February 17, 2008 at 9:36 am · Filed under General, Stick It To IE
Microsoft has done it again (technically they haven’t done it yet but they will with IE8). Microsoft has, again, invented new tags for their browser. On this occasion I’m only going to talk about the META tag developers will need to use to let IE8 know that it should render the page under IE8 standards.
So what is this META tag anyways and what does it do? To make put really simple, it tells IE how to render a website, as IE7 or as the more standard compliant IE8. At first you may seem confused as in why would you need to tell the browser which version to use. After all, a browser should be complaint from the beginning or at lest offer backward compatibility meaning that it should understand the hacks you had to use to make it work in it’s previous version.
But what’s really baffling is that IE8 is setting a precedent that may become a nightmare for web developers as new versions are created. According to this article Microsoft may be thinking that by letting developers choose which version their pages will render, it will assure that their websites won’t break on newer versions. But, why should a new browser version break a website that is already working? If you are IE, the answer is simple: Complete disregard for Web Standards.
So the point we are trying to make here is that the META tag approach is the wrong approach and it should be seen as another attempt by Microsoft into doing whatever they want and bullying everybody else into following. For starters, if they had committed to develop a standard compliant browser from the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
February 12, 2008 at 8:10 am · Filed under General, Stick It To IE
And sue Microsoft for damages because of all the time, money & sanity it has made us waste trying to get our websites to work on it’s stupid browser which, as it comes standard on any PC, is the most used browser in the world.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071213-opera-tries-to-force-ie-into-w3c-compliance-with-eu-complaint-firefoxs-success-may-work-against-it.html
* Update:
Here’s microsoft response to Opera’s antitrust:
” Microsoft has officially responded to the antitrust complaint filed by Opera yesterday with the European Commission. The software giant’s key point: there are plenty of readily-available choices for Windows users looking for a browser other than Internet Explorer, and there’s nothing forcing anyone to surf with a browser he or she doesn’t like.”
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071216-microsoft-plethora-of-browsers-no-basis-for-opera-gripes.html?rel
While the above statement is true and users can actually use another browser, like I do, the common user doesn’t have any idea on how to do this. Let’s face it, most users think IE is the Internet and when you try to explain the concept of browsers to them they stare at you with a “what the hell are you talking about” face. And elaborating on this, it is a nice thing that Microsoft includes a browser so people can browse the web without having to get a CD (since you wouldn’t be able to download a browser). Mac does the same thing but the key difference is that Safari is a complaint browser while IE is not.
And well, since Microsoft said it: “here’s nothing forcing anyone to surf with a browser he or she doesn’t like.” we at this blog will make sure to have more instructions and reasons for people to change so that they don’t have to expereince the web in a crappy browser and we, the developers, don’t have to resort to crazy hacks to make our websites work on badly developed products.
February 8, 2008 at 4:38 pm · Filed under Firefox Image of the Week
For the love of god please don’t make the fox cry.
