What made you leave blue-e?

[polonus]

Hi malware fighters,

People have various reasons to steer away from "blue-e"= (ready installed & built-in free Internet Explorer browser) and use an alternate browser. Blue-e can hardly be avoided by a lot of people because they think it is the only way to browse or go to the Internet. Furthermore it is ready-installed (See the recent Opera claim -   http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/12/13/opera_ec_complaint/
versus MS. In the old days before Windows bought up a browser and turned it into Internet Explorer  in Windows you could get a floppy to manually install Netscape, do you still miss these days of free choice, or did you totally forget about it?). Some cannot leave IE because of some of the features, other just feel it is the superior tool, nothing wrong there. IE is secure but not as it comes out of the box.

The main reason I avoided it as much as I can is a misnomer called ActiveX functionality (you can uninstall it, but again it comes as by default). Just the other day a lot of HP laptops are found to have ready installed HP software that enables remote code execution through a vulnerable ActiveX dll.

Yep, again an ActiveX hole!. With Firefox, Flock or Opera you are/were not vulnerable. This and because IE has no alternative for my dear NoScript and ABP extensions are reasons for me to only use IE7 to install my Microsoft updates, or sites where the standards are bended to support IE. The Windows-K version where you could have Windows without an IE or Media Player install has not been such a success as some like to see. It comes free and it is already installed, so why not use it? The user is like the little duckling what he or she clicks first, it will click for the rest of his or her days, like a duckling following all that poses as its mother.
No my question to you - What were your reasons to use another browser than IE for your surfing, webmailing, etc.?

polonus

[.: Mac :.]

No my question to you - What were your reasons to use another browser than IE for your surfing, webmailing, etc.?

Well I like using the same browser on Mac and Windows. For Years it was IE but when MS stopped developing IE for Mac I switched to Firefox and more recently Safari now that its available on Windows.

[bob3160]

do you still miss these days of free choice

The only choice we had back then was to run beta versions or purchase the product. 
Since Microsoft came out with their FREE browser, we now have a choice amongst many free
and/or alternate browsers.
Most folks no longer remember or have forgotten all of the facts.
Netscape was never Free.  It became free after it was purchased by AOL and they found out that they
needed to make it free to compete with Microsoft. 

Microsoft may not be the greatest but without them we wouldn't have a choice of  free browser or
free media media players.

[.: Mac :.]

do you still miss these days of free choice

The only choice we had back then was to run beta versions or purchase the product. 
Since Microsoft came out with their FREE browser, we now have a choice amongst many free
and/or alternate browsers.
Most folks no longer remember or have forgotten all of the facts.
Netscape was never Free.  It became free after it was purchased by AOL and they found out that they
needed to make it free to compete with Microsoft. 

Microsoft may not be the greatest but without them we wouldn't have a choice of  free browser or
free media media players.

You would have had the choice just not in Windows

[bob3160]

You would have had the choice just not in Windows 

Correct but windows is used by 90% of the people. 

[Marc57]

No my question to you - What were your reasons to use another browser than IE for your surfing, webmailing, etc.?

None, I tried Firefox but it has too many bugs. So I still use I.E. on Vista and feel safe.

[CharleyO]

***

Bob,

I think at some point before AOL bought Netscape, it was free. I use to use Netscape until AOL bought it and I never had to pay for it. I guess I used Netscape for about 2 years. There was some other browser back then but I do not recall the name now.

These days, I only use IE7 when I have to; otherwise, I use Opera9 ... as I am doing now.   


***

[FreewheelinFrank]

The thing I hated above all in IE6 was the way a web site could resize the window and it was almost impossible to get it back to full screen: the next time you opened it, it was back to the same reduced size. 

[szc]

You would have had the choice just not in Windows 

Correct but windows is used by 90% of the people. 

Not in my office  It started 6 PCs and 2 MacBook Pro laptops. Situation now - two new employees, one half dying PC, and 7 MacBook Pro babies + one brand new iMac just like I have one at home. And best of all, that's not just my office specific... it's already happening everywhere... go in any of these web/graphic/multimedia/broadcasting animation offices, situation will be same. People are switching like crazy.

Kyle, Toronto is an Apple heaven 

[bob3160]

I use to use Netscape until AOL bought it and I never had to pay for it.

Neither did I but it was always a beta version. 

[CharleyO]

***

I use to use Netscape until AOL bought it and I never had to pay for it.

Neither did I but it was always a beta version. 

OK, maybe I was using beta versions but I do not really remember now. It's been too many years ago.   


***

[avatar2005]

I Was using  IE far back in 2000 since I start to have an Internet connection in combine with NAV2000 yak , Than, later it figures out that I have a bunch of holes in IE, same thing with email (OE), so I start to search for alternatives, & it was found in Opera as a web browser& the bat as an email client, but it is a shareware, so I must to reinstall it every 30 days .
Now I have Avast, Thunderbird, & Opera at home and Firefox at work (all freeware), the last thing I doubt about is to switch to Linux, but I don't know what distributive to choose.
Take care.
Rostik.