The Prince of Randomness?
2006-02-27 14:18:33
This is not written by me.
I am merely mirroring a document which seems to have disspeared from the internet.
It was released as Public Domain by the author.
Internet Explorer is a substandard HTML renderer programmed and bundled by Microsoft as compensation for the outrageous cost of Microsoft Windows. I will not refer to it as a “web browser”, because Internet Explorer does not actually qualify as a “web browser” according to the HTTP standard; this will be explained in more detail later.
The stated purpose of this website is to explain in an understandable form why use of Internet Explorer should be discouraged, and why it is pertinent to upgrade to any real web browser as soon as possible.
If you’re ready to ditch Internet Explorer now, skip to the bottom!
Why Internet Explorer is Harmful to You, the End User
Internet Explorer Violates Your Privacy
Internet Explorer keeps an archive of all of the websites you have visited. This archive is completely invisible and cannot be deleted by any normal means. If you thought you could get rid of it by clearing your history or deleting your cache, you are wrong. It is kept in a folder which is segregated from the main filesystem, but it is there!
To discover Internet Explorer’s secret little cache, go to Start -> “Run…” and type in “command”. A black box (terminal) will come up on your screen. Type in the box:
attrib index.dat /s
(if you don’t get any results, type in cd \ and then the attrib command)
You will get a long list of encrypted files inside hidden folders; for example, if you’re running Windows XP, you might see
C:\DOCUME~1\YourName\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\
and so on. (The rest of this walkthrough also applies to XP users.) This is a hidden folder inside your Internet Explorer History that tracks the URLs you’ve visited. Now, cut and paste that (change YourName to the actual user name that came up) to your Internet Explorer location bar, and try to open up that directory. Isn’t that interesting? It doesn’t seem to exist! Go up a directory to C:\DOCUME~1\YourName\Local Settings\History\ and you’ll see your IE History without that directory in it. Now here’s the clincher: go to C:\DOCUME~1\YourName\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\index.dat — you will be asked whether you want to open a file in this “nonexistent” directory with Notepad! Opening it won’t do much, by the way, as it is encrypted and very large.Even if you didn’t follow that walkthrough, it is urgent for you to know that Internet Explorer is keeping a backup of all of the websites you’ve visited, even if you’ve tried to get rid of them by clearing the cache, clearing the History, purchasing cleaning software, etc. I will not tell you how to delete this cache, because it’s too complicated and out of the scope of this essay. More information is located at Microsoft’s Really Hidden Files.
Internet Explorer is Dangerously Insecure
Internet Explorer is prone to many vulnerabilities which are much more frightening, allowing hackers to launch files on your system or transfer your files to their hard drive. It is proof enough that Windows XP comes with an “auto-update” program so that its users can download and fix vulnerabilities as Microsoft gets around to them. Note also that Internet Explorer goes through entire “service pack”s in order to close large numbers of security holes.
This shouldn’t make you feel more secure because “Microsoft is on the ball” or some such crud. This should make you scared, because it means that the people who wrote Internet Explorer did not have security as their main concern, or didn’t notice obvious security holes while they were programming them. To get a list of Internet Explorer’s currently unpatched security holes, visit PivX Solutions. Remember that when you browse the Web with IE, someone might use one of these major vulnerabilities to compromise your system at any time.
Internet Explorer Barrages You with Ads
Ah, yes, pop-up advertisements. The scourge of the Internet. I suppose even the people who put them on their websites hate them; they exist for the sole purpose of gaining your attention.
But guess what? If you didn’t run Internet Explorer, you wouldn’t be seeing any pop-up ads at all.
Internet Explorer excluded, all modern Internet browsers have high-tech pop-up blockers which prevent websites from shoving advertising in your face. They allow you to open useful popup windows while specifically excluding unwanted ads. And why doesn’t Microsoft do this? Well, they don’t say, but I would suppose that they simply don’t care. They own the Web browser market, so everyone uses Internet Explorer whether they like it or not. In fact, people sometimes purchase pop-up blockers for use with Internet Explorer, so that they won’t have to part with their badly written, insecure, bug-filled HTML renderer.
Why Internet Explorer is Harmful to Webmasters
Internet Explorer is bad for people using it. But it’s also bad for people who make Web pages– imagine having to program for this monster.
Why Internet Explorer is Not a Web Browser
HTTP is the protocol for the World Wide Web. It provides requirements that all Web browsers must meet; if browsers developed their own protocol instead, communication between computers would break down and the Internet would collapse into anarchy.
Internet Explorer does not follow the HTTP protocol.
When a server sends a file to you through HTTP, it identifies the file as a Web page, text file, picture file, movie, or other type of file. HTTP uses the Content-Type header to do this. The protocol for HTTP/1.1 states:
If and only if the media type is not given by a Content-Type field, the recipient MAY attempt to guess the media type via inspection of its content and/or the name extension(s) of the URI used to identify the resource.
