“Web standards champions have launched a campaign urging Web surfers to abandon Internet Explorer. The Web Standards Project’s ‘Browse Happy’ campaign has a look-&-feel reminiscent of Apple’s ‘Switch’ campaigns,” Macworld UK reports. “The Web site’s front page proclaims: ‘Internet Explorer can make your computer unsafe. Why not switch to a browser that’s more secure?’ The campaign reflects advice from Internet security experts, who last month advised users to seek alternatives to Microsoft’s market-dominant browser.” Full article here.
“For those still using (IE), the Web is becoming an unpleasant place,” the group’s Web site states. “Pop-up windows, insidious spyware, and viruses that transmit through its lax security make life difficult and costly for users. Innovative features available elsewhere that make the Web quicker, more accessible and more useful haven’t found their way into IE. Microsoft has been slow to respond to these problems.”
The Browse Happy site is here.
MacDailyNews Take: This will no doubt be quite a shocker for the 95% of Windows users who think Microsoft Internet Explorer is the Internet.
Some of thoses 95% windows users think AOL is the internet!
The link for the “Browse Happy” site doesn’t work. Everyone who follows browsers knows ie is not safe. Let’s hope the rest of the world gets it too.
The Browse Happy links works – the site is just being killed with traffic right now. Patience is a virtue.
Its a neat site, reminds me of the Switch campaign. Its good, and I’m glad they’re getting the publicity – I just hope the people who *need* to see it find it.
I’m always telling my PC friends, after they’ve begged me to fix their virus infected spyware infested slow crashing crappy beleagured Windows systems, they should get a Mac – but in the meantime use FireFox. Its the closest thing to Safari on a PC ;-}
A lot of people don’t realize that IE is a liability. And they don’t realize there are alternatives. Most people are glad to hear it, tho there are some people who claim they actually *like* Internet Explorer. Ah, that is the challenge….
When the pain of using Windows become too intense, occurs too frequently, and lasts too long then people will consider switching. Until then insecurity, data loss, frustration, and inefficiency are simply the cost of business for many Windows users. Bill Gate’s lemmings must certainly be the world’s largest single group of masochists.
Can PeeCeers remove IE from their XP boxes without breaking their computers?
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my favorite is when people look at me really serious and say, “am i on the internet?”
“Bill Gate’s lemmings must certainly be the world’s largest single group of masochists.”
You got THAT right!!!
“my favorite is when people look at me really serious and say, “am i on the internet?”
*sigh* I get that from my wife all the time, and we have a DSL connection. I have never met anyone as computer-phobic and clueless as my other half. Most of my time is spent reassuring her that, trust me, your PowerBook is saving you a lot of frustration, you could be using a Windows laptop. I’m really gratified that she’s even more intimidated by Windows, and she thinks that iPhoto and iTunes are the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel. Our three kids are tested almost every day. Recently overheard my 12-year old son to his twin sister:
“What did the Flintstone want now?“
“She forgot which button to press to close the window.”
The most amazing and ironic thing to me is that her B.Sc. (Hons.) is Electrical Engineering, and her specialty was, get this, digital circuit design. My hair turned white when I was 32 years old.
The point (apart from venting) is that even the most otherwise intelligent, reasonable people can be frighteningly obtuse and fearful when it comes to computers, and will put up with irrational levels of crap from their systems, because they’re terrified of anything changing, even if it’s for the better. It’s going to take an awful lot of effort to convince the majority of IE users to switch to another browser, no matter how horrible the experience. The anxiety just isn’t worth it for them.
“Bill Gate’s lemmings must certainly be the world’s largest single group of masochists.”
Meat of Moose,
Judging from the example of my wife, who is a very intelligent and accomplished woman otherwise, I’d have to say that they’re not masochistic, they just don’t have a clue about alternatives. The vast majority equate computing with Windows, and will need ample doses of hand-holding by someone they trust to switch from it. I’m just happy that I got my wife to get a Mac when she started using a computer, so she has always been insulated from the problems of the Windows world, except when her friends’ virus-ridden PC’s start carpet-bombing her in-box.
This has always been an indication to me of the importance of the education market to Apple. Once the kids are exposed to an alternative, they can make up their own minds as to which is better. The average adult has no impetus to switch from Windows, and thinks that the problems are the norm for any computing environment.
I like to think of the general public to be like the woman on the Comcast commercial who asks her mailman if she got any email.
In truth, all things considered, and disregarding the rude comments in some of the above posts, we live in a wonderfully modern world. Having a computer with which we can communicate to a wide assortment of people all over the world, and be able to order products and services from our little cubicles or bedrooms, and be able to listen to thousands of songs in any order, and be able to do tax calculations and complex designs and manipulate photos and images, and for Mac users have all this in a safe environment, is a blessing and a great benefit. I am just giddy sometimes thinking about how lucky we all are. Now hold hands and play nice! And be patient with the wives and cousins who are less-techy. Oh, and eat your salads, and floss regularly (note to brain, buy some floss), and vote when you have the opportunity.
