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WaSP demonstrate the depressing consequences of the Eolas ruling on Internet Explorer – every time the browser sees an ActiveX object, it will pop up a dialog instructing the user to continue loading the page.
Eolas/Microsoft: Bringing the Web to its Full Potential:
As Phil points out, there are workarounds to this, but with the vast time and money needed to ‘fix’ existing sites, web users are going to be plagued by these pointless dialogs for ever more. Unless of course, they upgrade to a better browser.
10:26 am on 9 October 2003 :::
Mal Says:Good god. Making a browser hard to code for is one thing, but making it bad for the user?!? Insanity. Do Microsoft *want* to lose their market share?
3:52 pm on 9 October 2003 :::
natis Says:That’s the thing, they won’t lose much market share because of people’s mentality. Your average web user will blindly follow what is given to them rather than try something new. This is why Windows is dominant. A cheaper solution that people went for and now are familiar with. And even though they are familiar with the Blue Screen of Death and all the other headaches out there, very few will try something exponentially better (OS X).
6:38 pm on 9 October 2003 :::
mal Says:Whoooah, that’s a boat load of opinion, there.
I’m suspect this might be enough to make a significant number of people consider alternatives to IE. Maybe not Windows, but IE. Even I’m considering alternatives, despite being _very_ settled in IE6.
6:39 pm on 9 October 2003 :::
mal Says:“I’m suspect”? My English certainly is. Soz.
6:50 pm on 9 October 2003 :::
Matt Says:_Even I?m considering alternatives, despite being very settled in IE6_
Give Firebird a go Mal.
7:50 pm on 9 October 2003 :::
Kev Says:Firebird is certainly my browser of choice when using windows. It doesn’t quite have that nice integrated feel that IE6 does (although that may not be a bad thing, depending on your politics) and yeah it’s flakey at the moment but features as basic as tabs (you might not think you want them but you almost certainly do) and pop-up blocking (who doesn’t want that?) soon become so much a part of the way you browse it _really_ is a wrench to go back. No really, it is. A couple of services I need to use for work are IE only but they’re the only reason I ever fire the dozy old lump of crud up (rampant opinionating. cool).
I recommend changing the default skin straight away though. It’s vile.
9:09 pm on 9 October 2003 :::
natis Says:For my work PC (basically I’m using it because there is a gun pointed to my head called my paycheck), I use Firebird 0.6.1. Very, very nice.
At home, Safari has finally come of age where I can use it 90% of the time. For finances, I use Mozilla.
And yes, I’m loaded with opinions, but I always invite people to come and destroy my opinions. Give me the conviction to believe in the things I believe in.
–natis
9:11 pm on 9 October 2003 :::
natis Says:oh yeah, pop up blocking. nice
tabbed browsing. might have to offer a sacrifice to the gods for that invention. ;p
–natis
9:17 pm on 9 October 2003 :::
Stu Says:Well every cloud has a silver lining, and just maybe this will encourage people to explore alternatives to IE. IE6 is not the last word in browser technology; a few annoying pop ups may be just the thing to make people realize this. What really amazes me is when I ask someone what browser they use and they can’t answer me.
12:30 pm on 10 October 2003 :::
mal Says:Matt: Give Firebird a go Mal.
Am doing.
Will probably post a report on my blog later. Have to say, it’s a big improvement on the last time I looked…
9:23 am on 11 October 2003 :::
Tommy Says:I always recommend Firebird to my Windows using (evil) friends.
Actually the recent nightly builds of Firebird for Mac OS have shown great improvements over the almost unusable 0.6.1.
10:12 am on 16 October 2003 :::
mal Says:Right, my verdict on Firebird is in. It’s pretty damned good and I really want to switch, but there’s one or two things missing that irritate me. Maybe I should add an enhancement request to Bugzilla…
6:21 pm on 16 October 2003 :::
mal Says:You know what… sod it. I’m a convert. I’ve got an extension for the parent folder thing, have found settings in about:config to remove other irritations, and will just put up with an incomplete Googlefest. Vive la revolution!
6:46 pm on 16 October 2003 :::
Matt Says:Know what you mean about Mozilla’s Googlebar though Mal. It’s not great is it?
For the record (you probably already know this), you can restrict queries to a particular domain by using: _site:www.example.com my query_. Also, there’s this bookmarklet that you can drag to your favourites bar that will do the same thing.
7:12 pm on 16 October 2003 :::
mal Says:Bookmarklet – nice one! Thanks.
Oh, and also for the record, if anyone else using Firebird on Windows wants links launched from email or the Run box to appear in new windows, head for about:config | advanced.system.supportDDEExec and set it to false. It’s the equivalent to IE’s “Reuse windows for launching shortcuts” option. Was driving me mental.