Will You Stop Using Internet Explorer?

I stopped using IE around 10 years ago.

Uh, yeah, years ago.

Internet explorer? What is that?

I really hope people haven’t been using IE for the past 10 years. I haven’t met anyone who has.

I would totally use it if they made a OS X version.

I have scarcely used it in 12 years. But all browsers are prone to security vulnerabilities. Any big organization still using anything less than the latest version of IE is being irresponsible.

IMHO the safest route is Firefox + AdBlock + Ghostery + NoScript. Similar results may be possible with Chrome, though Google is almost as evil as M$.

Haven’t used it for years. From my passed experiences with it, it’s pretty much the most faulty and unreliable browser that exists.

Is IE something from netscape or AOL?

Stopped using it about ten+ years ago.

I don’t get on board with its bad reputation. I guess its somehow the ‘cool’ thing to do to look down on IE. Right now I am on Chrome but the newer version of IE has run very smoothly for me as well. Its no surprise that it has synchronised well with Windows OS because its like practically built for it, isn’t it? No, I’m not ready to ditch IE completely but I’m the type who alternates between browsers.

I still use it….when i load windows on a fresh machine and need to download firefox.

I haven’t used it in, probably, 7 years. I don’t understand some people’s insistence on continuing to use it. Sheesh. My dad’s wife still has AOL for their email, which they set up in the late 90’s. She pays $15 a month for it!

I use all three browsers and have found IE 9 works fine. It is the default at work but I also use Firefox and Chrome there and don’t have a problem with any. At work, security is not my issue; at home, I use Chrome.

I ditched IE years ago myself. Insecure, slow, lacking features, lacking flexibility, and don’t get me started on ActiveX.

@alphabetpony92 It’s cool to be secure. It’s not cool to be a digital Typhoid Mary, But if you’re the type of person who likes collecting STDs, then by all means, feel free to continue using something that everybody who knows anything about computers avoids for good, provable reasons.

I stopped long ago.

Nope, I still use it.

I’m with the “haven’t used it in years” crowd.

Homeland Security Raises Alarm – News at 11.

@jerv What? Who said anything about STD’s? Are we talking about sex or internet browsers? lol. Anyway, when it comes to viruses—I think its even cooler to avoid sites which pose more of a risk, such as porn sites. Since we’re on the topic of sex, are they the kind of sites you like to use your more secure browsers for?

By the way, my father is a computer programmer/software engineer and has been for many years. I don’t recall ever seeing him use anything other than Internet Explorer. But maybe he’s one of the people who knows nothing about computers, right?

@alphabetpony92 he’s talking about computer viruses. IE is far more susceptible to viruses than the others. I got a wicked one from a business where I was applying for a job. I was using IE because they told me to. The virus wasn’t there when I went in via FireFox or Chrome.

@Dutchess_III Yes, I figured, but thank you.

Nope. Recently its actually quite good security wise particularly if you’re running EMET as well (if you’re running EMET the vulnerability mentioned by the OP is significantly harder to exploit and homeland security suggest deploying EMET). There’s a couple of malware in the wild that look for it won’t even bother trying to deploy if they detect it running in the background. (as a side note IE11 with EMET didn’t fall at this years pwn2own despite them offering additional prize money to anyone who succeeded).

Firefox hasn’t bothered to sandbox yet which, quite frankly, is crap in this day and age. (and yet people still try and kid themselves its more secure)

Chrome is good but not sure if they solved the add-on hijacking issue (hackers were buying popular chrome add-ons and then updating them to deploy malware. Because the user has already allowed the add-on the updated version with the malware is downloaded and executed automatically.

I will still use it because I have snapdo taking over all my other browsers.

Internet Explorer.

Just LOL.

I stopped using it about 10 years ago. I switched to Firefox, which I think was on version 1.6 then.

I used IE a few times after that, when I was trying to see if the occasional internet problems I encountered were caused by Firefox, but now I use Chrome for that.

@Dan_Lyons

IE=Internet Explorer which is a Windows product.

The only time I’ve ever used it was to go to the Firefox site to download FF after buying a used laptop.

After I installed FF, I deleted the icon for IE since I couldn’t imagine ever needing it. And I haven’t.

FF works fine and I’m used to its bookmarking system, interface and extensions. I just don’t see any reason to use IE at all.

Like most people above, I haven’t used IE as my regular browser for about 9 years. Unfortunately I am stuck with it at work, but it is an unpleasant, clunky browser. I used Firefox for many years, until I got sick of it using half my RAM at any given time. Since then, my loyalties have been divided by smaller offerings.

@FireMadeFlesh I found that the Free Memory addon helps.

I had switched to chrome about a year ago. I still prefer IE for some things, but I was using newer version of it. I only owned a computer for about five years now, so I had used what was programmed on it for a while until I switched to chrome last year.

@Paradox25 I think it safe to say that most IE users use it mainly because it came preinstalled.

I switched to Firefox years ago but I have found that every time it updates, the new version gets slower and more bloated, to the point now that my PC will frequently freeze or just crash if I try to use Firefox alongside any other program (like a graphics editor or a game). It got to the point that Firefox was pretty much unusable for me. And I don’t have an old crappy PC either, 8GB Ram and no component in it is more than a year old. So a few months ago I switched back to IE and I find it much better.

