Up until recently and for better or worse I was a die-hard Internet Explorer user. As soon as a new version was released I would be right there using it from Beta through to release. It was almost a running gag with my friends in the whole social web circuit given that the majority of them were equally die-hard Firefox users.
Then along came Chrome and for the first time in my computing life I switched full time away from Internet Explorer and I haven’t looked back since. That doesn’t mean that I have lost all hope that at some point Microsoft will come to its senses and release a truly viable web browser and hopefully IE9 will be that browser.
So it was with interest that I read a really interesting post by Peter Bright at Ars Technica where he take a balance look at what has brought Microsoft to this point where their browser is no longer the king of the mountain. Primarily among his reason is that IE gets released, unlike all the other browsers, on a stated timetable. This in his mind leads IE into playing the game of catch-up by which time their competitors have leaped ahead again.
This approach sets Microsoft apart from the other browser vendors. Firefox, Chrome, and Opera all get regular updates. I don’t just mean security fixes, though they get those too—they get regular feature updates that improve their performance, improve their standards compliance, and improve their user interfaces. Firefox, for example, had release 3.0 in July 2008, 3.5 in June 2009, and 3.6 in January 2010. Opera 9.5 was released in September 2007, with 10.0 in September 2009, 10.10 in November 2009, and 10.50 in March 2010.
Over a similar time frame, Internet Explorer 7 was released in October 2006, IE8 in March 2009. And now nothing further is likely until 2011.
There’s a similar discrepancy when it comes to support. Firefox 3.0 is going to receive its last-ever patch at the end of the month—a total supported lifetime of a little under two years. Internet Explorer 6, released in 2001, is still supported by Microsoft. It’s old, its use is thoroughly discouraged, but it’s also a part of Windows XP, and since Windows XP is supported, so is IE6.
One of the points that Peter, and a lot of release early update often advocates, miss is that Microsoft’s core business is the enterprise and if there is one thing that The Enterprise hates is unpredictability – especially when it comes to software. The thing that has always worked for Microsoft when it comes to The Enterprise is that companies know when to expect a major release of software and this gives them plenty of planning room.
The idea of many minor improvement coming at you like some rapid fire machine gun literally terrifies IT departments. Predictability they love. Stability they love. Anything else gives them nothing but the cold chills.
So it is understandable that Microsoft got into this mindset especially as the browser became an integral part of many large corporate intranets.
That said I do agree with Peter that Microsoft needs to re-evaluate that position given todays incredibly fast changing web environment.
Besides I think it makes for a better tee shirt deign that Firefox and definitely better than Chrome.
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