Thursday, March 17, 2011

Browsers - your portal to the internet.


A few days ago Microsoft released their new and upgraded browser IE9.

Microsoft and a number of the more tame IT news outlets are making great claims about its speed, operation and ease of use. However if you look a little deeper, scratch the surface and run some serious test (called benchmarks in the IT industry) you will see that IE is the slowest browser available to you, and in my opinion the worst.

I recently switched ISP and suffered a brief internet outage at my place. When I went to use my PC during this time I realized how much you do on a PC that involves online activity and the internet.


So if I could plead, beg and cajole you when your internet explorer asks you to upgrade, don't! Microsoft are relying on your automatic downloads to maintain their market share of a rubbish product.

I personally prefer Chrome by Google for my internet browsing needs, its simple stylish and whip-crack fast. But there are other options out there for you, Firefox by Mozilla is another great option with so much community generated content it boggles the mind, they even have an app which removes all adds from any webpage! There are two other notables worth mentioning, Opera and Safari. I haven't had anything to do with these last two but I can tell you that ANY of the above are faster and better than Microsoft's offering.

Microsoft's latest offering is touting all these great "new" features that they have, when in reality these a pale copies of work innovated by both Chrome and Firefox. But don't take my word for it, here is a review on the four main contenders mentioned above if you want to check out the exact performance. But if thats too much here is a direct quote from their conclusions.

"OK, so what conclusions can we draw? Well, let’s begin with the obvious and say that Internet Explorer 9 64-bit is an absolute dog"

What I am saying with the above is that you can make your internet experience so much faster and smoother, just by opting to download and install a totally free and superior product. What about all your favorites and bookmarks? Don't worry the installers will read all your existing data and migrate it to your new choice.

Don't reward Microsoft for their sub-par efforts and the fact that they are the default option to arrive with your PC, reward the companies that innovate the technology and programming. Reward them and allow them to grow and develop more. Should anyone ever release a browser better than Chrome I will switch, but until that time I won't support them. Will you support their mediocrity?

Want to download an alternate browser? Below are the links to the four that I have talked about


And of course for the sake of completeness the below is the download link for IE9, but before you click it do you really want the worst free option available to you? Why not go back up seven lines and get the best!

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