Life in 2004. Gotta love it, considering the alternative.
I find it hard to understand why anyone under the age of 35 would have serious trouble with the most simplest of programs and concepts about computers in the 21st century.
I find it hard to understand why anyone under the age of 65 would have serious trouble with the most simplest of programs and concepts about computers in the 21st century, then I do some work on my Wintel laptop with XP Pro and I understand.
(begin rant)
Didn’t MS basically put Netscape out of the browser business by providing a better (read FREE) browser? (Retorical question)
Once they eliminated their main competition, they quit making an effort and their products suck.
Thank heavens they abandoned IE for Mac (and thank heavens Apple forced them to by building a better browser).
Thank heavens that there are other people out there building better browsers for the PC as well as the Mac.
Can’t the DOJ see that a Microsoft run world would be a bad thing? Can’t they just look at what is happening to MS and the IE browser and see that dependence on MS servers and MS software is a meltdown of catastrophic proportions waiting to happen.
Grrrr.
(end rant)
Site rendered like shit on iCab — had to launch Exploder to see it!
“Can’t the DOJ see that a Microsoft run world would be a bad thing? “
The DOJ has become the creature of the Bush administration which has become a creature of Micro$oft. They will see and do nothing.
“Site rendered like shit on iCab — had to launch Exploder to see it!” – why aren’t you using Safari?
“even the most otherwise intelligent, reasonable people can be frighteningly obtuse and fearful when it comes to computers, and will put up with irrational levels of crap from their systems, because they’re terrified of anything changing, even if it’s for the better”
The problem is that they’ve become used to the crap and they know that it gets even worse when anyone messes with the system. So they get into the mindset of “don’t mess with it, it’s working”. They don’t realise that if they threw it all out and got a new system they wouldn’t have all that crap.
My wife used to say: “Windows at work is just as good as your Mac, I don’t know what all the fuss is about.” Now I get: “I can’t understand why our Mac just works, even with the kids messing with it all the time, while my Windows PC at work goes crazy everytime somebody touches it.”
“I find it hard to understand why anyone under the age of 35 would have serious trouble with the most simplest of programs and concepts about computers in the 21st century.”
Red Wings,
So do I. But you, like so many others who post on this and other computer- and tech-related sites, find it hard to understand that the vast majority of the planetary population simply could not care less about how computers work, and that there are many people who feel anxiety about interacting with one. The fact is that most people who take the time to post to this and other fora are decidedly not average users. I admit that my wife sometimes frustrates the hell out of me when I have to continually repeat what I think are simple concepts to grasp, but then I stop and try to empathize with her anxiety. My wife, as I’ve said, is a very intelligent, accomplished woman in all other respects, but her almost phobic reaction to computers has never ceased to amaze me. She opens her PowerBook and you can almost see the veins in her neck start to throb, she gets so fearful that she’s going to screw something up. It’s almost as if her anxiety overrides her reason, and her normally rational, analytic mind has a meltdown. She’s an engineer, for God’s sake, and a good one. I’m still baffled. Her one wish is that computers were as easy to use as her iPod.
Getting people off of IE is like picking up pixie sticks with your butt cheeks…It just doesnt happen (and probably won’t).
Mr. O’Riley: You can remove IE from any version of Windows and still get stability.
You can also run multiple versions of IE at the same time.
I for one ditched IE (and firefox) for MyIE2, which I think is now Maxthon.
Its built of of the IE (NCSA Mosaic) Core but with a ton of enhancements and they removed alot of the Sh!t thats in MS’s build of IE 6…Active X Handles…So on…
http://www.insert-title.com/web_design/?page=articles/dev/multi_IE
[url=http://www.myie2.com]http://www.myie2.com[/url]
NoMacForYou: you finally admitted that Redmond can make a totally crap application. Now it’s only a small step to admit that Redmond makes a totally crap OS.
Perf. Is it not obvious why the site runs perfectly in IE?
It’s meant for IE users. That’s the point.
I guess what I really wanted to know is HOW do PeeCeers remove IE from their XP boxes without breaking their computers?
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> why aren’t you using Safari
On OS9 … waiting for my G5. Safari doesn’t run on OS9. OSX will run on my G4, but I’ve got better things to do with my time and money [buying a top-of-the-line G5, for one] and in the meantime, everything runs fine.
Point is: “Web standards champions” have a site that is not broadly compatible, requiring me to use Exploder to view it — just the thing they’d rather people not do. It’s just ironic.
I work in a Mac-centic environment, but unforunately we need to have some PC’s as well. Needless to say, even with FW and anti-virus they are a major headache. Does anyone have a link to a site with instructions how to permanetly diable the internet browsing capabiliy of IE5 or IE 6 in Win2000 in a safe and stable way?