Is IE inferior?

[joe_easton]

I often hear that people refuse to use IE because there are better browsers available. Just today, in a business meeting a software developer made the comment that he can run his HTML5 software on any browser but IE.

Is IE really that far behind? I use it all day without issue but I am also not able to download any other versions (locked by IT). I use WP and a Surface RT so all I have experience with recently is IE.

What do you use? Do you feel that IE is an inferior browser?

 

[Laura Knotek]

My preference is Firefox Nightly.

 

[joe_easton]

My preference is Firefox Nightly.

Preference or is there a performance issue that makes you like it?

 

[micallan_17]

For me IE all the way, am using IE11 on W8.1 and it's fast, I have chrome installed but rarely use it as IE starts faster and also it uses less resources, I have used chrome and I can only have a couple of tabs opened at a time and my laptop slows down, I can run more tabs on IE and it still works fine.

 

[tgp]

I think most people use their preferred browser, be it Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc., and have another browser handy as a backup. No single browser renders every page on the web correctly. I prefer Chrome, but I use IE for certain sites. Some of my colleagues prefer IE, but they'll use Chrome for certain sites.

As far as saying whether or not IE is inferior, I cannot. I'm not a web developer, so I have no clue. I guess we'd have to know how often it works compared to the others.

 

[k0de]

For me IE all the way, am using IE11 on W8.1 and it's fast, I have chrome installed but rarely use it as IE starts faster and also it uses less resources, I have used chrome and I can only have a couple of tabs opened at a time and my laptop slows down, I can run more tabs on IE and it still works fine.

Same here.

Is IE inferior? Nope.

 

[xandros9]

IE's problem is that the public perception that it sucks is really deep and will be hard to uproot.
It could be literally the best, fastest, safest, miracle browser, and few will look its way.
I had a friend testing some webpage on multiple browsers and he won't even try IE/IE mobile.

Personally, I divide my browsing between Firefox and IE. There's one or two things that stumble on IE and not FF, but those are usually not a problem as i just switch over.
I also get to troll friends by using IE.

It's decent, a lot better than the days of IE 6, or even 8.

 

[unstoppablekem]

I use ie11 on my surface because other browsers have scaling issues with high resolution screens with high resolution, like the surface pro 2.

 

[Just_Me]

I pref IE11 as I have battery & resource problems with some other browsers. Most of the time if I have a prob with a particular site, I can just set compatibility mode for that site and it renders right after that. Many developers tend to lean towards what they are personally familiar & comfortable with (often what they were "Raised" on). The browser preference wars are a old boring one.
There is nothing terrible about any of them, they all work for the most part.
IE is more friendly to manage from a central IT perspective and is often required where special business plugins have been deployed company wide.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Preference or is there a performance issue that makes you like it?

There are specific add-ons available for Firefox that are not available for IE. I also like a browser that is cross platform, since I run both Windows and Linux. (No IE for Linux)

 

[joe_easton]

There are specific add-ons available for Firefox that are not available for IE. I also like a browser that is cross platform, since I run both Windows and Linux. (No IE for Linux)

I can see the need for cross platform, I'm only on MS products so IE is for me

 

[jmshub]

IE used to be terrible, so hardcore users got used to installing new browsers on their PCs. I use Firefox most of the time, but IE isn't that bad anymore. I mostly got used to the Firefox UI and some of the add-ons. Especially NoScript. But in my company, we use only IE on the PCs, and it works pretty well.

 

[a5cent]

I once despised IE (used Firefox and Chrome) Today IE is my preferred browser. IE is not only fast, but also one of the most standards compliant browsers out there. If a HTML5 app doesn't run on a recent version of IE, then the issue is usually the web developer, not the web browser. Writing standards compliant HTML can require more effort. Some web developers are just unable or unwilling to do so, preferring to use nifty alternatives or take short cuts. It may be true that your colleagues web app doesn't run on IE, but my first question would be what he/she means when saying it "runs on everything else". More often than not, that just means it was tested on Safari and Chrome, which are internally the same browser. More often than not, what fails on IE will also fail on Firefox, Opera, and many others. IMHO any company that cares about maintainability should demand that any web development they pay for must run on Firefox, chrome and IE. They each use their own rendering engine, so if it works on all three, it is very likely standards compliant.

The lack of a good add blocker would be my main reason to return to Firefox.

 

[gedzum]

IE used to be terrible, so hardcore users got used to installing new browsers on their PCs. I use Firefox most of the time, but IE isn't that bad anymore. I mostly got used to the Firefox UI and some of the add-ons. Especially NoScript. But in my company, we use only IE on the PCs, and it works pretty well.

Same here. I also got used to Firefox and the way I have it set up that I barely use any other browser. It's more of a preference thing for me as opposed to any noticeable performance difference.

 

[ohgood]

yes, yes it is.

it looks more like office everyday, with its strangely different buttons, odd rendering, and lack of usability cross platform, chrome apes it

 

[berty6294]

IE used to be bad, and I used Chrome for everything on everything. But IE got really good, and is now my preferred browser by a huge margin!

 

[Jas00555]

I tend to use Firefox on my desktop due to the add-ons but on my SP2, I use IE 11 and its amazing. IMO Metro IE on a touch screen > everything else

 

[tgp]

I like IE11, but the lack of sync is a killer for me. I like how I can go to Chrome on my PC, tablet, or phone, no matter the OS, and all my bookmarks, saved passwords, and form data are there.

 

[a5cent]

I like IE11, but the lack of sync is a killer for me. I like how I can go to Chrome on my PC, tablet, or phone, no matter the OS, and all my bookmarks, saved passwords, and form data are there.

I'll have to give you that. I miss that too. It's definitely worth mentioning, but those aren't features that would prevent a web app from running correctly in IE, as they aren't related to any specific web technology. They are proprietary Chrome features, albeit good ones.

 

[tgp]

I'll have to give you that. I miss that too. It's definitely worth mentioning, but those aren't features that would prevent a web app from running correctly in IE, as they aren't related to any specific web technology. They are proprietary Chrome features, albeit good ones.

Well no sync has nothing to do with the browser working as intended, but one could argue that lack of sync could be grounds for labeling a browser as inferior.