Still using IE6?
Way back in 2001 Microsoft launched the much hyped and highly anticipated Internet Explorer 6. In internet timelines that’s the middle ages! At the time of release it was the best new browser for a few years. Finally we could get rid of Netscape and IE5.5 – buggy, hard to use and just horrible browsers.
But since 2001 there have been many more browsers released, there is a real competition and a couple of years ago even Microsoft acknowledged that IE6 needed to be upgraded, it was unsecure, easy to hack and didn’t support many new features that were becoming necessary for web developers and users. IE7 and now IE8 have been released and are pretty good, well worth the upgrade. I tend to use Mozilla Firefox and/or Google Chrome for most sites and testing things.
So, why are 25 – 30% of interenet users still using this outdated browser? In many cases it’s simply a lack of knowledge that it’s possible to upgrade and then there’s the problem that non-technical people don’t know how to upgrade or don’t think it’s necessary. Finally there are some people with computers that are just too old to upgrade, we still get a few visitors to this site using Windows 2000 and Windows ME!
But if you can upgrade it’s very simple and even if you know all this already but want to try a new browser – maybe IE7 isn’t working as well as you’d hoped or you’re bored of Firefox – here’s a list of useful links to find out more and choose something new:
- Firefox 3: Firefox remains the most-recommended web browser for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux users.
- Safari 4: This is Apple’s web browser that is made for Mac or PC. This is their newest release and blows away past or present versions.
- Google Chrome: The new Google Chrome browser is stripped down for fast browsing, with superb built-in search features, private browsing and a task manager to help prevent crashes.
- Camino: Camino is an open source web browser developed with a focus on providing the best possible experience for Mac OS X users.
- Flock: Reviews recommend Flock 2 for people who “live on the web” since it has all the speed, security and options of Firefox 3, but builds in a blog editor, photo-up-loader and big sidebar to keep current with social networking.
- Opera: (Best for Older Computers) Reviews and tests recommend the free Opera web browser as fast and lean, especially for older or underpowered PC and Mac computers apt to bog down on more resource-hungry browsers.
Google Chrome is released
Well, I’ve just downloaded and installed Google Chrome and it’s looking very good indeed, fast and easy to use. And for a web developer like myself there appear to be some very handy debugging and code checking elements.
And best of all, so far none of our sites are breaking in it, so that’s a relief!