Paul Thurrott says Boycott IE

August 2, 2005

Paul Thurrott, Windows IT Pro: IE 7.0 Technical Changes Leave Web Developers, Users in the Lurch (via /.)

"My advice is simple: Boycott IE. It's a cancer on the Web that must be stopped. IE isn't secure and isn't standards-compliant, which makes it unworkable both for end users and Web content creators. Because of their user bases, however, Web developers are hamstrung into developing for IE at the expense of established standards that work well in all other browsers. You can turn the tide by demanding more from Microsoft and by using a better alternative Web browser. I recommend and use Mozilla Firefox, but Apple Safari (Macintosh only) and Opera 8 are both worth considering as well."

Amen, Hallelujah! I was thinking the same thing when I read that IE 7.0 will not pass the Acid 2 test (it took the Safari team, what, a few weeks to pass the test?), but to see a Windows-oriented journalist publicly call for the boycott is very encouraging. Hopefully the big media outlets pick up on this story and help put massive pressure on Microsoft to do the right thing.

If they're so worried about backwards compatibility, Microsoft could (once again) copy Netscape - include two rendering engines, the good one and the bad one (IE 6). If a user wants to risk using the old renderer for the sake of backwards compatibility, let them, but let's put pressure on web producers to get out of the proprietary IE markup hole.