From Bottleneck.org
Microsoft-bashing
Microsoft has been forced by the EU to offer a choice of browsers to users. Through blindly following a link somebody posted on Twitter the other day, I ended up at the BBC's Have Your Say page on this subject. Reading this page is a mistake for any rational human being, as you'll quickly discover if you spend any time reading the amusing collection of the most stupid comments which have been collected together on the spEak You're bRanes (sic) website.
So, having got to the Have Your Say page related to Microsoft offering a browser choice, I was very quickly infuriated by the degree of ignorant Microsoft-bashing and free-software smugness on display.
I feel before I continue that I should declare any bias. I am not a Microsoft "fanboy", and I do have some idea what I'm talking about. I am an IT professional, and I've been involved with computers as long as I can remember. My primary technical skills lie much more in Unix and Linux systems than in anything to do with Windows or Microsoft, and this very website is managed by me on a Linux server. I have no particular pro- or anti- Microsoft or Linux/Free Software stance.
Having said that, I use Windows 7 64bit at home with Internet Explorer 8 as my only installed browser. This is a conscious, informed and reasoned choice on my part, and I believe I'm qualified to make it. So let's take a look at why I am supposed to be wrong about this.
The arguments put forward on the Have Your Say page seem to fall into a number of camps. So let's look at each of these, and let me explain why it doesn't work for me.
1. Free browsers and operating systems are the best, I can't believe you all still use Windows
- "How quaint. You mean there are still people who use Windows?"
Grow up and stop being so smug about it. If you want to use free software, then by all means do, but if you can't offer any reasoned argument for why your choice is better, then don't expect anyone to take you seriously, or indeed ever find you anything other than an utterly smug cock. There's really nothing to answer in this point.
2. Microsoft products are too expensive
- "I'd be happier using MS if they charged a reasonable amount for their software. They are far too expensive."
Fair enough, I've got no problem with the idea that you might not think their software is good value for money. I happen to think it is good (enough) value for money. Here's what I get with my current version of Windows 7:
- An easy-to-use operating system
- Out-of-the-box support for a vast array of hardware
- A web browser
- A gaming platform
- Basic tools for producing documents
- A web server
- A media centre including PVR capability
- DVD authoring software
- An email client
- ... well, lots of stuff
Of course all of that is available for free on Linux. Well, except the gaming platform and the "easy to use" parts. I just find it all works together a lot easier and more simply with Windows, and I'm prepared to pay for that, just as Microsoft are at liberty to charge for it. As a society we seem to be increasingly assuming that we have a right to service without having any expectation of needing to pay for it.
3. Internet Explorer / Microsoft products are unstable and crash all the time
- "I installed it and it crashed my PC, which required a rebuild to resolve the problem. Nice one Microsoft, I see you still peddle third rate flakey applications that dont work"
I just have to disagree. I keep my systems updated with the latest patches, and I very, very rarely see Internet Explorer crash or Windows blue-screen, and normally when I do, it's an error in third-party software or drivers that cause it (e.g. Flash, or in a device driver). Now I will accept that the software and OS should be resilient to the effects of badly-written third party software, but I believe that Microsoft are as close as anybody to this, and that it simply does not happen often enough for it to concern me (and believe it or not, I've seen Linux panic enough times as well!)
In general, when I find someone telling me that "Internet Explorer crashes all the time" I find a myriad of third party tool bars, aborted installations and upgrades, or other general user fuckwittery which has made their machine an unstable pile. Have you all ever considered that it might be you who's breaking your PCs?
4. Internet Explorer is utterly riddled with security holes and your identity and money will be stolen if you use it
- "as someone who used to do Internet Banking using IE6, I am lucky I didn't get hacked"
Yup, it's all down to luck. Nothing to do with there being nothing particularly unsafe about the browser you were using. Where is the evidence of all these potential identity-stealing vulnerabilities you're worried about anyway?
I've used Internet Explorer for my online banking (and everything else) for years and guess what - I've never been hacked. (Please do not take this as a challenge!) I keep up-to-date anti-virus on my machine. I keep it patched with the latest updates. I don't download and install ropey software from all over the place (and I think this is the key mistake you might all be making out there!) just stuff that I believe I can trust. I occasionally run the free version of Ad-Aware across my PC just to feel good about myself.
A variant of this is "Using a less popular Browser reduces the risk of being attacked"
Well, you're quite right, people do tend to target the more popular software. I'd go on telling everyone to use the browser you use, since it's less popular. Erm.
5. Internet Explorer is slow
- IE is pretty slow and only used when I need to check something works in it
If you say so. It's fast enough for me, and I don't tend to find that page rendering times are the limiting factor in my enjoyment of the web. Flash is a bit slow, though, and my broadband might be a bit slow sometimes, too.
6. Other browsers have better features built in or available as add-ons
- "I find AdBlock Plus absolutely invaluable ... other useful little touches too like spellcheck in web comment forms"
Well done, this is the only argument that I believe has any real weight behind it. As it happens, Internet Explorer has all the features I particularly care about. I just don't find the adverts that offensive, and to be honest if we all start blocking them it begs the question of what other horrible means the site designers will have to come up with to raise revenue.
I don't believe that, if you look objectively at the products, there's anything fundamentally bad or evil about Microsoft products. It really boils down to this: Microsoft bashing is fashionable.
So there we have it - that's why I'm happy enough with Windows and Internet Explorer. It works for me, it performs the functions I need it to, it's sufficiently simple that I can stop being an IT professional when I get home and just use my PC. What's so wrong with that?