Why are people switching from Internet Explorer?
This question shows up in my search logs from time to time. Of course, an answer to this question will always be somewhat subjective — this is why I want to hear your reasons for switching from Internet Explorer to a modern browser.
- When did you switch?
- Which version of MSIE did you switch from?
- Which browser did you switch to?
- Most importantly: Why did you switch?
Comments
Comment from Ole Kristian Bangås on 2004-12-13 19:50
I switched from IE6 to Mozilla Firebird summer 2004. The primary reason for the change was numerous security issues in IE, but I also wanted a browser that rendered pages according to the standards. Needless to say, I’m using Firefox today.
I have also used Opera from time to time, in various versions, but except for a few features in Opera I’m more satisfied with Firefox.
Comment from treego14 on 2004-12-13 20:00
Switched to Opera.
Opera is awesome! Much more refined than that Mozilla junk that gets hyped.
Opera has tons of features that integrate very nicely. I love it! It’s fascinating, addictive software.
And it is much more secure than IE, of course.
Comment from Darryl on 2004-12-13 20:02
Tabbed browsing. Simple as that. Then there was that nice side effect, less security threats.
Comment from Svein Kåre on 2004-12-13 21:04
When I made the switch from IE: Hmmm - Actually, I haven’t made that switch. When I started out, I used AWeb briefly, then iBrowse. On the Amiga. At work I used Netscape 4 instead of IE3. When I heard of Opera 3 I installed that one and tried.
I used both Netscape and Opera for a while until Opera took over completely. At home I used iBrowse, which - as far as I can remember - introduced me to tabbed browsing before Opera. Got myself a PC at home at that time, too, and used Opera.
Why Netscape/Opera? I just plainly liked it better than IE; found them to be better, quicker and with features more to my liking. And with Opera getting better and better, and IE getting - well… staler - there was no reason to change to IE. (Except for those rare pages that locked out anything else.)
I’ve used FireFox, too; exclusively for some months from version 0.8 to 1.0 included. But I’m back to Opera - while I did get the extensions to FireFox that I missed from Opera, they didn’t work as well in my opinion. And Opera is quicker to start up, at least - and feels quicker all over.
Comment from Peter Karlsson on 2004-12-13 21:37
Switched from IE? I never switched to IE. I started out with Netscape 1.2N (on Solaris, at the university), installed Netscape 1, 2, 3 and (reluctantly) 4 on my home PC, switched to Opera 2.12, then switched to Linux and had to go back to Netscape, for finally to totally switch over to Opera when the Linux version came out (which was some time after I actually started working there…)
Comment from Alexander on 2004-12-13 23:04
Hmmm, I think it must have been in 2000, when opera 5 just went beta or something. It was akward at first, but then things just fell into place, such as gestures and later the M2 and 100% custombility. I’ve never looked back.
Mozilla is just too clunky and hacky. IE is a pile of dung, forcing me to do everything his way and the hard way.
Comment from minghong on 2004-12-14 10:29
When? Back to 1995 I guess… I was a hard-die Netscape fan, so IE is never my favorite browser. I was using Netscape 4.x, then 6.x and 7.x. Sometimes later, I finally know about Mozilla, then I switched to Mozilla 1.6. And about 6 months ago, I switched to Firebird 0.7, which is now known as Firefox.
Which version of IE? IE 6, I guess. At that time, I used IE 6 more than Netscape 6/7.
Why did I switch? Mostly because of the better internet experience (e.g. tabbed browsing, popup blocking, integration with Google/Gmail) and the standard support.
Comment from Ben Ward on 2004-12-14 10:56
Sometime around 2002 I believe. I switched from IE6 on Windows XP to using a pre-1.0 Mozilla Suite version (0.97, maybe..). I was dead impressed and have been using Mozilla browsers ever since. I soon found some features like tabs indispencible, so even before Mozilla has all its features I couldn’t cope using IE for any kind of day-to-day browsing.
I switched to Firefox at version 0.6 and have used that ever since, as well as being a regular nightly build user in the run up to 1.0. I also use Firefox whenever I have a Linux install running.
I switched my family over to Firefox at version 0.7 and kept them manually up-to-date until 1.0. They too find it hard going back to IE (though less so as they don’t use any extensions).
I’d never considered how long I’ve been away from IE until now, t’is interesting.
Comment from Ben Ward on 2004-12-14 11:05
… neglecting to comment on the “most important bit” of Why. Sorry!
