Google backs Mozilla in fight to keep choice in browser up to developers and consumers – politicians join them
IE 10 is nice, but you can’t expect us to use it as our primary browser…
We reported last week that Microsoft is going the closed route with its Windows RT Web browser – developers can technically craft a browser for the mobile OS, but there’s not much they can do without the Classic API.
Only Internet Explorer will be able to perform many of the advanced computing functions vital to modern browsers in terms of speed, stability, and security to which users have grown accustomed. Given that IE can run in Windows on ARM, there is no technical reason to conclude other browsers can’t do the same. – Harvey Anderson, Mozilla general counsel
Long story short, Microsoft is catching a lot of flack over its decision to deny its users the option of using any functional third-party browsers. Mozilla and Google have been (rightfully) making a lot of noise over the subject, and now the Senate Judiciary Committee has decided to step in and investigate.
Microsoft got itself in a legal dispute of a similar nature way back in the days of Netscape – it should know that there will never be widespread adoption of Internet Explorer. It has too bad a reputation, and most of us, an overwhelming majority of us, use either Firefox or Chrome. Those of us who don’t use either of the two are probably using Opera – a small crowd, but still more than IE, I’d like to think.
Even my less-tech savvy friends who don’t know the first thing about computers, aside from the fact that there’s a Start bar and you can get on the Internet, have discovered Firefox and ditched IE.
The thing that really gripes me is that Microsoft has finally produced an OS that appeals to more than just the end user, and more than the Windows fanboys – Windows 8 is a huge improvement from previous versions in my opinion. But as always, there has to be some unnecessary drawback thrown in the mix.
Windows RT sounds like something I’d be interested in – just let us use our favorite browsers. Internet Explorer is, and always will be a failure. I like IE 10, but I’d never use it over any third-party alternatives.
