Please, update your browser · Sunday December 2, 2007
Browsing the web with an out-dated browser is not very wise. There are all sorts of security risks involved. Besides, it’s a pain in the ass for every web developer and designer to make websites work with old browsers.
Let’s take a look at Internet Explorer 6 for example. We’re talking about a browser that is not developed anymore, because Internet Explorer 7 has come to replace it. IE6 also has been quite insecure. Still it is very much in use today, as these statistics prove.
Some good signs are to be seen though, but you could hope a quicker development in moving out of IE6:
IE6 usage stats (from January to October 2007):
usage has decreased in nine months from 42.3% to 34.5%
[ Source: W3Schools Browser Statistics ]How long will it approximately take to get to zero per cent?
The answer: almost 40 months which equals approximately 3.3 years
Although it seems very unsafe to use IE6, I can see the reasons behind it. It all comes down to three things:
- people get used to using a particular program
- people might not know they are using an outdated browser
- all web applications might not yet work with other browsers (yes, it is the web developer’s fault for designing stuff for one browser only).
Also the new UI of IE7 might be a little bit too much for some. When I first saw it, I was amazed. How can they mess it up like that and think that people will learn to use it right away?
But luckily, you’ve got other options than the IE browser family. It seems that Firefox has become the most popular browser. And I must say that it is for a reason. For instance, it had tabbed browsing enabled for ages before IE7 was introduced. It doesn’t have as concerning security issues as IE, and those issues get fixed much faster. And you’ve got a helluva choice of add-ons.
In conclusion, if you are using IE6 (or some even older browser) I suggest you take a look at IE7 or Mozilla Firefox and switch to one of them (and you can install both of them, if you want to). And if you get interested about other browsers (yes, there are even more!) you can take a look at evolt.org Browser Archive. Who said you don’t have options?!?
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Which programming language are you? · Monday May 7, 2007
"Surprisingly" I was PHP:
Which Programming Language are You?
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You know what it's like when you can't wait for something... · Thursday March 1, 2007
The next Test Release (or final version) of PCLinuxOS 2007 will be released soon. It will be the main operating system I’m going to use on my home computer. So… why can’t it be here yet?!?
If you’re curious and want to know what I’m waiting for so eagerly, check out some screenshots or visit the forum or check out the Distrowatch PCLinuxOS page
I know you might like it too! :)
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Windows XP Service Pack 3 - will we ever see it? · Tuesday February 6, 2007
Microsoft has done it again. You can easily see that they only care about themselves. According to Internetnews.com – Windows XP Service Pack 3 Pushed Back to 2008 Microsoft has pushed the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 back to 2008. That’s just unbelievably disrespectful towards all XP users (and boy, aren’t there a few).
It’s easy to see why. They want to force people to upgrade to Vista as soon as possible. I just hope that not every company/person in the world is that easily fooled to update their systems. If I would have a chance to switch to something else, I would.
Not that this would mean a lot to me as a private person, but it does affect my work as a IT-designer lot. But then again, this might be a good opportunity to look away from M$ world and look for something else… wait, did I just see a penguin behind that corner?! Have to go check it out… ;)
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Are there too many Linux distros? · Saturday January 27, 2007
I was just in sauna (where all the best ideas usually get birth) and started thinking about the quantity of Linux distros. Is it good for Linux that there are so many distributions or is it turning against Linux?
I found out that I wasn’t the only one wondering about this: Open Source Strategies: Are There Too Many Linux Distros. (Even though that blog entry dates back to December 2005, but the question is still current IMO.) I agree with Si Chen on most of what he (or she?) writes, but I want to take another look on this.
Let’s imagine a scenario where someone tries Linux for the first time and selects a random distro for that experimentation. Let’s assume that the distro he/she selected didn’t meet the needs or didn’t function properly for some reason and that person gets disappointed and never wants to try Linux again. OK, one might not get frustrated and try again with another distro, but usually people don’t have much time to experiment and expect things to work out-of-the-box. So in this case Linux might have lost a possible user.
My point is that Linux isn’t yet as easy to pick up as it probably should be to gain more ground. I assume that a regular computer user doesn’t want to do much configuring to get the operating system rolling. With Linux you have to do some distro research before you can trust that it will work on your computer and meet your needs. But again, is that a good or a bad thing? You tell me.
I’m just thinking about the average computer user here. Myself, I usually take the time to discover different distros and try them out just for fun. But there are people out there, who just want their computer to work and don’t want to tweak every little thing. Is Linux today suitable for them, what do you think?
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