Now look at it: The market penetration of Internet Explorer is about 16 percent. It was once about 90 precent. It was the da King! The top browser now is Google Chrome.
I see two good things: First, it’s obvious that Windows users are mature enough to realize that they don’t have to stick with the slop that Microsoft dishes up. Second, they’re fully capable of downloading and installing a browser other than IE. That’s just wonderful!
YouTube advised me to change from Internet Explorer earlier this year after it became impossible to edit my channel page. I still have IE on my computer. It was factory installed on my computer. Does that mean it has to stay on my computer, or can I uninstall it?
Comment by The Gnome Whisperer — July 17, 2012 @ 6:10 am
You don’t need to worry about IE when you have another browser installed. I have IE on my desktop, though I use Firefox. I just set Firefox as the default browser, which is a question you’re prompted with during installation. That’s it. Then you never have to use IE again. I’m not sure whether it can be uninstalled or not.
Comment by admin — July 17, 2012 @ 8:29 am
>”I’m not sure whether it can be uninstalled or not.”
It cant, Ive seen a lot of threads about this on forums, IE is part of the OS, it is used to render the file system and interface with the internet.
Dan- It is a major *yawn* to hear you talk about how bad windows is becoming. I sure hope you dont have to do any more windows books. I would love to see you do Linux/BSD books. And since youre doing a lot of Android books lately, what do you think about Android as a desktop OS? The reason I ask is I recently found the Odroid-X which is an ARM board that runs Android OS on a TV or monitor. Im seriously thinking of buying one as I think the ARM platform is the most open and hassle free hardware platform. The specs look as good as a netbook.
http://www.slashgear.com/odroid-x-trumps-raspberry-pi-with-quad-core-cpu-13238487/
Comment by BradC — July 17, 2012 @ 9:59 am
Android as a desktop OS? Only if your desktop is a stupid netbook. Let mobile operating systems run only on mobile platforms.
The only reason IE held 90% of the browser market was because Microsoft shoved it down everyone’s throats in the late 90s and forced everyone to use it. Thankfully, the DoJ hit them with several anti-trust lawsuits and put and end to that.
“stick with the slop that Microsoft dishes up.”
Seems we’re having a repeat of IE now with Windows 8 – Metro everywhere: Windows 8, Office 13 – I mean 2013, Visual Studio 2012, Windows Phone, XBox 360… Everything. Thankfully, Microsoft seems to be committing suicide with this Metro move and so I’m hoping more people will throw away everything Microsoft and move to a more robust platform like Linux or Mac OS X – a win-win for everyone.
Comment by linuxlove — July 17, 2012 @ 10:24 am
BradC: Yeah, it’s boring for me to constantly complain about Windows 8, but I’m stuck using it as part of my job. So it’s kind of on my front burner. BTW, I’m planning on doing One Last Windows book, though it may not come to fruition. I’ll let you know when it develops.
Android would be a poor desktop OS. Unlike Windows 8 (there I go again) Android was designed for touchscreen mobile devices. I think Google is wise enough to appreciate the desktop. Their desktop OS is the Chrome OS.
Linuxlove echoes a lot of sentiment I’ve been reading on the Windows 8 forums. Too many times I read how people will eventually ditch Windows for the Mac or Linux. The key is the corporate world. If the corporate types adopt Linux en mass, especially government agencies, then Linux might just see its day in the sun.
Comment by admin — July 17, 2012 @ 11:22 am
Dan- The point Im trying to make about the Adroid board is that I think people are getting really sick of having to have 8 gigs of RAM and a 3ghz CPU just to do normal computing. And I think people are sick of the constant problems with drivers and software compatibility on x86 hardware. I think people are going to go with a minimalist approach and these ARM boards look they will be the future.
Comment by BradC — July 17, 2012 @ 12:34 pm
You’re correct. That’s why I’m predicting a move away from desktops and laptops for about 80 percent of the computer owners out there. They will exclusively use mobile devices in the near future. For the casual user, there is no point in having a full-blown computer.
Comment by admin — July 17, 2012 @ 12:50 pm
IE9 isn’t too bad I never use it though I just have it as my third browser choice. I’ve just read the articles about Windows 8 aren’t there meant to be 2 versions of IE 10 one for metro and one for classic desktop that is certainly going to make life way more complicated for programmers out there.
Comment by chiefnoobie — July 24, 2012 @ 10:06 am
I found that IE was being slow on some sites, and I couldn’t stand it! So I use Firefox on the PC, with IE as a backup. It surprises me that there are some sites that Firefox can’t handle.
Comment by admin — July 24, 2012 @ 10:13 am
Yes I use Firefox as my main browser but now and again it just fails for example it doesn’t like Google video chat it just crashes all the time, so I use Chrome. Chrome is pretty good although I really don’t like the down load manager.
Comment by chiefnoobie — July 24, 2012 @ 1:54 pm