IE - why does noone like it?

[zingmatter]

I guess I'm opening a can of worms here, but I've been using IE for a long time (having switched from Netscape 3 long ago). I notice that many people have only bad things to say about IE and I'm asking out of pure innocence (or is that ignorance), what's so bad about it? It supports CSS better than the rest if nothing else...I uninstalled Netscape 7 as it mucked me around too much.

I do use Mozilla (just installed Firefox) - it's quite good but still doesn't do things quite right for my web pages...I know, I know, my html/css must be sloppy if it's not cross-browser compatible...

Anyway, so can anyone tell me what's the problem/s with IE (and not just because it from Bill Gates and his legions of hell - I know all that stuff)...

Thanks

[steelersfan88]

I'll speak up before anyone else, it simply does what you said, accept sloppy html and css

[iniquity101]

It supports CSS better than the rest if nothing else

are you sure?

[Paul Jr]

Originally posted by zingmatter
It supports CSS better than the rest if nothing else...

That's a general misconception. Lots of designers get accustomed to writing IE specified code, and thus get the idea in their head that other browsers suck when their pages look funky in said browsers. IE is actually a pretty bad browser (Fred will actually tell you it's not even a browser), as it has poor support for standards.

[Sam]

Originally posted by zingmatter
It supports CSS better than the rest if nothing else

Not so, take a look at this and this in both IE and firefox, you'll notice that IE just doesn't support CSS properly.

[steelersfan88]

3 people quoted the exact same line, wow! Just consider IE different, since its css and different than other browsers, and of course, has different scripting mechanisms that are IE-only. This, however, most people don't udnerstand, is done for the sole fact to make the Internet more IE-populated. If Microsoft was such a big name in computers, it would probably be much more similar to Mozilla. Greedy Bill Gates wants the whole Internet for his own company, pure capitalism right there

[zingmatter]

Wow! Within minutes of putting up the post there's 5 responses.

I see you point about IE just letting me be sloppy. So, if I were to develop on Mozilla so that it looks good on that then when I check the page on IE, it would still look good?

Now there's 6 responses...

[steelersfan88]

not necessarily, since Mozilla adds line breaks in some css tag endings, whereas IE will not. The goal is to get it as close as possible so the content appears in an acceptable manner on any browser, rather than good on only one.

there are many other ways that ie can screw things up (but, please note my avatar, and I am still willing to comment on some problems)

[Sam]

pretty much, the best strategy I've found is to develop a site to the point that you're with its appearence in Mozilla, then make it look decent in IE

[PeOfEo]

Internet explorer is does not have the best support for css. It has a fairly complient box model if you are using a strict doc type and valid code, but when you are not doing that its box model gets completly botched. Internet explorer when put side by side with mozilla fire fox is also a inferior browser to surf with because it fire fox has optional tabbed browseing, a single download menu, integrated search, integrated popup blocking, style sheets and js can be disabled, and if fully skinable. Those just add to the users experience. So ie is more of a pain to use and it is not complient with other browsers or the w3c. IE still does not fully support css one, look at min-height and other forgotten css attributes.

[zingmatter]

Yep, I see you points - and I'm obviously wrong about css support too (Netscape 5 was pretty crap though - though that was years ago now I think about it).

thanks everyone

Oh well, Firefox here I come.......

[steelersfan88]

instead of calling ie a pain, lets call it unadvanced, since it does suit well for some, while as others will say, Mozilla suits better

[Paul Jr]

Originally posted by steelersfan88
instead of calling ie a pain, lets call it unadvanced, since it does suit well for some, while as others will say, Mozilla suits better

No matter how many euphemisms you make up, IE is still a P.I.T.A P.O.S.

[steelersfan88]

Some people like it quite fine, so i wouldn't call it that. Mozilla on the other hand, as believed to this forum, can be considered better, superior, and whatnot, but both will do the job as long as code is correctly implemented

[fredmv]

Originally posted by steelersfan88
but both will do the job as long as code is correctly implemented

Is that so? Funny — IE doesn't recognize any of my CSS2…