Ripcord
Senior Lurker
A look at Google's zeitgeist (http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html) gives a bit of a graphical taste for the news at the beginning of the month - that all the security bugs and other problems are finally convincing the 90%+ of web browser users that there might be a more worthwhile browser available than Windows Internet Explorer.
Supposedly the most recent round of viruses and newsworthy items like CERT's (US Computer Emergency Response Team) recommendation to consider other non-IE browsers has triggered a spike of downloads of Mozilla (doubling of the usual download rate). Other browser vendors, like Opera, have been reporting similar spikes.
The zeitgeist graph shows the first downward movement in the usage of Internet Explorer in more than three years, and only reflects through the end of June (most of the Mozilla download growth has occurred in July). Users are starting to ditch IE en mass.
Which is a good thing. Not because other browsers are necessarily more secure than Internet Explorer (in general most are), or that they are better than IE (Opera and Mozilla definitely clean IE's clock), but because it's just not healthy for one company to so totally dominate the web browsing business.
After years of users, corporations, and web site designers forgetting that anything besides IE existed, and Microsoft forgetting that IE DOES exist (except bug fixes IE development nearly stopped for almost two years), the masses are starting to realize that there are other products out there, and they're actually quite good. And this can only be a good thing.
I'm really hoping this pace continues. We might start seeing some real competition in the browser space again, and this sort of thing is INCREDIBLY good for Apple (and other non-MS platforms). At this point the ONLY negative side of web browsing on OS X at the moment is one thing: Site Compatibility. If market share of non-IE browsers grows to something substantial, like 10% or more (dare I say it, 20%?), web site designers will sit up, take notice, and build websites that WORK.
...Which is incredibly good for the browsing experience on OS X, Linux, Solaris, etc., and in both the long and short run, good for the browsing experience on Windows as well.
Supposedly the most recent round of viruses and newsworthy items like CERT's (US Computer Emergency Response Team) recommendation to consider other non-IE browsers has triggered a spike of downloads of Mozilla (doubling of the usual download rate). Other browser vendors, like Opera, have been reporting similar spikes.
The zeitgeist graph shows the first downward movement in the usage of Internet Explorer in more than three years, and only reflects through the end of June (most of the Mozilla download growth has occurred in July). Users are starting to ditch IE en mass.
Which is a good thing. Not because other browsers are necessarily more secure than Internet Explorer (in general most are), or that they are better than IE (Opera and Mozilla definitely clean IE's clock), but because it's just not healthy for one company to so totally dominate the web browsing business.
After years of users, corporations, and web site designers forgetting that anything besides IE existed, and Microsoft forgetting that IE DOES exist (except bug fixes IE development nearly stopped for almost two years), the masses are starting to realize that there are other products out there, and they're actually quite good. And this can only be a good thing.
I'm really hoping this pace continues. We might start seeing some real competition in the browser space again, and this sort of thing is INCREDIBLY good for Apple (and other non-MS platforms). At this point the ONLY negative side of web browsing on OS X at the moment is one thing: Site Compatibility. If market share of non-IE browsers grows to something substantial, like 10% or more (dare I say it, 20%?), web site designers will sit up, take notice, and build websites that WORK.
...Which is incredibly good for the browsing experience on OS X, Linux, Solaris, etc., and in both the long and short run, good for the browsing experience on Windows as well.