One more Firefox switcher
Posted on October 4, 2004
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 49 views |
Over on c|Net Charles Cooper, die-hard Windows & Microsoft lover, describes his reasons for finally abandoning IE in favour of Firefox in Why I dumped Internet Explorer. A good read, especially if you’re still a Windows user sitting on the fence:
I finally loaded Firefox at home. To my surprise, the product won me over in short order. I love its pop-up blocker, as well as the ease with which it accesses Really Simple Syndication feeds. I didn’t use a stopwatch, but it loads fast and opens Web pages without a hitch.
One statement struck me though, and I think it hints to a common misperception about Microsoft software:
I don’t have a lot of time or patience to fiddle around getting my different applications to play nice. So when forced to decide between competing software alternatives, yours truly has nearly always gone with the Microsoft offering.
My experience has been different: most of my interoperability pain under Windows has involved getting MS products to play nice together. Non-MS vendors know they’re playing in a Microsoft world and any perceived incompatibility with MS software will often sound their death knell. As such, any signifigant software vendor takes great pains to make sure they’re completely compatible with Microsoft, in many cases writing components of their code specifically to work around, and often hide, Microsoft-induced bugs.
My experience with Windows has been: trust MS for the OS but anything running above that should be developed by someone else or you’re going to suffer. One way or the other, evventually you’re going to suffer.
And to those who have yet to switch from the IE crutch to the promised land of Firefox, I ask you: what are you waiting for? Go get it tiger, and live again.