Monthly Archives: October 2007

Internet Explorer 7 – one year later

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It has been more than a year, since Microsoft has released the most awaited and anticipated version of their browser – Internet Explorer 7. 18th October 2006 saw the final release of the browser – available for Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003, from the start it has been released only for the users who passed “windows genuine advantage” validation procedure. A couple of weeks ago, on the 5th of October 2007, it has been released for all the other users as well.

Now, one year after the initial release i decided to take a look at what part of the share of the browser market it has conquered so far, since the removal of the validation for installation is being a clear attempt into a wider distribution of it.

So, lets start with the numbers:

1. this site has a total of 44.84% of the Internet Explorer Market (not total one, just between all IE visitors), being about 10% behind Internet Explorer 6 (54.44%). For one year, i think these results are very nice, but this site contains more technical information, and tech people are fast for upgrades

2. One local portuguese site, has a 15.24% of visitors using IE7, with 82.78% visiting with an old and not so good IE6. The missing percentages are going for IE5 likes. It shows that in Portugal users still are bound to IE6, and thats sad, cause we desperately need to move on.

3. Portuguese on-line shop, which has actually more Brazilians visiting than Portuguese has 18.50% of the visitors using IE7, and with slightly more then 80% are still using Internet Explorer 6.

4. One web design firm, has 33.33% of the IE visitors using Internet Explorer 7.

5. Another web design firm, shows 29.98% of Internet Explorer 7 users between all the IE users.

6. Furniture store site shows 30.18% of the IE vistors using IE7.

7. A site dedicate to the medicine has 23.14% of the Internet Explorer market conquered by IE7.

8. W3schools on their statistics page shows for September of 2007 shows that globally 20.8% are using IE7, 34.9% – IE6, and 1.5% are still stuck on Internet Explorer 5. If we do some math, then the global market of Internet Explorer is 57.2% of which Internet Explorer 7 users are representing around 36%.

9. A site, with some references to the literature, has 16.39% IE7 market share of the all Internet Explorer visitors.

10. w3counter has a 29% of the IE market attributed to the IE7.

Looking at all those values, i am thinking that the true values should be ranging somewhere between 20% and 30%. I believe that the 25% should be the real value of the conquered market for Microsoft’s IE7.
I know that these statistics are not covering every possible area, and are not really, but i feel that they give the general feeling of what progress IE7 has made in one year.

I think that these results are fine, obvious is that Microsoft is not satisfied with them, and even more obvious that a lot of big companies are not going to do the upgrade, before fixing all incompatibilities in their sites and intranets. We all would be much more happier if in one year we would have another the situation when IE7 will dominate the failing IE6, and i believe that after the last Microsoft’s move this situation is going to happened for sure.

Apple’s Leopard

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A couple of days ago Apple has launched a new version of their Operating System OS X 10.5 codename Leopard.

Apple has presented more 300 of new features in Leopard. I would highlight some of the features, which i consider relevant:
- Bootcamp (allows Windows to be installed in parallel with OS X on Intel-based Macs)
- Time Machine (deleted files restoring, multiple version system)
- Finder (iTunes-like preview of different file types)
- Spaces (Unix-like virtual desktops)
- Safari (new version)
- Parental controls (the name speaks for itself, doesn’t it ?)
- Desktop enhancements (stacks of files on your dock)

One of the more important changes in Leopard is finally dropped support of the old Mac OS code. Apple has officially “burried” OS 9 about 6 years ago, in an official ceremony, but only with this release the support has been finally removed. I think it is a good thing, because evolution requires old stuff to be renewed or be removed. This is one of the problems that Windows has faced – some of the elder code of Windows 3.11 still could be found in XP, though Microsoft claims that Vista is finally fee of it.

Being an OS X user since a couple of months, i do not see a lot of reasons doing upgrade to Leopard right now. Do not get me wrong, i will move to Leopard in the coming months, and i do think that the new version of OS X was worth developing and it brings a lot of good features (some of them like Time Machine almost revolutionary), but at the moment i see this upgrade as unnecessary.

My first argument is “rush” – no doubt that Leopard was rushed, in order to be launched at the promised date – (Ocotober), some features like a wireless net backup with a Time Machine were surprisingly removed at the last moment, Sun’s ZFS is still not being enabled by default and resolution independent feature still appears to be in development. There is an old good saying that one should never buy a 1.0 system, cause it is always a beta version of what is to come. I am used to follow this idea and so far it has been always true.

The second argument against doing an immediate upgrade is the fact, the some of the features are available for the Tiger (especially the Bootcamp) and some other are just of no use for me personally ( No additional hard drive for Time Machine on my MacBook Pro =O) ). =O) Other feature is Safari 3 which is available for download (a beta version at this moment). Though i have to admit that i have some second thoughts – will new Bootcamp versions be available for TIger and will the final release of Safari ever come to it as well for example.

Everything else is just as it is needed. I love the idea of the “ITunes”-like changes to the Finder, the automatic preview feature is something that i was hoping that someone would implement. I find it ignorant, that i have to open all possible types of programs in order to preview the content of different files. I attribute success of such programs like ACDSee to the fact, that their just previewed almost any type of the graphical file.

Leopard is an amazing operating system, with a lot of the features, that the well-known Redmond software company is going to copy and represent in a couple of years in their next operating system. It is quite a step into the future, but it is more evolutionary update, then a revolutionary upgrade.

Internet Explorer 7 free for all

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How do secure a market if you are a Microsoft, and your concurrence is starting to win the market ?

The answer is quite simple and trivial – release your project for free, to kill the concurrence. It was done in the 90s, when Microsoft started conquering the web, by releasing Internet Explorer free – and as a result Netscape was obliged to do the same. Besides the fact, that IE4 was better then NN4, the main reason the people made the switch was this one – it was FOR FREE. Now everybody sees Firefox conquering the market, gaining everywhere the percentages of the users, and as of now the most switchers are old Internet Explorer 6 users, who are ghm lets say have forgotten to pay for their Windows copy. They wish to gain access to the new functionalities – like tab browsing, RSS etc, but they are not prepared to pay the full price of a Windows to get it – so the only way is to get a Firefox, because a free upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 was closed by Microsoft.

Now Microsoft has realized once again – they cannot have the market without giving people something for free. In the ancient roman times the emperors were giving free entrances to the coliseum and free food in order to maintain people happy, now we have Microsoft giving its most important tool for free (few days ago the Windows validation check was required in order to download the IE7). No, i am not complaining because i have paid for Vista Business while some others are not – the reason the people pay for software is because they recognize the works of the others, and because they know how much it takes to create any small little insignificant piece of software, and what a monstrous effort it is to create something like an IE, even being crippled like it is.

Quite a smart move by Microsoft, which i welcome from the heart – we need to move on to the better quality browsers, IE6 have to die as soon as possible, and today in the morning my statistics for this site were telling me, that still 55% of the visitors are using it. All web developers will be jumping and throwing parties when IE7 will be the least available on the market – it is so far beyond the old crippled Internet Explorer 6.