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Internet Explorer has been around since 1995…thats 18 years. A long time right? So why is it still so buggy?

Yesterday I helped a 50 something year old lady with her computer (a new PC). She had a file she was trying to attach to an email. She could see the parent folder on her computer, but she couldn’t find the folder when she tried to attach it to an email.

I took a look, and yep – the folder was there, but was in a different place when I tried to attach it to an email (I had to search for it to find it).

I looked at folder permissions and identified the “real” location of the folder. The folder was there, but couldn’t be found in the same way when trying to attach the file.

Out of curiosity, I tried the same thing using Google Chrome, and it worked perfectly. I found the folder in the same location it was found when viewing the folder directly on her computer. Not only that, but the UI was much more friendly than IE’s UI.

I imported her favorites into Google Chrome’s bookmarks, set up her homepage, and replaced the IE shortcut with a shortcut to Chrome.

I told her to stop using Internet Explorer.

Problem solved.

I’m not the only one that sees the problems with Internet Explorer.

Take 4ormat, a site that enables professional portfolios. They decided to stop supporting IE and claimed the decision saved them over $100,000.

Or this guy that wrote 12 Reasons Not to Use Internet Explorer, Ever.

I know, I know, there are problems with every browser. There are surely plenty of articles written by people who hate Chrome, or Opera, or Firefox, or Safari.

Everybody has their reasons.

Thought there are many different statistics on the matter (such as here, here, and here), it seems clear that IE market share has been falling . . . hard.

I’ve come to experience a similar feeling to those described in an article by Networdworld:

“Still, particularly among highly technical types, a powerful dislike of IE runs deep. Saying “IE 6″ to a web developer is practically guaranteed to provoke gritted teeth and shudders of frustration (at least!), thanks to a widespread perception that Microsoft’s lack of innovation held back the development of new web standards for years.”

And it seems that Microsoft is aware of this. Take a look at a recent ad where an IE hater finally tweets: “IE SUCKS…less”

I’m all for progress. I sincerely hope IE comes around. But after 18 years of mess, I’m staying away for the foreseeable future. I’d like to save my sanity, thank you.