The browsers wars. There has been more written on the fight between Microsoft and it's competitors in the web browser market than I can share or even summarize. I'll leave the Netscape vs Microsoft for the history books, and instead speak briefly on the new browser wars between Google, Mozilla and Microsoft. The current browser wars amount to two giants slugging it out with one plucky fella managing to stay on his feet. What's interesting though, is that the plucky browser survives due in no small part to money from one of the giants.
First, to the browsers.
2 or 3 years ago, if you told me that you ran Internet Explorer, the first thing I would have told you in order to secure your system was stop using it, and install Firefox. However in my experience the newest version of Internet Explorer (IE 9) is actually a pretty solid browser. It has solid web page performance, and is by most accounts very standards compliant.
What do we mean when we talk about compliance with standards. It's a web browser after all. What does it have to comply with? A web page, if coded to the proper standards should display the same on every browser that is also compliant to the standards. This way web pages are neutral to what software you choose to use, just the same way that you car will run on gas from any gas station, your web browser should be able to display any web page. However, what if the maker of 90% of the cars said "Starting this year, all of our cars will run on kerosene," then what would happen? This is exactly what happened with IE6. IE6 starting changing how is displayed, or rendered, web pages. They had already won the browser war at that point, and if people wanted their webpages to display properly on 90%+ of the viewers, they had to start coding pages to Microsoft's mandated standards, and not the neutral HTML standards. You started to see "Best viewed in IE6" everywhere on the web. This ended up biting MS in the ass however, because businesses ALSO started coding their internal websites to those specifications, and when Microsoft started to see browsers like Firefox (and much later, Google Chrome) eat into their market share, they realized they couldn't just ride the IE6 bus forever. However, when they wanted businesses to move to more modern and more secure browsers, the businesses couldn't because their internal sites didn't work properly on Microsoft's newer, more standards compliant browsers.
Back to IE9 though... Microsoft claims that it's browser is more compliant to the agreed upon standards of HTML coding, specifically HTML5, than it's competitors, and they may just be right. The HTML5 standards system is complicated and really not fully realized yet on the web, and so we can only base a browser's performance on test pages. On Microsoft's own standards compliance tests, IE9 smokes everything else. However, on Google's compliance tests, guess who wins? Yup, Chrome. Funny how each browser performs better on it's own test sites eh?
IE9 is the first MIcrosoft browser in a LONG time that I don't grimace when people tell me they use it. It is a solid browser, scores well on security and also on performance. By performance, I mean web page loading speed, but also just how long it takes to open the browser itself. So, why did Microsoft push for being compliant with the standards? For the longest time, Mozilla's Firefox browser has been the darling of the coders and of the folks who take their web browsing seriously. Within Firefox, you could load 'addons' that block banner adds, make your browser faster, or more secure. Mozilla is the spiritual (and technical) successor to Netscape, Microsoft's old nemesis from the 90s. As Netscape was going through it's final death throes, and was bought up by AOL, they spun off the code for their final browser to an open source project called Mozilla. That forked (or split) again to Firefox. So somewhere in Firefox lies the heart of Netscape, and it still wanted to take the big IE down. Firefox fought for years against Microsoft, relying on support from volunteers and corporations like Google. Google, to this day, remains a supporter and partner with Firefox. A recent agreement that was extended continues Firefox's use of Google.com as it's default search engine (can be changed at any time by the user however) and it has been reported that Firefox gets an amazing 84% royalty from that search income which is absolutely extraordinary.
I, for the longest time, used Firefox exclusively, however as it became bigger and better, it also became slower, and clunkier. Sure, I was driving an M1 tank around the internet, completely protected from banner ads and malware attacks, but the browser handled like a tank. It took a good 10-15 seconds to just launch. However, I was a proud Firefox user, and recommended (damn near required) it's use for anyone on the internet that came to me for help.
Then one day, Google announced that it was getting into the browser market, and I was curious. I downloaded the beta of Google's new browser, called Chrome, and it was like no browser I had seen. The style and design of it was unique. Mind you, there was very few, if any, options in that test version, but more importantly, it was FAST. It took usually less than a second to open when I clicked it. I had NEVER seen a browser open that fast. And it seemed to load web pages with the same blinding speed. But being test software, there was a lot of things it choked and died on, and so I stayed with Firefox. Eventually, after I saw how quickly Google was adding features and improving Chrome, I moved over to it entirely. IE and Firefox had development cycles measured in what felt like years. Google was adding features and updating weekly if not daily. And this was another major feature for me. Google Chrome automatically updates. There was no chasing updates on the website, or having to check to see what's new. It just appeared when you launched the software. I recognize that for system admins, software that automatically updates without them being able to audit or test for internal compatibility is a nightmare. For me, a home user and geek enthusiast, this was amazing. My wife will tell you how much it kills me to know there is a more up to date version of software that I can't get because it's in closed beta, or not available for my hardware.
IT KILLS ME.
With Chrome, I was able to easily designate whether I wanted to be on the Stable release, the less stable Beta release (usually updated every week or so) or the dangerous Developer release (usually updated daily). Google Chrome was mocked and laughed at as a silly little kid, but I think people misunderstood how much we users wanted something carefree and FAST. I don't have the ability to block as many ads as I can in Firefox (Google does make it's billions on advertising revenue), but when Google Chrome included the ability to have add-ons like Firefox does, at least I can block the annoying and ugly banner advertising. It was at this point, when Google started to report 10% of the market, catching up to Firefox, that suddenly MS and Firefox started to work on smaller/leaner browsers that could compete with Google's new speed demon. Recently, Google announced that Google Chrome (version 15) is the most commonly used browser version on the market. Don't kid yourself though, because Chrome automatically updates, you don't have customers out there running a wide variety of versions. However, IE7 and IE8 and IE9 are all out there in large numbers, and in total still represent a greater share than Chrome. Some recent numbers place IE around 37%, Chrome at 27% and Firefox at 25%. The remainder would be smaller browser markets like Safari on Apple devices, Opera and mobile device browsers. This type of competition is great, because it has driven the developers to improve their coding instead of resting on established installations.
What browser do I recommend? Personally, I'd use Chrome, Firefox8 or IE9 and be satisfied, I simply prefer Chrome. It stuns me to sit here today and type that, but in today's browser wars, there is no clear good guy, no clear bad guy, just a 3 way fight for my heart, which I'm happy to sit back and benefit from as a user.
If you're using IE6 though, DO SOMETHING THAT ABOUT THAT NOW.
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