Adding tabs and fixing security holes does not by any stretch of the imagination put IE on par with Firefox. Hell, I think that the ability to search within pages by hitting the forward-slash key is just about as big a breakthrough as tabbed browsing. So Microsoft releases a pop-up blocking update, and security updates, and now a tabbed browsing update. They are playing catchup to the innovators. And at the same time the innovators continue to innovate. And MS will continue playing catchup. The fact that you can, with specialized knowledge, tweak IE to make it secure does not put it on the level of other browsers that a secure out-of-the-box.
And hell, there's a thread somewhere in this forum about useful Firefox extensions. Give it a look sometime. Firefox can do just about everything but the dishes and laundry. The number one goal of the developers is to make a browser that is so nice that everyone will want to use it. Microsoft's strategy is to create an environment where people have to use their software because there is no alternative. For example, I've got a hotmail account that I've had for about 10 years so it gets TONS of junkmail every day, but it's so old and entrenched that I don't want to give it up as lots of old friends I've lost contact with can still contact me through that email. So I decided I would upgrade my account to their $20/year service so that I could use it with Mozilla Thunderbird which would take care of the problem with all my junkmail. Well, guess what. MS doesn't use POP with Hotmail. They use a proprietary protocal that does the exact same thing as POP, but will only work with MS Outlook. So yeah....don't worry that Gmail offers POP for free and also gives 8 times the storage space for free, but I can't use Hotmail with the email client of my choice even if I'm willing to PAY Microsoft.
The company's strategy across the board is to use their muscle to position themselves in the market to where they can actively stifle innovation and competition.
Just look at what they did with Internet Explorer! When Netscape appeared on the scene MS identified it as the most groundbreaking innovation in the computer industry in decades. They opted to crush Netscape out of existence using any means necessary (including blatently illegal ones). Once they had done that and had no competition Internet Explorer was allowed to absolutely stagnate. How long has it been since IE 6 was released? 3 years? 4 years? MS had basically the only option for internet browsing on the market, and it was full of security holes and had Active X integration with security holes so big that a person could essentially do absolutely anything they wanted to another person's computer by exploiting them, and Microsoft did virtually nothing. They simply didn't care.
So FINALLY Firefox comes around (from the people who originally invented Netscape) after years and years of total inactivity on Microsoft's part and revolutionizes the web browser. Fast forward a year or so later, MS releases a pop-up blocker update and a tabbed browser update and we're supposed to be somehow content with this? This is supposed to satisfy us?
....it may be enough for someone who is incredibly easy to please and has severe short term memory loss, such as Soapboy. As for me, I'll stick with Firefox, thanks.
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Topic: tabbed browsing in IE (Read 4468 times)
