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As you've probably noticed, MatchSTD.com Public Beta2 is now up and running. It contains MANY improvements over Beta1, including an improved proposals system and a chat room, which is only for members not using Internet Explorer.

I foresee a large number of requests for Internet Explorer support in the chat room, so I figure I'll explain a little more about the reasons we decided to remove IE from the list of supported operating systems.

Overview

Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), as you all know, is bundled with the Microsoft Windows operating system. Such bundling practices have made it the "standard" internet browser, despite the fact it doesn't support any web standards like other browsers do. Most computer users haven't been offered any reason to switch to a system that makes actually creating web content easier, more secure, and more fulfilling, and therefore we've decided to take it into our own hands to start converting the web to browsers such as Firefox, Opera, and Safari.

Security

IE's security record is dismal. Recently the US-CERT organization deemed Internet Explorer unsafe and recommended it be replaced by another browser:

http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878

Despite such calls, the majority of internet users are still using Internet Explorer. All of the other major browsers have much better security records, and will help keep your computer from becoming 'hijacked' by those that wish to do you and others harm.

Standards

Every page you visit on the internet is composed of some sort of code. Generally it's a combination of CSS and HTML. This code is interpreted by your browser and displayed appropriately on your screen. Internet Explorer fails to interpret such code properly, and forces many developers to either create overly simplistic pages, and often times forces them to deploy 'IE hacks,' or code pieces that are interpreted differently by IE than other browsers. Developers have to spend more time coding, companies spend more money on developers, and you end up paying for it when you buy a product (and in bandwidth charges, but that's probably not something too important).

IE 7.0 has promised to make changes to this by supporting web standards, but every release of Internet Explorer in the past has been plagued with these problems, and frankly, we don't trust that we won't have to do even more work. To install the beta version of Internet Explorer 7, developers have to have access to an entirely different computer than the one running IE 6*, making life difficult for developers, to say the least. We've found that running such software in virtual machines is really the only way to test websites for the new Internet Explorer... This is just too much a head-ache.

PNG Alpha Transparency

Ever come accross a page where the images just didn't look right? Where the background faded into the image improperly? Those days should have been over a while ago with the introduction of the PNG image. Every browser other than Internet Explorer fully support alpha transparency in these images, making designer work much simpler.

Javascript (AJAX via ActiveX)

This site uses a technique in the chat rooms that utilizes javascript. Microsoft Internet Explorer supports this technique, but does so through an ActiveX object. ActiveX security is SO horrible we decided we didn't even want to force users to turn it on. If you're using Internet Explorer without ActiveX disabled, you really do need to turn it off. Google for why. In any case this is a MAJOR reason our chat rooms are not for Internet Explorer users.

So. Download something else. Firefox or Opera.... Nothing that uses Internet Explorer. Both you and the world will be happier with your new browser.

Thanks,
James

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