IE7 On Automatic Update

Rolling out...

[sem4u]

It is finally here. When I logged onto my laptop this evening I was offered the chance to download IE7.

Looking at some stats for last month IE7 usage was 2-3% of browsers. This number is going to increase dramatically now.

[ByronM]

i've used firefox all the time. Whats the point of using firefox if i can't use plugins? Whats the point of firefox if i have to babysit it? FF 2.0 is worse than 1.5x which i have moved back to when i feel like using firefox.

Opera was great up until 9 and it too went downhill for me when using lots of tabs.

I'm a tabb man, i have metalink, otn, docs.sun.com, intranet sites open all the time and actively switching back and forth/copying and pasting and working in forums, groups, downloading patches and everything else.

Firefox goes to 300+ megs of ram in both Windows and Linux (suse 10.1)

i don't need to be preached to. I live and breathe IT for my job. IE 7 with its minor quirks works like a charm. Standard compliant means nothing if i have to disable all the perks it offers anyway.

[ByronM]

Go Start -> Run... -> firefox -safe-mode or "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -safe-mode if FF isn't in your system's path to start FF without any of the extensions, and if your Profile is okay, you'll notice that FF2 uses about 60-80MB of RAM (~40MB less than IE6-7) and it doesn't draw down any additional RAM as you use it. You can disable all of your extensions in normal mode and then try enabling them one at a time to find which of your extensions is causing the memory issues ... but it's _not_ the core browser program.

IE 7 on Vista with 5 tabs open uses 56 megs of ram pretty consistently. FF 2.0 starts at 80 with the same 5 pages and grows and grows.

The *ONLY* plugin i use on FF is the color picker which i've been using for a while on all releases. I've since moved from a color picker ff plugin to a color picker gadget that i'm working on and voila.. no need for a browser plugin but an OS wide functionality for all my graphics programs.

[Wlauzon]

I don't care if they upgrade to FF or IE7 or anything else - as long as they get rid of IE6.

[WebDon]

I'm not sure about a lot of the typical comments re: IE but there are two things I know for sure:
- Quick tabs is nice. (haven't looked at FF 2 yet, does it have something similar?)
- Can't wait for people to move on fro IE6!

[mcavic]

I started using Firefox 2.0, and like it less than IE 6, but better than IE 7.

[tedster]

They've changed the GUI enough that many are not going to like it just for that reason alone. They took things that have been in place for years and have moved them to places that will take some getting used to. For one, the Refresh button.

I agree with that criticism 100%. Every time I try to work in IE 7 I am like a fish out of water. It's hard for me to believe those fooliosh GUI changes were motivated by anything like actual user testing.

[KenB]

While I hate the new GUI, I'm loving the fact that IE7 is more CSS compliant and has resolved messes of issues that caused web development problems with IE6. While I prefer Firefox 2.0 myself, I'm really keen on IE7 having a fast uptake and really want to see IE6 disappear as quickly as possible. I don't want to be supporting IE6 two or three years from now.

Now if I could just resolve a DHTML issue I'm having with IE7 I'd be set. I'm thinking it might be a bug with IE7 but am hoping to find a work around. Webmaster World supporters can see the details of my problem posted in the supporters forum.

[kapow]

If I had my way I would make everyone use the same browser (Firefox), then there would not be this stupid situation of websites looking like this in that browser and like something else in another.

BUT!
I don't have my way :) The majority uses IE, and IE7 is coming soon for the majority. It makes little difference weather its automatic or requires approval to download, the majority will have IE7 sometime soon.

So at last creating websites will be easier. Standards compliance is important so site builders know which way to do their code, so sites look the same for different people.

In short I think IE7 is a great step forward.

[CritterNYC]

The majority may have IE7, but a *HUGE* minority will have IE6... so we won't be able to forget about it:

- Everyone with Windows 98/Me (4% of online users)
- Everyone with Windows 2000 (7% of online users)
- Everyone with Windows XP without SP2 (a not-insignificant number of companies)
- Everyone with a less than legit copy of XP (you'd be amazed how many)
- Every business that turns off the IE7 update due to retraining costs (yes, the interface does suck) or because it breaks their internal or external apps (a significant number)

So, I think you can expect to see at least a 25% market share of IE6 even after IE7 is pushed out and for the foreseeable future.

[Neo541]

One major problem for small businesses...IE 7 will NOT work with Quickbooks 2005, and needs to have an update to work with QB 2006.

One of our users decided they were going to be a brainiac and install it herself...Not so easy to remove and put an old copy back on. At least not for me.