Dear Microsoft Browser Development Team,
First of all, thanks for stepping up to the standards plate with IE8. It's really nice, I love the dev tools, I love being able to flip between IE7 and 8 view, and most of all, I love knowing that I probably won't have to create a special style sheet just for that browser.
The only problem I have with your new browser presented itself when I read a review of the IE9 Beta on Zeldman's site. My heart skipped a beat, I mean, you guys finally put out a version of IE that is friendly to both users and developers, and we're already looking at a beta version of the next one?
Here is my idea, and one shared by many of your fellow coders out there. Please stop making us re-download your new browser versions, stop making us go through the instructional documents on what changes have been made and how to use them. It is really old-school and inconvenient, and I'm sure for a lot of average users out there, it's intimidating and confusing.
One of the reasons we all love Firefox, Safari and Chrome is that the upgrades are downloaded as they're released. We don't have to go through the whole process of upgrading these browsers in their entirety. This allows them to make small improvements and incorporate them right away rather than developing a whole new browser. I'm just a simple front-end developer, but it seems to me that a process like that would be easier on your team, too. Not to mention that it will significantly improve your reputation and make developers love Microsoft again.
So please, please, stop the full-on browser upgrade madness. Just give in and operate like the preferred browsers do, add your own Microsoft magic to it, and let users upgrade as the improvements happen.
Sidenote - most of us have helped our parents and less-techie friends learn to use Firefox and Chrome, as even they were sick of the security risks and constant upgrades to IE. Just something to think about.
this is why the mac rocks socks!
Kim, I can't tell you how much of my life IE has wasted for me. I've spent numerous hours on end trying build cross-browser compliant websites, and almost 90% of my frustration comes from dealing with IE. I do like the compatibility button in IE8, but I worry that millions of users who are not tech savvy will not ever realize to hit that button when IE8 is at fault for things being out of place. I also hear IE9 is only for Vista. That's going to be another nightmare when you still have a large amount of users on the dreaded IE6, IE7, and IE8 on XP and THEN users with IE7, IE8 and IE9 on Vista. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Michelle - haha, you Mac people! I worked with a Mac for a few months and really liked it though.
Jenny - oh jeez, seriously, what are they thinking? They are pompous asses. I think I'll start making one of those old-fashioned javascript popups that alerts people with IE 6 and 9 that their browsers are incompatible with the entire internet, and to view X page properly, they have to use Firefox or Chrome or Safari. :) Maybe I'll add some automatic elevator music, or make it forward to Zombo.com. Ah, feel better just thinking of the revenge in my own mind.
Zombo.com - HAHAHAHA! That would be perfect.
Well said and much more fair than I probably would have been. IE has been an incredible pain for web development for such a long time. Firebug revolutionized the way I debugged and inspected web sites and to this day nothing in the IE world compares. Firebug aside, lately I have to admit that Firefox itself is seeming a bit clunky and dated compared to Chrome.
Yeah Devin, I've noticed FF acting kind of slow too. This weekend though, I installed it on my Dad's pc without all the add-ons that I love, like Firebug and Weather bug and all the developer stuff, and it wasn't so bad. Hopefully Mozilla is working on streamlining the cool add-ons so it doesn't take five minutes to pull up Firefox.