Internet Explorer does not follow these rules; it guesses the media type of every file it receives. Even if I send it a file with “Content-Type: image/jpeg”, if Internet Explorer thinks it’s a text file, it will open it like a text file! If in the future Internet Explorer starts identifying its Content-Types incorrectly, this will cause a huge dilemma with webmasters. Because it does not follow this clear protocol, Internet Explorer cannot be technically identified as a “web browser”.
Internet Explorer Does Not Support Standards
The World Wide Web Consortium standards allow web designers to make pages that are easy to update and change because of the nature of the HTML, not having the design, but instead having a linked Cascading Stylesheet with the design infomation. This approach has many benefits for the end users by allowing different stylesheets for when the page is displayed on a page, when it is printed, or when it is viewed on a handheld device.
Internet Explorer was one of the first HTML renderers to add support for CSS, but since 2001, they have not added any new support for CSS. While their support was comparable in 2001, the other web browsers (such as Mozilla and Opera) have been adding better support with fewer bugs. With Mozilla and Opera’s support, designers will be able to code faster and easier. It will allow designers increasingly more stunning and dynamic layouts. But with Internet Explorer’s current buggy incomplete support and no updates in years, this is a a thorn in the side of webmasters.
(this section with thanks to moronicbajebus)
There are Other Options
You don’t have to use Internet Explorer to view the Web. Let’s look at some of the better Web browsers available today.
Mozilla Firefox, based on the Mozilla code described below, is a free, fast, and standalone browser that can replace Internet Explorer easily. I recommend it the most of these alternatives. For more information, visit
Firefox Help.
Mozilla (Netscape) from the Mozilla.org team. Mozilla is a secure and free replacement not only for Internet Explorer but also for Outlook Express and Frontpage. It’s easy to use and open source– it will always be free and never include any adware or spyware. There are actually two options for downloading Mozilla: you can download the full suite or use Firebird above if you don’t want the extra options. You can also download the Mozilla-based Netscape, a modern version of the browser which sparked the birth of the World Wide Web.
Opera from Opera Software. This Web browser is unique because it is the only remaining Windows browser which costs money. Its time-tested features include tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, and pop-up blocking. You can try it for free, or register your copy for $30. For more information, visit the Opera Software website.
Spread the word: Internet Explorer is unfit at any speed.
I am merely mirroring a document which seems to have disspeared from the internet.
It was released as Public Domain by the author.
Internet Explorer is a substandard HTML renderer programmed and bundled by Microsoft as compensation for the outrageous cost of Microsoft Windows. I will not refer to it as a “web browser”, because Internet Explorer does not actually qualify as a “web browser” according to the HTTP standard; this will be explained in more detail later.
The stated purpose of this website is to explain in an understandable form why use of Internet Explorer should be discouraged, and why it is pertinent to upgrade to any real web browser as soon as possible.
If you’re ready to ditch Internet Explorer now, skip to the bottom!
Why Internet Explorer is Harmful to You, the End User
Internet Explorer Violates Your Privacy
Internet Explorer keeps an archive of all of the websites you have visited. This archive is completely invisible and cannot be deleted by any normal means. If you thought you could get rid of it by clearing your history or deleting your cache, you are wrong. It is kept in a folder which is segregated from the main filesystem, but it is there!
To discover Internet Explorer’s secret little cache, go to Start -> “Run…” and type in “command”. A black box (terminal) will come up on your screen. Type in the box:
attrib index.dat /s
(if you don’t get any results, type in cd \ and then the attrib command)
You will get a long list of encrypted files inside hidden folders; for example, if you’re running Windows XP, you might see
C:\DOCUME~1\YourName\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\
and so on. (The rest of this walkthrough also applies to XP users.) This is a hidden folder inside your Internet Explorer History that tracks the URLs you’ve visited. Now, cut and paste that (change YourName to the actual user name that came up) to your Internet Explorer location bar, and try to open up that directory. Isn’t that interesting? It doesn’t seem to exist! Go up a directory to C:\DOCUME~1\YourName\Local Settings\History\ and you’ll see your IE History without that directory in it. Now here’s the clincher: go to C:\DOCUME~1\YourName\Local Settings\History\History.IE5\index.dat — you will be asked whether you want to open a file in this “nonexistent” directory with Notepad! Opening it won’t do much, by the way, as it is encrypted and very large.Even if you didn’t follow that walkthrough, it is urgent for you to know that Internet Explorer is keeping a backup of all of the websites you’ve visited, even if you’ve tried to get rid of them by clearing the cache, clearing the History, purchasing cleaning software, etc. I will not tell you how to delete this cache, because it’s too complicated and out of the scope of this essay. More information is located at Microsoft’s Really Hidden Files.
