Computer Hope
Software => Internet browsers => Topic started by: Geek-9pm on January 08, 2017, 11:35:14 PM
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I have one web design application tool that has to use IE (Internet Explore.) I don't use it very often and it is a free application, so I do not expect help from the author.. But when I need that design program , I need it on a big way. So I use IE 7 or 8 and open the trusty old web design tool in XP. Works good.
But I find that later versions of IE do not have anything that enriches the application. In fact they just take more memory.
One the web somebody posted the tile of this post a year ago. He says that with some many people still using the older browser, there is little need for such users to use anything above IE version 8. Or even version 7.
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2016/01/ie8-is-back-from-the-dead/
According to caniuse.com the most up to date stats for the browsers Microsoft is disowning are: IE10, 0.87% global usage; IE9, 0.91% global usage; IE8 1.18% global usage; IE7, 0.05% global usage. Surprisingly, that credits IE8 with more users than the two subsequent versions.
So, my question is: Why does MS keep bringing out new versions of its browser?
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You could ask the same question about any browser, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc. They all release updates and the updates are rather frequent. Why do they do this? Well, improved security is certainly one reason, one which should all be mindful of. Performance enhancements are often mentioned by the browser makers as a reason. Another reason is compliance with changing web development standards.
So, I have to take issue with your comment that "there is little need for such users to use anything above IE version 8. Or even version 7." By the way, the title of the article, which you used as the title of this forum discussion, is misleading. The author is basically saying some internet users are still using very old versions of browsers, not that those old versions are actually coming back.
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Older versions of Web Browsers, and especially IE since it is the Windows Default, can be security risks to use, as their vulnerabilities can allow things like drive-by downloads or even software installation.
But I find that later versions of IE do not have anything that enriches the application. In fact they just take more memory.
IE9 is also demonstrably faster than IE8 and as Soybean mentioned, later versions adapt to changing web standards; Exactly the same as the difference between IE6 and IE7, really.
Memory use of otherwise equivalent applications goes up because there is more memory in general on typical PCs as time progresses, and that gets used for a variety of purposes within the program. Realistically, most of the memory used by a browser is used by the web pages it presents, through Javascript and other client side features, so as new Web standards and supported features are available, memory use increases.
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Thanks you both. Yes, you arguments are good. Yet I still think frequent updating is a waste of time. Updates should be less often.
A curious thing: Chrome is way ahead. Why?
Never mind, I will not use Chrome. >:(
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I'd argue that Being easily infected by merely visiting a website and having to reinstall Windows would be a bigger waste of time then the occasional updates to Internet Explorer.
between IE7, 8, 9, and 10 you're looking at one or two years between those versions.
They did the whole "don't update it very often" thing with IE6, which stuck around for years. And IE is the *censored*-monkey of browser jokes largely because of that.
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Browsers update so often since the standards and technologies in use on websites is also rapidly changing. For example, IE8 doesn't even support most of HTML5 which is effectively standard nowadays. IE versions less than 10 don't support WebSockets which are also critical for many modern applications. Sure, if you're just browsing pages of text, an old browser will probably work (ignoring the glaring security flaws) but if you are doing anything that involves modern websites containing large amounts of frontend media and/or script elements then more often than not an old browser will not work correctly.
The security aspect of browsers is also critical - When you visit a website you are effectively running untrusted code on your machine - Browsers implement pretty solid sandboxing to prevent this being able to perform malicious actions however flaws are always being detected an patched. It's also now getting to the stage that old browsers don't support the same SSL encryption standards that are now seen as the "best practice" - I'm not going to tweak the SSL settings on my webserver, decreasing security as a result simply to support people who refuse to use a modern browser.
If I'm building a website, in order to support old browsers I would effectively need to build half of the functionality twice - For example I'd have to use WebSockets for people using modern browsers then implement some sort of legacy AJAX polling nonsense to keep people on old browsers happy. I'm simply not going to bother spending the time to do this - Unless there is an urgent reason/request to support legacy stuff for a specific project, I'll only focus on supporting recent versions of major browsers. For me, it's simply not worth the effort, I'd rather spend the time implementing more advanced functionality rather than spending time surrounded by various machines running old browsers trying desperately to get a project to work correctly under a 7 year old browser.
Nowadays browsers such as Chrome and Firefox automatically update in the background extremely regularly to ensure they always support the latest web standards and contain the latest security updates. I honestly couldn't tell you what version of Chrome I'm currently running without checking (55.0.2883.87 m - Just checked). The update process is completely transparent and never stops me from doing anything so I can't really see a problem with this.