Don’t use Internet Explorer

Pardon me if that sounds too direct, but yes – don’t use Internet Explorer. It sucks. And there are many other options. The only excuse you can make for using IE is that it ships with your OS and you are too lazy to download, install and start learning to use a new browser like Firefox. I know this downloading, installing and learning sounds like a lot of hard work, but it is well worth it. Unless you are on a dial-up connection or your only need for the internet is to check mails once in a week, switch to a safe browser NOW!

Ok, if that doesn’t sound convincing enough, here are some facts:

1. Web pages do not look pretty on IE – IE is not standards compliant. It does not understand CSS very well, nor does it respect widely used files like PNG. For you as the end-user it means that web pages do not look pretty on IE. For the web developers it means a lot of headaches writing work arounds to make IE behave the way the rest of the world does.
2. IE is unsafe – I am sure by now this is old news, but the fact still remains that your computer is more likely to get infected with viruses by using IE than other browsers. Its true that Microsoft releases patches to fix the many vulnerabilities in IE, but when you can take the effort to download these updates and patches, you might as well download and start using an alternate browser.
3. IE does not support plugins – Plugins greatly enhance the functionality of a browser. Plugins are free, useful and very customizable. IE has no understanding of plugins and you’ll never know what you are missing out on by using IE. And no, you don’t need to be a computer geek to understand and download plugins. They are simple and user-friendly. Just switch to a browser like Firefox and you’ll know.
4. IE is a resource hog – In IE 6 you need to open a new browser window for every web page you want to browse simultaneously. This consumes a lot of your computer’s resources and slows down things. Instead, browse using tabs and speed up your work. Tabs are not available in IE 6, but available in IE 7. But even in IE 7, you don’t have advanced tab browsing functionalities like the ones the Tab Mix Plus plugin gives you on Firefox.
5. IE is slow – IE cannot intelligently cache images from the server. Hence it is slow.

So stop making excuses. Switch to an alternate browser today.

In case you are wondering why I wrote this piece, here is the reason. When writing CSS for my website, I would often reach very frustrating road blocks because something would not look the way it is supposed to, in IE. This is because IE is not standards compliant. I have wished so many times that IE never existed. I am sure every other web developer wishes the same. Well, by switching to another browser you can contribute your bit in making that wish come true.
Get Firefox. Or try Opera. They are both free.