Thanks @jerv, I’ll check it out if I ever switch back. It’s not so much of an issue any more though, now that I’m running 16GB of RAM.

Aside from the virus issue, I do think the newer IEs are fine and use it along with the other browsers.

We were required to use IE at work too. I wonder why that is?

@downtide Yeah…I use FF too, and it does the same. The last update I got seems to have been improved and now everything runs smoothly, but some of the passed updates made everything run so slow, loading took forever. (although I barely use anything while FF is open, and crashing or freezing isn’t on my list of problems)
At one time I almost thought there was malware on my computer. I did everything FF said to do, clear cookies, reset the browser, downloaded all the recent flash players and java script things, I even uninstalled it and put it in again. (although it has to be said, my machine is old. I maintain it, and it has new parts in it all the time, but still)
But how is it now? The last version kicks ass so far.

I’m willing to pay that price in lieux of IE though. FF barely ever crashed on me, and when it does, it saves what you were doing. IE just goes, yeah well fuck you sista. Would you like to report this to MS?

@jerv I think I stuck with IE a bit longer than many other people though.

@Paradox25 Not really. It’s still the most popular browser… just not in certain circles.

@Dutchess_III Probably compatibility. Most people use what’s preinstalled regardless of quality, so it makes sense to have IE around for that reason alone. Some web designers keep IE around for only that reason; they only ever touch it to see if their site works with the odd quirks and limitations IE has.

^^ I do that for web design.

I just remember my boss freaking out when she realized I was using Firefox instead of IE. She never gave a reason though. But, then again, my boss was the kind of person who said, “This is how I learned to do it in the 70’s, so that’s how we’re going to do it!” Always fax, never email documents, even though the type of documents we worked with were pretty much illegible when they came thorough via fax. We’d have to call the sender and ask them what the letters and numbers on the faxed copy were. But, she was the kind of boss you would never point out to, that emailed versions were as crisp and clear as the original. They didn’t have email in the 70’s so we weren’t to use email.

When everything about computers are a mystery to someone, that person will tend to let their imagination run wild with every little deviation.

When I worked full time in IT, I had a boss who would ask my advice and then do the complete opposite just because (1) she didn’t like me and (2) she could. She tried to replace all the cheapo UNIX file servers with expensive/overkill/probably-still-inferior Windoze replacements (her boss ended up overruling her).

A lot of times, IE is the lowest common denominator. It basically works with everything, past and present. Sometimes people just, God forbid, like it for some reason. Other times, way more often than can be said for most things, people use it because they’re dumbshits.

@bolwerk ” It basically works with everything, past and present. ”

Awful, isn’t it? Who would want to use a product that, you know, works all the time? Morons.

@dappled_leaves: that’s actually not as much a compliment as you’d think. Historically, IE wasn’t very standards-compliant, so sites break on other platforms without IE. IE works because historically it was so prevalent that it had to be catered to. Nowadays, it may lag a bit in ever-more important standards compliance, but I suspect it’s basically still the best “least common denominator” browser as far as compatibility goes.

Personally, I don’t really see why IE is bad and Chrome is supposed to be good. Chrome is perhaps more standards-compliant, but it does for Google basically what IE does (did?) for M$. The caveat is using an older version of IE is probably an especially bad idea because a new security flaw (not to mention many of the old ones) probably won’t be fixed.

@bolwerk Well, then perhaps you should not call the people who use it “dumbshits.”

Thanks so much for that.

@dappled_leaves “Works” should’ve been in quotes. Imagine driving a car that got you to work reliably, but topped out at 27 MPH, took an esoteric fuel, and had no roof so that you got wet whenever it rained. Are you saying that “reliably” trumps all those flaws? I don’t see tolerating those flaws as a sign of intelligence.

@jerv Please don’t fret, I was only pointing out the inconsistency in what he was saying (which he, in turn, pointed out himself). I wouldn’t even have bothered if he hadn’t personally insulted me and other jellies on this thread. It’s unnecessary, regardless of what anyone’s opinion of anyone else’s choice of browser is.

Seriously, this is about people’s personal preferences with regards to browsers. Why should anyone be called a “dumbshit” over that?

@dappled_leaves When personal preferences are self-destructive, what little altruism I have left kicks in, and I get a little uppity when I can’t save people from themselves. Maybe I should just let the world burn :/

@jerv That’s a little dramatic. But I notice you didn’t resort to personal insults. That’s how civil discourse is conducted.

Anyway, I’m not responding to your behaviour here. I’m responding to @bolwerk.‘s

sigh. I lurve lurking and watching. :)

@dappled_leaves: I only said some people who use it dumbshits. That IE has a lot of them is a natural consequence of some people simply being too dumb to be curious enough to find and at least try an alternative. I think, at this point, @jerv is exaggerating its technical shortcomings somewhat, but historically I would be totally in agreement with him. And while I wouldn’t say all IE users are dumbshits, security shortcomings are probably enough to keep people who have triple digit IQs and no overwhelming emotional attachment to IE away from it.

Anyway, there are entire platforms practically tailored to over-privileged dumbshits who think they’re smarter than everyone else.

Dumbshit! Ha ha!

Only my grandmother uses it. I never have.