IE rant from the ZP forums
February 15th 2007
I just discovered another wonderful Internet Explorer bug—it didn’t understand how to download mod_deflate compressed zip files (Firefox, Opera, Safari all handle that case correctly) and was resulting in complaints about corrupt downloads. Well, okay, no, they’re not corrupt, your browser is corrupt!
Seriously, I thought everyone knew better than to use Internet Explorer these days. Get Firefox, Opera, Safari, anything else!
On the forums, Craig said “Wow. You really feel quite strongly about IE don’t you?” and this is my explanation why:
I do feel quite strongly about it, yes; as a programmer I’m appalled that other programmers made such a low quality product. It’s like people driving around a 10-year-old beat-up car that can only go 40 miles per hour, breaks down every ten minutes, doesn’t have a radio, and is put together with duct tape (coughCSS hackscough) when you could get a souped-up fire-orange Ferarri (FIREFOX) for FREE. Or a nice Honda Accord (Safari) or maybe a Toyota Camry (Opera), all for free, but no, people just keep on drivin the junker. I just don’t understand it, and it’s such a pain in the rear for web developers that I feel like speaking my mind about it sometimes, especially when I find another “new” bug. It’s just an unacceptable quality level. Even IE 7 doesn’t make it much better, so don’t bother, just use Firefox, Safari, Opera, whatever, anything but Internet Explorer.
So please, folks, if you’re using Internet Explorer, you are part of the problem. Go get a better browser right now.
I agree with your feelings about IE. However, when you are producing a product such as ZenPhoto you don’t have the luxury of targeting specific browsers. It should work no matter what browser the user chooses to use. My stance is this: if it is my personal site, I don’t care about IE. I make the my site usable in IE but it doesn’t get any styling. If the site is to be used by a business, or any other third party, I make sure it works the same in IE as it does in any other browser.
We may not like IE, but a majority of the internet populace uses it. You can’t ignore the 800lb gorilla and hope he goes away.
Also, the compression patch I submitted should work fine with any browser (provided the web server is setup correctly).
James, you have completely misunderstood my meaning. I was in no way stating that one should ignore IE when designing sites or software for the web—that would be simply stupid, just as you describe. I never would and never will ignore Internet Explorer, the leading viewer, in my design or programming.
I take the stance that I design based on statistics, but then take out the offenders on an individual basis and try to get as many upgraded to a better browser as I can. My post was simply targeted at anyone currently using IE. I will always design for IE and any and every other browser used, but I will also continue to try to make the situation better as best I can by advertising and spreading the knowledge.