I switched because I’m a sucker for poking around with new things in computing. IE had frustrated me for a while as regarded its usability (I hated the presence of integrated Media player functions, for example) and the appeal of Mozilla’s featureset (namely pop-up blocking) drew me to try it out. I almost forgot about popup blocking as it’s so taken for granted these days.
At the same time I was getting more involved in web development and discovering what w3c standards were and why they mattered. Mozilla became a favourite as it behaved so much more consistantly than IE.
… it was also much prettier - which at age 17 was important to me. At age 20, it still is… hmmm :-p
Comment from Rijk on 2004-12-14 12:13
I switched from IE3 to Opera 3.0 beta, a few weeks after I got online at home. At work we all got Netscape 3 to browse the intranet I was working one. That’s also were I first tried Opera. I decided to buy it. That was in November or December 1997, just in time before 3.0 became final and the price went up by 5$.
Why? Because I felt in control with Opera, and it was much faster on the rather slow machines at that time. I was completely hooked when 3.5 came out, the first browser ever with really good CSS 1 support.
Comment from Chris Hester on 2004-12-14 12:35
I switched from Netscape 2 (I think it was) to IE4 or 5 when changing from Windows 3.11 to Windows 98. By then IE had gotten real good, while Netscape had become a joke, with the bug-ridden version 4. Then IE5.5 came out with all those cool filters, dude. I mean, what could be better than IE?
I moved up to IE6 but tried Mozilla 1 a few years ago. I used it because it could block pop-ups - a major pain with IE. I recall many sessions where my computer would be taken over by unwanted windows from IE copies - you couldn’t get rid of them! Closing them just opened another window. Well, one day I had about seven new windows open at once from a link, one of them made the browser go fullscreen, so I could not see what was happening. Enough was enough. Time to use Mozilla always. (I had grown used to it by then.)
I loved Mozilla but wanted to try Opera 6. It was good, but had a few problems with existing pages. Then Opera 7.0 came out and was horribly buggy - I could not use it. But they kept improving it, and I kept testing my pages in it. Eventually I got to like all the features included, such as Notes, and the super-fast rendering.
One day I decided I preferred it to Mozilla and would switch. Firefox was still around version 0.7 or something, and I liked it, but Opera was better, and still is. I use Firefox 1.0 only for testing, but not all the time as it does not have the features I need for speedy browsing and working, such as Notes and the way you can easily fill in forms. For that I need Opera, which continues to amaze me with new features and ways of doing things.
If I was still using IE now, I guess I would change to Firefox.
Comment from Fernando on 2004-12-15 10:13
I definitely switched from IE this year (before summer) when I installed the Pre-Release version of Firefox 1.0. There’re many reasons to do that switch.
Comment from Bryan Feeney on 2004-12-15 15:40
A better question is why did you stay? I’ve tried out most browsers several times over, the one I’ve settled on is Firefox, since 0.7. The reasons, in order of importance are:
1) Ease of use
It’s got a nice interface that has successfully managed to rein in the feature creep that has affected Opera, Mozilla and Konqueror
2) Browsing Experience
The addition of popup blocking, tabbed browsing and built-in search make it a pleasure to surf the ‘net in. I realise Opera has all of these, and the latest version of Konqueror does too, but Firefox implementation is easier and more intuitive to use
3) Rendering Quality
Opera is actually better than Firefox at this. Both do a good job of rendering 90% of the web, with the last 10% being due to poor web-design rather than engine flaws. Opera’s advantage is in speed.
Konqueror’s Webcore engine is a little behind. Quite often sites in Konqueror, while rendering, don’t render the way the designer intended; Osnews.com is case in point. But given that it wins out in 1-2, I’m persuaded to ignore the fact that Firefox has only the 2nd best engine out there!
IE’s rendering is, in 2004, shockingly bad. I’m especially aware of this having had to do a bit of CSS led web-design at work.
4) Security
I like feeling secure when I browse the web. It’s one less thing to worry about. I think Firefox is pretty good at this.
5) Extensibility
Firefox is pretty much alone in this. It’s great to be able to add the one or two little things to your browser to make is “just right” for you.
6) Politics
I like helping out free software.
Comment from Capitaine on 2004-12-22 18:44
1 - I switched progressively because I started using Linux full-time at office, and part-time at home.
I dropped Internet Explorer 3-4 months ago. But as a web developper, I still use it to test web pages rendering, or to get through bugged javascript web sites that block Mozilla.
2 - Internet Explorer 6
3 - Mozilla 1.6
4 - I switched to get tabbed windows, and get rid of spywares that used Internet Explorer’s security holes, and did setup on my computer without my consent.
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