Weblog entry:
- WaSP on Internet Explorer, redux.
-
The WaSP has repurposed its earlier press release regarding the recent IE rigamarole. This time, the piece has been relegated to the
Opinion
section of the site, and now — to put it simply — rocks my pants:So far as we know, the developers of [browsers like Opera, Mozilla, Konqueror] do not have the benefit of monopoly profits. Microsoft has a responsibility to use the profits they now seek from their illegally-obtained monopoly share of the browser market to fix the standards-related bugs in the software they advertise as standards-compliant.
This sounds so much more like the WaSP I used to know and love — the hellfire-and-brimstone preacher of web standards, pounding the pulpit and excoriating the wicked browser vendors for visiting this filth upon the masses. Or something.1
At any rate, one of Dave Shea’s comments made a lot of sense to me:
The major browser vendors will settle this one, not the developers. The best thing you can do is support their efforts. Buy a copy of Opera and put your money where your mouth is. Pitch in a hand over at Mozilla. Get your friends and family to buy from Apple so they can run Safari. Help them, don’t help the web development community. That’s the way to make a difference.
Dave is absolutely correct; the developers aren’t going to win this one. Being stuck with IE6 is worlds better than being stuck with NN4, and we’d do well to remember that.
However, as consumers/end-users, I think we’ve got a shot. Per Craig Saila’s suggestion, I’ve submitted feedback to Microsoft (under IE’s
Help
menu, selectSend Feedback
) on what I consider to be the weakest points in its CSS implementation. Craig is spot-on; support for standards is tantalizingly close. However, it’s not going to get any better unless we do our part. If we’re trulystuck with Internet explorer for the next 3 years bare minimum
, let’s see if we can’t lower that number a bit.1 Note to self: no more metaphors before finishing your coffee. You just plain suck at it.
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