Browsers Fighting to Keep up with the Web

An anonymous reader writes "With the continued evolution of the internet and more tools being developed or migrated online browsers are fighting to keep up. Wired has a quick look at the current status of the browser war and what different browsers are doing to try to stay ahead. From the article: 'Already, IE has seen its U.S. market share on Windows computers drop to 90 percent from 97 percent two years ago, according to tracking by WebSideStory. Firefox's share has steadily increased to 9 percent, with Opera's negligible despite its innovations. WebSideStory analyst Geoff Johnston said Firefox must continue to improve just to maintain its share. Because IE automatically ships with Windows, he said, users satisfied with IE7 may not find enough reasons to download and install Firefox when they buy a new computer.'"

Comments

As someone who recently did the same thing..

[Inoshiro]

Let me tell you, IE 7 is just as fucked as IE5/6.

IE 7 requires the htc file to implement the HTC hover menu. IE 7 still has the bug with apply text-align to block elements. IE 7 still has weird overlap issues.

IE 7 is basically IE 6 with a tab bar and some more annoying anti-phishing code. The website layout I designed recently works like this: one path is for Mozilla/FireFox/Camino/Safari/Konqueror/Opera (tested and working), and the other is IE 5/6/7. One uniform path works consistently in everything except IE, and the smarter Gecko-based browsers even get a little CSS3 magic thrown in.

IE 7 doesn't implement all of CSS 1, a standard that's pushing 10 years old.

(This was me testing IE 7 inside VMWare on Windows Server 2003)

Re:As someone who recently did the same thing..

[Kelson]

IE 7 doesn't implement all of CSS 1, a standard that's pushing 10 years old.

It does, however, implement a hell of a lot more of CSS than IE6, and has fixed quite a few CSS bugs. It's a lot more than "IE 6 with a tab bar."

(While we're at it, does *any* browser implement all of CSS1? The main reference I know of only deals with CSS2 and CSS3.)

While I'm disappointed that IE7 doesn't catch up with Opera, Firefox and Safari, I also have to admit that IE7 represents a huge improvement over the previous version.

No 9x will be supported as well.

[pavon]

New versions of Firefox 1.x will run on windows 9x.
New versions of Firefox 2.x will run on windows 9x. (2007?)
Not until firefox 3.x will support for windows 9x be dropped. (2008?)

Microsoft's last browser that supported windows 9x was released 5 years ago, while firefox is still planning on supporting it in new releases for at least another year.

Re:When a decline to 90% market share is newsworth

[Sponge Bath]

He said 'representatives', as in House of Representatives.

They do have an incumbent election rate of 98+%

http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQI wG&b=196481

Re:Commingling IE with Windows...

[GreyPoopon]

There's a double-standard here regarding IE's bundled components and anyone else's.

I think maybe you need to improve your understanding of exactly what a monopoly is, and what anti-trust legislation is intended to do. There isn't a double-standard going on for two reasons:

1. Almost _all_ *nix distributions provide a choice in both the desktop and the web browser. The only possible exception is Apple, but the second reason applies to them.
2. None of the *nix distributors have a monopoly share of the market, and none of them are using a monopoly in one area to extend their control to another. Microsoft was charged with and convicted of exactly that. As a direct result, they are forced to, for a period of time, play by different rules.

Maybe you don't like anti-trust legislation, but bear in mind that the United States is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the only country that has monopoly-busting laws on the books.

Re:It's not like that

[cubex]

Once in Staples just for a laugh I asked the guy there which scanners supported linux. With a scowl on his face he said "I don't support Mac and I don't support Linux".

I told a taxi driver once that I don't use any Microsoft products and he said "I have to use it, I need MSN to stay in contact with my friends".

Most people I've talked to have no interest in learning Linux and I don't think that it has anything to do with the relative merits of Windows or Linux. It has more to do with saturation. It's not like you can go to your local computer store and check out Majesty Gold or whatever for Linux (at least not around where I live). Microsoft is in the schools, it's in the stores and it's on TV.

Think about it... most people who go to the store and buy a computer are going to get Windows on their computer. They might download firefox. One people in Staples actually said "I use Microsoft everything to make sure it's all compatible". With this kind of mindset I don't think much is going to change. The masses will continue to use Windows and the techies will continue to use Linux or BSD.

I'd even go as far to say the lock-in is getting worse. In the 80's I could go to a local computer store and buy a Tandy, Amiga or a Macintosh. Sure, it's all proprietary but at least people had choices.

Getting back to browsers for a moment, I think firefox is great (adblock is very nice) and I do see people using it. There's a good firefox community who help each other and it is catching on. To take the online census in Canada I did have to use IE on a Windows computer. Some script they used did not work, but the government did say they were working on making their online service more compatible. I did write them an email to complain about it. It's things like that which pull people back into using IE.

I'm not going to argue the point about IE, I avoid using it 99.9% of the time. In fact I did my income tax for the first time using a web-based service via firefox. The only time I used IE this year was for the census.

Re:When a decline to 90% market share is newsworth

[MyLongNickName]

he simply will not be voted out of office short of killing someone. ;-)

For those who don't know, in his younger days Ted Kennedy did kill someone. In a drunken stupor, he drove off a pier with a young lady in the car. He got out, and instead of going to the police or trying to get help, left her to die in the car. If his ass were black he'd be doing life. If he didn't have a rich family, he'd have done at least twenty years. Instead, coming from a priviledged background, he gets to be a Senator.