<null@zilch.com> wrote in message
newsp1sjvcsv5bhtu2a4ckl2k09127nbojot7@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 04:08:27 GMT, Whoever <nobody@devnull.none> wrote:
>
> >> You are tilting at windmills. The browser war is over. Microsoft won,
> >> whether any of us like it or not. The 95% of all computer users that
use IE
> >
> >I am not so sure the war is over.
> >
> >My company's website used to show a similar pattern -- 95% IE (excluding
> >the robots). However, after we fixed the Netscape compatibility issues,
> >it's now 66%/33%. In other words, there are a lot of frustrated Netscape
> >users out there who use Netscape whenever they can and IE when
> >forced to.
>
> I'd go further and say flat out that the so-called browser war is far
> from over. It's just begun. Mozilla 1.5a is "the cat's meow". Insofar
> as being forced to use IE at poorly designed web sites, I used to use
> Opera for that, but I've not had to do that at all in recent weeks.
> Also, note that Opera can be set to appear as IE or Netscape so your
> statistics aren't reliable.

My website has always been 100% Netscape compatible - and I've always gone
to great lengths to keep it that way. There was a time that my site traffic
was ~50/50, but that was years ago. For several years now a good 85% plus
of my users are using IE. About 10% of the remainder use WebTV. Perhaps it
simply depends on the subject matter of the particular website. Current
figures internet-wide gathered by the various marketing agencies run ~95%
IE. No clue whether they include WebTV in that (it is a very low end IE) or
if the WebTV phenomenon is simply finally running its course now that the
price of a real machine has gone so low.

Personally I used Netscape from the day it was introduced "way back when"
until version 4.7, which crashed literally every 15 minutes and required a
total reboot. After weeks of mucking around with the thing I got fed up -
one simply cannot develop websites while rebooting the miserable machine
every 15 minutes - so I trashed the thing. Hated to do it BUT ..... and as
far as Opera goes, I tried that a few years back. Some features were nice -
but many were missing. And it was useless as far as checking pages for
browser compatibility. When I eventually removed the program the machine
was so completely fouled up that I ended up having to disconnect the spare
drive where all the good stuff lives and reinstall the OS. NOT amused.

My position is this: fool me once, stupid you - fool me twice, stupid me.
I don't *like* IE - it does have its problems - but it is stable and fast
(at least in comparison to Netscape 4.7). I have never once seen a blue
screen of death like Net4.7 caused and can work online for 24 hours if I
want to without a reboot. Better the problems that I know than a whole new
set waiting for an unguarded moment in my opinion.

I have never once at any time - despite a huge volume of virus traffic
through my website email address - been infected with a virus or trojan.
About the worst that any AdAware/Spybot type program has ever found on my
machine is gif-bots in the cache. So whatever I am doing - which I have
historically always done - is working well. As far as I am concerned, if it
ain't broke, don't fix it.

I don't happen to believe that any of the alternatives to IE are
*necessarily* any more secure than IE - just most idiots out looking to
exploit problems look first to IE in order to do the maximum damage. Not
much point in figuring out how to hack a browser that 10 people in the
universe use