Recently, I yet again ran into a web site that would not work in Firefox or Chrome correctly. It had some form dialog boxes in combination with some JavaScript that simply would not display proper in the two aforementioned browsers.
What I did at that point is what anyone else in Windows would do, I fired up Internet Explorer 8, loaded the site with that browser and everything worked properly.
Granted, I know the reason why the site I was using didn’t work in Firefox or Chrome was the web designer’s fault and I don’t deny that. The point I’m making here is that when I use IE, everything works.
I will periodically browse the web in what I call "Normal Internet User" mode (which I’ll just call NIU) to specifically avoid wonky issues some web sites may have.
NIU in a nutshell means to browse with IE8 using no advert/script/Flash blockers or any other software that would otherwise intercept specific content. Some people would consider this a stupid way to browse, but in all honesty it does ensure that everything will work 100%.
Are things faster in IE? No. Is IE the best browser? That depends on your opinion, but my answer is no. Is IE8 as extensible as Firefox or Chrome? Not by a long shot.
Even with all the negatives going against IE8 concerning the overall browsing experience, I do use it NIU-style when I want maximum compatibility. I also appreciate the fact IE is like Chrome is in the respect that each tab is a separate process (each tab in IE8 is a separate instance of iexplore.exe the same as Chrome has chrome.exe for each tab opened).
It’s really easy to knock IE compared to Firefox or Chrome, but when you want a browser that’s compatible with, well.. everything, you can’t do better than IE8.
You would think that in 2010 IE wouldn’t be required anywhere, but that’s not the case – yet. IE is still needed in some places.
For those of you using Linux, you’re not left out in the cold. There is IE8 for WINE, so even though some of the Internet is still IE-only territory, that thankfully doesn’t translate to Windows-only territory – although I’m not sure how IE8 in WINE would handle ActiveX content. If you have tested IE8 in WINE under Linux browsing a site using ActiveX, please feel free to post a comment on whether that actually works proper or not.
Alternatively, Linux folks could just use VirtualBox and install a virtual Windows XP for the occasions when IE8 is needed.
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