jeff.hume.ca DYNAMIC

Slightly Bent: "Where are all the leaked screenshots and Information on the next version of Internet Explorer? Is there a next version?"

He brings up a good point that I've been think about a little recently. What is Microsoft going to do with IE? Actually, let's back up a bit. What has Microsoft done with IE in the last while? The answer is almost nothing. Their rendering engine still lacks a lot of CSS compliance and proper PNG support is laughable. Are they working on this? Will they ever? I think this is a real problem for the web. Microsoft has no incentive to develop IE further and come up with innovative features.

What does this mean for the web? Well, in the area of standards compliance it could be a really big issue. If 95% of the market can't render new cool things correctly because they are using an incompetent browser, then if you are a practical businessman you won't use that new technology. This could put a serious damper on development and adoption of new standards and technologies in the general public.

How do we get out of this rut? How can we give Microsoft a kick in the pants to develop more? I suppose alternative browser engines can gain adoption with the nerds, but how can the general public be informed? They don't care about their browsers, or CSS, or standards. All that a lot of them care about is checking their email and doing some surfing and IE provides that for them in as good a package as they know. They don't know that others might be better. This is the problem with everyone in the software industry competing with Microsoft (or Apple even) once they get a piece of software that works fine for them, they just don't care about anything else. They'll suffer through bugs and inconsistencies and other issues, and never even question if there are other alternatives.

Nicely written. I think the biggest problem is the adoption of new web content and standards; I feel that PNGs and MNGs could do a nice job of replacing GIFs (static and animated, respectively), but while PNGs seem to have a foothold, MNG support is, as far as I know, only present among the "significant" browsers in Mozilla. What can we do about it? Fuck, what can we EVER do about MS's stranglehold on the entire computer industry? Using other products and spreading the word, as far as I can tell, seems to be the extent of it.

As for the sheep who are content to use MS products and never question whether there might be something better out there, fuck 'em. They deserve everything they get. The only problem I have with their using an inferior product just because they're too lazy to find a better one (it's not like it's hard to do so) is that the inferior product just happens (surprise!) to be a Microsoft one and they're aiding and abetting the Evil Empire. So we should try to get them to switch, but not for their sake.

Posted by: The Valrus at May 27, 2003 08:40 PM

Yeah, I don't care if ignorant people really use a better product. The only time it matters to me is if eventually their using a product from a company like Microsoft will hinder the progress of the industry and in turn hinder me in my adoption of non-microsoft technology.

Posted by: Jeff at May 27, 2003 09:41 PM