As a web developer one of my personal pet peeves is Microsoft's Internet Explorer, although Microsoft has come a long way since IE 5-6.0. The problem is that so many people still use older operating systems such as Windows 95, 98, ME or 2000, and most are left without a choice to upgrade to the newest version of Internet Explorer, and are thus left at risk. This is due to Microsoft preventing users of these older operating systems from upgrading to Internet Explorer 7.0. But thankfully you have many other choices for a safe web browser.

This article will cover your options and why it is recomended that you upgrade to a newer web browser.

Why you should not use Internet Explorer 6.0

There are many people out there that argue over this feature and that feature in the so called "Browser War."  I know many people that swear by IE and that's fine. I don't want you to think that this is my attempt to make you stop using Internet Explorer, its not. No, this is a safety issue for users that are left without a choice in the matter, since Microsoft has stopped support for their older Operating Systems and in turn, their older web browsers.  According to TheCounter.com, the global browser stats of IE6 users is 52% in July 2007.  Its time for a change.

Vulnerability
All you have to do is search for Internet Explorer 6.0 Vulnerability or Why is IE not safe to see why Internet Explorer is not safe to use.  But for a list of all of Microsoft's "Critical Security Updates" check out this article.

A quote from Washington Post Internet Explorer is Unsafe... Still

"So far most of the attacks have been geographically centered on China and have been used for the purposes of stealing computer game passwords. But with a flaw as gap-toothed as this, the possibilities of nefarious action could include the massive theft of personal information such as administrative computer passwords and financial data."

What it comes down to is that since Internet Explorers inception it has been an unsafe web browser, and as time progresses we see more and more news reports about newly discoverd vulnerabilities that put your computer and personal information at risk.  Now lets be clear on this, these are not new security issues, they have just recently been brought to the public's attention.  They have always been there, and in short - your personal identity is at risk.

CSS and display issues
Beyond the vulnerabilities you are also limited in your web browsing experience, due to the very poor CSS rendering engine used in IE, and not just older versions, but all versions. CSS referes to Cascading Style Sheets, which is the coding used by web developers to make the website you are browsing look pretty, in the simplest of terms. This controlls the look and feel of just about everything on all websites, from the text to graphics and layout of the page. For some examples have a look at the IE bug articles on positioniseverything.net.

PNG image rendering
PNG is a very handy image format that is relatively new to the image type world. The benifit of using such an image format is that PNG lets developers use transparency with our images, i.e. I can put your logo on a page without a white box around it. In IE your logo is going to show that transparency, which kind of takes away from the nice clean effect.

The above are the main points behind upgrading Internet Explorer.  But to summarize:

1. Internet Explorer is an 11 year old web browser
2. New web technologies are not supported by IE
3. Web sites will look incorrect to you
4. Many images are not going to display correctly
5. Most important, you put your personal information and computer at risk by using IE

Whats the alternative?

There are many alternative browsers available to Windows users.  The top 3 are:

1. Mozila Firefox - Feature page
2. Google Chrome - Feature page
3. Opera - Feature page

Now, I am not going to sit here and tell you that all your security worries are over.  Just like ALL software there are some bugs, it's just a way of life in our technology connected world.  The difference between these browsers and Internet Explorer is that these companies do nothing other then develop browser and internet technology, and they are good at what they do.  They also are built using Standards, as proclaimed by W3C, for support of CSS, DOM, and even plan old HTML.  This is where you see sites that list the images on their site.

Unfortunately I have yet to have the pleasure of using the Google Chrome browser, but I keep hearing good things about it.  When they come out with a version for the Mac I will be sure to update this article.

The one major draw back to Opera is that it is not free, unlike Firefox and Chrome.  You're going to have to pay to not be bombarded with ad's while you're surfing the internet.

In Conclusion

I would be much happpier if everyone used Firefox, it's a stable, secure browser with many features that supports generally accepted web standards as developed by W3C.  But I know that everyone has thier preferences, from food to computers the choice is up to you.  But please keep safe and keep your software up-to-date.  All of it, not just your web browser.

The way I will sum this up for you is this: consider what you are worth - credit wise.  Now consider what someone else could do with your credit if they have access to your personal information.  Identity theft can and does happen every day.

According to the Canadian Anti-fraud Call Centre , called Phonebusters, there were nearly 8,000 identity theft complaints made by the general public in 2006. The losses were estimated at CAN$16,283,000.

A final link as food for thought - Canada's Identity Theft Fact Sheet.