Browser fun and games (a little rant)

Much of what is possible with web services and the internet is dependent upon the browser that you use. This is unfortunate since there are now a large number of well understood standards so in theory it shouldn't matter which browser is used to access a web site: but some browsers, Internet Explorer in particular, are not particularly compliant. The so-called modern browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera, do a pretty good job however at compliance and in fact they tend to vie with each other in both conformance and performance terms.

Why does compliance matter? Well the main issue is that developers have a really hard time attempting to compensate for the quirks and idiosyncrasies of non-compliant browsers. Making a complex web system look the same no matter what browser is being used can be very challenging, time consuming and therefore expensive - and IE6/7 are the biggest problems in this respect. At Enmore Services we took a view some time ago that we would no longer support IE6 as standard, the additional costs and aggravation were no longer worth the effort.

Now understandably IE is still (just about) the most used browser, since many users are 'locked in' to it just because it was what was installed when they acquired their PC. But most users do have a choice, and while some users may not be inclined to install another browser, they could at least ensure that they have the latest IE version, currently IE8, which is far more compliant than previous versions. I find it quite amazing that some users are still 'stuck' with IE6 - why do they persist with software that is 10 years old when a much better, free alternative is easily available? Most people change their car more often than that.

How much longer IE users will have choice however is in question since there is a rumour that IE9 will only be available for Windows 7. Which seems a very odd decision, if true, since it would surely just further encourage users that are more than happy with Windows XP to start using another browser.

www.thewildernessdowntown.com

Technology keeps moving on however and the next 'big thing' in web systems is likely to be HTML5 - which is the next major revision of the HTML standard that is currently under development.

The thumbnail on the left is from an excellent HTML5 demo that I recommend you look at to see what HTML5 will be able to deliver. Click the caption to see it.

This demo only runs on Chrome at present but its well worth installing just to see this :-)

Unfortunately, already HTML5 looks like it will be the next battleground in the browser wars, with rumours and assertions already being put about. This article for example provides some interesting views on how some of the IE HTML5 pitfalls can be avoided by using XHTML5.

However things turn out with HTML5, what we can be sure of is that the browser 'fun and games' are destined to continue.