Internet Explorer is Dangerously Insecure
Internet Explorer is prone to many vulnerabilities which are much more frightening, allowing hackers to launch files on your system or transfer your files to their hard drive. It is proof enough that Windows XP comes with an “auto-update” program so that its users can download and fix vulnerabilities as Microsoft gets around to them. Note also that Internet Explorer goes through entire “service pack”s in order to close large numbers of security holes.
This shouldn’t make you feel more secure because “Microsoft is on the ball” or some such crud. This should make you scared, because it means that the people who wrote Internet Explorer did not have security as their main concern, or didn’t notice obvious security holes while they were programming them. To get a list of Internet Explorer’s currently unpatched security holes, visit PivX Solutions. Remember that when you browse the Web with IE, someone might use one of these major vulnerabilities to compromise your system at any time.
Internet Explorer Barrages You with Ads
Ah, yes, pop-up advertisements. The scourge of the Internet. I suppose even the people who put them on their websites hate them; they exist for the sole purpose of gaining your attention.
But guess what? If you didn’t run Internet Explorer, you wouldn’t be seeing any pop-up ads at all.
Internet Explorer excluded, all modern Internet browsers have high-tech pop-up blockers which prevent websites from shoving advertising in your face. They allow you to open useful popup windows while specifically excluding unwanted ads. And why doesn’t Microsoft do this? Well, they don’t say, but I would suppose that they simply don’t care. They own the Web browser market, so everyone uses Internet Explorer whether they like it or not. In fact, people sometimes purchase pop-up blockers for use with Internet Explorer, so that they won’t have to part with their badly written, insecure, bug-filled HTML renderer.
Why Internet Explorer is Harmful to Webmasters
Internet Explorer is bad for people using it. But it’s also bad for people who make Web pages– imagine having to program for this monster.
Why Internet Explorer is Not a Web Browser
HTTP is the protocol for the World Wide Web. It provides requirements that all Web browsers must meet; if browsers developed their own protocol instead, communication between computers would break down and the Internet would collapse into anarchy.
Internet Explorer does not follow the HTTP protocol.
When a server sends a file to you through HTTP, it identifies the file as a Web page, text file, picture file, movie, or other type of file. HTTP uses the Content-Type header to do this. The protocol for HTTP/1.1 states:
If and only if the media type is not given by a Content-Type field, the recipient MAY attempt to guess the media type via inspection of its content and/or the name extension(s) of the URI used to identify the resource.
Internet Explorer does not follow these rules; it guesses the media type of every file it receives. Even if I send it a file with “Content-Type: image/jpeg”, if Internet Explorer thinks it’s a text file, it will open it like a text file! If in the future Internet Explorer starts identifying its Content-Types incorrectly, this will cause a huge dilemma with webmasters. Because it does not follow this clear protocol, Internet Explorer cannot be technically identified as a “web browser”.
Internet Explorer Does Not Support Standards
The World Wide Web Consortium standards allow web designers to make pages that are easy to update and change because of the nature of the HTML, not having the design, but instead having a linked Cascading Stylesheet with the design infomation. This approach has many benefits for the end users by allowing different stylesheets for when the page is displayed on a page, when it is printed, or when it is viewed on a handheld device.
Internet Explorer was one of the first HTML renderers to add support for CSS, but since 2001, they have not added any new support for CSS. While their support was comparable in 2001, the other web browsers (such as Mozilla and Opera) have been adding better support with fewer bugs. With Mozilla and Opera’s support, designers will be able to code faster and easier. It will allow designers increasingly more stunning and dynamic layouts. But with Internet Explorer’s current buggy incomplete support and no updates in years, this is a a thorn in the side of webmasters.
(this section with thanks to moronicbajebus)
There are Other Options
You don’t have to use Internet Explorer to view the Web. Let’s look at some of the better Web browsers available today.
Mozilla Firefox, based on the Mozilla code described below, is a free, fast, and standalone browser that can replace Internet Explorer easily. I recommend it the most of these alternatives. For more information, visit
Firefox Help.
Mozilla (Netscape) from the Mozilla.org team. Mozilla is a secure and free replacement not only for Internet Explorer but also for Outlook Express and Frontpage. It’s easy to use and open source– it will always be free and never include any adware or spyware. There are actually two options for downloading Mozilla: you can download the full suite or use Firebird above if you don’t want the extra options. You can also download the Mozilla-based Netscape, a modern version of the browser which sparked the birth of the World Wide Web.
Opera from Opera Software. This Web browser is unique because it is the only remaining Windows browser which costs money. Its time-tested features include tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, and pop-up blocking. You can try it for free, or register your copy for $30. For more information, visit the Opera Software website.
Spread the word: Internet Explorer is unfit at any speed.
