Microsoft Internet Explorer 7

The page says:

Download Internet Explorer 7, the latest version of Microsoft's new, improved, and free web browser.

Yeah, but should I? Should I really? I am a geek and modest expert in technology. Most technophiles like myself are rather picky and egalitarian in their preferences. To get right down to it, I don't use Microsoft Internet Explorer as my browser. This may cause a bit of a shock to those few who didn't know there was any other way to do it. Just like there are other brands of facial tissue besides Kleenex©, there are other browsers out there. Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard of Firefox and that is my preferred browser of choice. If it were completely up to me, I'd actually like to dump everything with Microsoft on it. Sometimes, past sins take a long time to be forgiven. But of course, it's not that simple.

Forgetting how hard this would be and the fact that the rest of my family knows Windows, there are professional reasons I can't dump Internet Explorer or even ignore it.

I browse web sites but I also make them. 90% of the world that browses web sites use Internet Explorer. This market share varies a lot depending on who you ask, but the basic concept means that even were it 50/50%, I'd have to check the sites and pages I make in IE just simply to make sure that they load and look the way that I expect. Most web developers eventually run into the fact that it is harder to code pages that make IE happy and it doesn't always work as planned. But IE is what it is and there is no sense pretending it isn't there.

So I can't ignore it, I will occasionally use it and the old version 6 has more issues and security problems than the new version. In some instances, I've even used IE at other computers and contrary to my expectations I didn't completely hate it. So now the decision time comes. Do I upgrade from 6 to 7 or not? I think I've already made the decision.

You can see some of the links I've tagged with "microsoft/internet-explorer" on del.icio.us or follow the feed below.

To be fair, I am not even on the latest version of Firefox either. Finally, for those interested in trying it out, you should Get Firefox!