7 Reasons why NOT to Use Internet Explorer

"Internet Explorer is good enough."

"If I install another browser, my computer will be really slow."

"Why do I need to upgrade? It works!"

"It's easier to do with what we have now."

I'm not exactly a complete hater of Internet Explorer (actually I am), but here's the straight-out truth: Internet Explorer stinks. (No, I'm not the only one.) I'm not calling it the worst browser. (Actually, it is.)  People still use it because it comes prepackaged with a new Windows computer, it's hard to remove, and many are just not tech-friendly. Last summer, I went to New Jersey to see my relatives. Guess what? All of them used the crappy Internet Explorer 6 or 7, and when I told them about Firefox, they said it would slow down their computer. This is a myth; Firefox makes your computer faster. I never convinced them to use Firefox, but they had a lot of viruses. (This has been fixed because of IE 8) This is not an "I love Firefox" post, so I will cover seven big reasons, not in any particular order, why exactly not to use Internet Explorer.

1. Cross-browser compatibility - IE is not the most compatible browser. It lacks many things relating to CSS, Javascript, and other things. Many sites also claim they are "optimized for IE only" so not using IE would help protest it. Some major CSS details are not in IE.

2. Address Bar - The address bar, like all browsers, is the gateway to the Internet. Having a good address bar can dramatically reduce the time it takes to get to websites. Both Firefox and Chrome are great in their searches in history or bookmarks. IE does this, but it is less visually-appealing.

3. Speed - Internet Explorer's speed is HORRENDOUS. The page-to-page speed is barely slower, but the startup speed is like a snail. The fade effects when opening menus take a small but critical half of a second to load.

4. Nuisance Dialog Boxes - Whenever I use Internet Explorer, I get "Do you want to turn AutoComplete on?" "Do you want to remember this password?" At least put it at the top like in Firefox/Chrome!

5. The Spazzing Cursor - When I go to a page, what do I see? A spazzing cursor. The hourglass (or circle-loader in Vista) flickers when downloading something. Is is just me or is that just plain annoying?

6. Two processes - I don't have to really explain this, but why in the world are there TWO processes of iexplore.exe?

7. Low extensibility - Internet Explorer is missing one huge thing that other browsers have -- a wide range of addons, extensions, themes, etc. The default Internet Explorer theme is dull but it's as good as you'll get. Plugins are all by major developers (Bebo, AIM, delicious, etc.) so I don't see something good like AdblockPlus coming soon. This was the ONLY good thing about IE7, now it's gone. See: open source really is a necessity.

Conclusion

There are many other great browsers out there. If you're having trouble picking, I recommend you go to BrowseHappy to find your perfect browser or just keep reading my blog.

So, what are your mishaps with IE?