Microsoft ends compulsory IE

[Scottish Business Owner]

This has been all over the web today. Apparently Microsoft has agreed to give users a choice as to what internet browser they would like on their machine. Nice to see the EU doing something positve for a change

BBC News - Microsoft ends 10-year fight with Europe on browsers

I think once more people are exposed to things like Firefox and Opera etc IE will either need to innovate or be cast aside.

 

[computer storm]

well they are working on IE9 at the moment and is supposed to be a bit like the google chrome

 

[Lanarkshire IT Services]

Hi All

Yep can only be a postive thing.

It's a well known fact that IE is the most targeted browser by malware writers with little add-on protection available.

Firefox on the other hand with the NoScript and Malware Search add-ons provides an excellent layer of FREE defence.

Most users will click the little blue "e" to get online and it can be a pain to re-educate them to use the faster, more secure Firefox etc.

So I think having the option of decent browser on a system from the outset will help save a lot of headaches later.

Regards

 

[Mike Lewis]

On the whole, this must be a good thing. But I wonder about the implications for software developers.

Many of us use Internet Explorer components in our applications as an easy way of rendering rich text. For example, one of my apps has a Welcome screen, with a logo, multiple fonts and colours, etc. It's much easier to create this sort of interface in HTML, and render it with Microsoft's Web Browser control (which is the central component of IE) than it would be if using native Windows controls.

This is an approach which Microsoft have always encouraged. It has been attractive up to now because we can assume that the control is question will always be present in a Windows computer.

I hope this decision means that IE will still be present within the OS, even if it's hidden from the end user. If not, expect a few howls of protest from programmers.

Mike

 

[Lanarkshire IT Services]

On the whole, this must be a good thing. But I wonder about the implications for software developers.

Many of us use Internet Explorer components in our applications as an easy way of rendering rich text. For example, one of my apps has a Welcome screen, with a logo, multiple fonts and colours, etc. It's much easier to create this sort of interface in HTML, and render it with Microsoft's Web Browser control (which is the central component of IE) than it would be if using native Windows controls.

This is an approach which Microsoft have always encouraged. It has been attractive up to now because we can assume that the control is question will always be present in a Windows computer.

I hope this decision means that IE will still be present within the OS, even if it's hidden from the end user. If not, expect a few howls of protest from programmers.

Mike

Understand

What I would do then is just run IE under XP Mode Application Publishing. This will give you full use of IE for line of business apps while you can use Firefox etc as your main browser.

Might not suit everyone but a solution none the less

Regards

 

[Mike Lewis]

What I would do then is just run IE under XP Mode Application Publishing. This will give you full use of IE for line of business apps while you can use Firefox etc as your main browser.

Unfortunately, as software developers, we don't always have control over our users' configurations. Up to now, it's been safe to assume every Windows user has IE installed. If that's not the case in the future, many applications will fail.

On the other hand, that would be such a widespread problem that Microsoft will presumably do something to prevent it. Perhaps they'll continue to provide IE with all versions of Windows, but not expose it in the user interface by default.

Mike