Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

FIREFOX!!!

Well, I use a Mac, so Safari is my primary browser, but I use Firefox as well a number of other browsers—IE5.x for the Mac, Netscape, Opera etc etc—as I need to ensure that pages display correctly on all browsers (PC and Mac) that users of each website I build are likely to be using.

One of the (ahem) "joys" of web design is that Internet Explorer doesn't treat the elements that make up a web page the same way as browsers that actually follow Internet standards do. (That's just one thing it doesn't do, and it's a very watered-down explanation, but you get the idea.) It's a royal pain pandering to bloomin' IE's "problems", but due to its strangle-hold over the market (it accounts for around 60% of browsers used to access to the 'Net), it's a sad necessity.

Unfortunately many organisations such as banks ensure that websites work on IE, but neglect the other 40% of users. This is daft and unnecessary especially given how much more secure the modern browsers are, but there you have it, change takes time... and regular calls from me to my bank's tech help desk berating them for their cr*ppy website... and believe me, their arguments really don't wash with me!!

I wrote an article about firefox if you're interested in some of the other benefits it offers. It includes a link to download Firefox. You can also download Firefox from the Mozilla website. The site checks the browser that you're using, so it will supply you with the correct version of Firefox for your machine. All you need to do is click the big green "Download Firefox" button and the download starts.

It's painless and every one of you who stops using IE (at home at least) makes my life a percentage point easier!

FrogBoxed wrote:regular calls from me to my bank's tech help desk berating them for their cr*ppy website... and believe me, their arguments really don't wash with me!!

Then switch banks (and let them know why).

They're certainly not all that bad. I've not had problems with the NatWest site for a very long time. They're surly and easily confused, but at least their online banking works in Firefox.

I'm not sure whether that's a recommendation. You can take it however you like.

I use both, Firefox more though. Have just downloaded the new IE7 in beta form, which is superb. I'm reliably informed that microsoft have made it much more like the mozilla browser than IE6 was, good for web designers.

The tabbed browsing element to firefox was the clincher, but IE7 has this now so mozilla will need to pull something out the bag. (no doubt they will).