Posted by Stan McCann on 02/06/06 23:43

=?ISO-8859-15?Q?G=E9rard_Talbot?= <newsblahgroup@gtalbot.org> wrote in
news:44pl8nF3b1guU1@uni-berlin.de:

> Even if Microsoft would fix half of the documented, reported bugs
> and implement just half of the missing, incomplete support for CSS2,
> DOM 2, and other expressed/formulated specific requests in the final
> release of MSIE 7, there would be major problems for web developers.
>
> 1- People do not automatically upgrade to the latest available
> browser release. Adoption/migration of more recent browser release
> versions is a slow process and takes years. Studies have shown that
> a majority of people usually go ahead with a browser upgrade
> along/at the same time with an operating system upgrade. So one
> should expect to see MSIE 6 to represent a large chunk of the
> browser market for the next 5 years or so.
>
> 2- Many windows users will not be able to upgrade to MSIE 7 anyways
> since MSIE 7 will be possible only for XP users and Windows 2003
> users. A considerable minority (20% - 30%) of the windows market
> will not be using MSIE 7 anyway during the next few years.
>
> So, regarding web standards support and compliance in browser usage,
> developers will have to deal with an overall fragmented browser
> picture in the years to come. That's at best.
>
> Now the only remaining question is how well, good, complete, how
> much will the MSIE 7 final release fix the utterly explained,
> described, documented CSS/DOM bugs, unsupported DOM 2 attributes,
> methods, unsupported CSS 2.1 properties? This beta 1 release is
> sending the message; it suggests me that we should not expect more
> than a 50% effort from Microsoft.
>
> So, speaking of patience means in my mind that things will be fixed
> completely and for good with MSIE 8 ... around 2012.

Ha! If then. Microsoft, IMO, is holding back innovation, despite
their claim during the Netscape-IE "war" of several years ago when Bill
was spouting off about including the browser in the OS being good for
innovation.

Firefox, and some of the other browsers on the market are our only hope
of ever having a browser that fully implements standards. I don't and
can't, but I'd love to see web developers begin ignoring IE when
developing. When all of those IE users cannot get what they are after
using a non-www browser, they'll switch to something that they can use
to get what they want. I'd love to present IE users with blank pages
like I so often get due to my non-use of js, cookies and plugins of all
kinds. They'd switch, believe me. But getting all those companies
with crappy sites to switch, well your 2012 estimate may be way too
soon.

--
Stan McCann, "Uncle Pirate" http://stanmccann.us/
Webmaster, NMSU at Alamogordo http://alamo.nmsu.edu/
Now blocking Google Grouper posts and replies.
http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html

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