two Main Web Browsers
Internet Explorer
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been one of their key tools in dominance of the software market. The browser, notorious for its security problems and poor support of web standards, has for a while been tightly interwoven with the Windows kernel, making it impossible to completely remove the software. This decision on the part of Microsoft has been the subject of several lawsuit attempts, once resulting in Microsoft settling by offering to place links to their competitor’s (at the time, Netscape) products on the desktop. The latest IE (version 7) has moved somewhat away from the integrated approach but still has numerous hooks into the core of the operating system.
Mozilla Firefox
Firefox, technically superior and more secure than Internet Explorer, was a breath of fresh air to the web. Though the Mozilla Suite had been knocking about for years, which a rich feature base, it was relatively bloated and slow, and did not have a particularly large user following on Windows. Up until 2004, Internet Explorer was used by over 95% of web users. When Firefox was released, the figures changed dramatically, with Internet Explorer’s market share rapidly dwindling. It is currently estimated to be at around 80%, with over 10% of the remainder representing Firefox users. In countries such as Germany, the Firefox usage figures are even higher, peaking at around 25%.
Conclusion
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been one of their key tools in dominance of the software market. The browser, notorious for its security problems and poor support of web standards, has for a while been tightly interwoven with the Windows kernel, making it impossible to completely remove the software. This decision on the part of Microsoft has been the subject of several lawsuit attempts, once resulting in Microsoft settling by offering to place links to their competitor’s (at the time, Netscape) products on the desktop. The latest IE (version 7) has moved somewhat away from the integrated approach but still has numerous hooks into the core of the operating system.
Mozilla Firefox
Firefox, technically superior and more secure than Internet Explorer, was a breath of fresh air to the web. Though the Mozilla Suite had been knocking about for years, which a rich feature base, it was relatively bloated and slow, and did not have a particularly large user following on Windows. Up until 2004, Internet Explorer was used by over 95% of web users. When Firefox was released, the figures changed dramatically, with Internet Explorer’s market share rapidly dwindling. It is currently estimated to be at around 80%, with over 10% of the remainder representing Firefox users. In countries such as Germany, the Firefox usage figures are even higher, peaking at around 25%.
Conclusion
Just a quick overview there for anyone new to this game. Remember: stay safe out on the big wide web. If you have to use IE, make sure you've got a nice big firewall and ActiveX disabled ;)
posted by Tom Jenkins @ 2:36 PM
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