It is a matter of wonderment and perplexity to me that Mac users
- especially OS X users - continue to rely on tired old
Internet Explorer for their Web surfing. Notwithstanding my
abiding disdain for all things Microsoft, I will concede that at
one time IE was a competent browser, perhaps even the best of a
lackluster lot, but that day is long since passed.
Approximately two years ago, I did a timed comparison
shootout of seven then-current OS X browsers, and IE
pulled up dead last or next to last in all tests. Browser technology
has advanced substantially since then, but IE for OS X is still
at the same mediocre level of development it was in 2002, far behind
modern browsers like Safari
and FireFox,
and Microsoft has terminated at all but maintenance development of
the product, so it isn't going to get any better.
Meanwhile, Apple's Safari is proving to be an excellent and
reliable, if less than imaginative, browser. Mozilla.org,
IMHO, leads the pack with both Mozilla 1.6/1.7 beta and the FireFox
betas, which are solid, reliable, standards compliant, and very fast.
Mozilla claims that with the latest Mozilla 1.7 beta, released last
Friday, size and performance have improved dramatically. When
compared to Mozilla 1.6, Mozilla
1.7 beta is 7% faster at startup and 8% faster at window open
time, has 9% faster page loading times, and is 5% smaller in program
size. Camino,
another variant based on Mozilla's Gecko browser engine, is also fast
and uses OS X Cocoa interface standards exclusively.
OmniWeb
5 (based on the Safari WebCore and JavaScriptCore frameworks
and still a beta preview) is a truly innovative and fresh face on the
Mac browser scene, as is the new Opera
7.50 beta released last week, which my gut tells me is neck
and neck with FireFox in the front row of the browser
speedstakes.
I also continue to use iCab
for its rock-solid "just works" dependability, great download
manager, the best history and tabbed browsing implementation in the
industry, and the deepest selection of page save options.
The OS text browser category also offers an embarrassment of great
choices.
So why does anyone persist in using doggy old Internet Explorer,
which doesn't even support tabbed browsing?
I suppose there is the odd website that refuses to work with
anything but IE, although in many instances that can be circumvented
by having mean non-IE browser identify itself as IE, which is a
preference option with most browsers these days (and which places
serious doubt on those market analysis surveys that find 97% or so of
Web surfers using Internet Explorer).
I've very rarely run into websites that FireFox and Safari can't
handle. Of course, I avoid Microsoft's own and closely affiliated
websites as much as possible, and if some third party is stupid
enough to restrict access to Internet Explorer only, then to hell
with them - they're not going to get my business.
Incidentally, not all sites that say they require Internet
Explorer or Netscape actually do. For example, my daughter's
university's website makes such a stipulation, but it works perfectly
well with Safari.
Unfortunately, while OS X enjoys a veritable garden of browser
delights, things are not so flush on the classic Mac OS side, where
browser development has a essentially ground to a halt except for
iCab, which continues
to release up to date versions that not only support the classic Mac
OS, but even ancient 680x0 Macs. Bravo iCab!
With
my WallStreet PowerBook and
Umax SuperMac S900 tower
both running OS 9, and my PowerBook 1400 in OS 8.6, I mainly use
iCab, backed up by Netscape 4.8, which is still a decent-performing
(although very dated) browser. If I were doing a lot of Web work with
the WallStreet, I would probably also use Netscape
7.02, which is the last variant of the Mozilla family that
supports the classic Mac OS, so there are alternatives to IE for
Classic users.
So if you're still using Internet Explorer with either Mac OS
platform, do yourself a favor and check out some of the alternatives.
I think you'll be happy that you did.
