Nikoport

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.

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.

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.

A new project is under development, it is called “SiteRouter“. SiteRouter is a system for managing RSS, Sitemaps between other things - judging by the name, one can easily imagine some of the things that this software hopefully will have. The SiteRouter is being developed as an easy plugable system - this means that with some easy adjustmentes everyone will be able to integrate it into already existing or developing project. The first version is being written in PHP 4, but if it will pass the tests with success, the version in ASP.NET will come right after the first stable release. MySQL is the choice for the database, but there are plans for PostgreSQL as well. At the moment I am looking into releasing it under GPL.

SiteRouter will have a plugin system some day, this will help other databases and action modules integration, development and upgrade. As for the visual part there are some icons that i have found on the net, but which will be eventually replaced in the nearest future.

I am still not sure, when the first version available to the public in general will be available, but i hope, that at some point in October it will reach this stage.

L. Pavarotti 1935-2007

Nessun dorma!… Tu pure, o Principessa,
Nella tua fredda stanza
Guardi le stelle
Che tremano d’amore e di speranza.
Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me,
Il nome mio nessun saprà!
Solo quando la luce splenderà,
Sulla tua bocca lo dirò fremente!…
Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio
Che ti fa mia!…

Il nome suo nessun saprà…
E noi dovremo, ahimè, morir!…

Dilegua, o notte!… Tramontate, stelle!…
All’alba vincerò!

Al’alba vinceró …

A couple of days ago, W3C has released a new version of a html markup validator (0.80). 8 months after the last release and a lot of work with 2 beta versions, W3C has presented a new “revamped” markup validator. They describe it as a “major milestone in the development of the validator”, that besides various functional improvements finally includes a major visual overhaul. Since the beginning, the W3C pages besides being accessible were having a really bad design, but the new markup validator is already a good change.

The usability of the validator has been greatly improved - one of the new “features” that i liked is the icon status which represents the status of the validated content - green when the markup is valid and red when it is not. This way it is easy to see which documents are valid, when you have a couple of them validating.
It is remarkable that the new markup validator works in resolutions until 640×480, in which it while having a small horizontal scrollbar, it is still represents everything on the screen.
The colors have been altered from straight #0f0 and #f00 to much smother #669900 and #1f2126 respectively, though i have to add that may be the color for the red is not a “web safe” one, and should be reconsidered for the newer version.

The functional changes, every regular user should notice in the next couple of days, while validating - for example for the XHTML 1.0 strict doctype the <html> tag started requiring “xmlns” attribute, and so on. This small things should affect the results of a lot of the already validated content, but it is for better - because it will help web designers to improve and to perfect their html and xhtml code.

Overall the changes are for better and W3C markup validator team have done a good job improving the most useful instrument from W3C.

A new website for Goumi Lda went online a couple of minutes ago. Goumi Lda aka Kromos Urbanos is a firm, which creates completely customized furniture. Basically they will turn your inspiration into a piece of furniture that you wish - should it be a lamp or a bed or anything else. But its better to see (visit) one time then to read or hear ten thousand times.

Goumi is actually a rare tropical fruit, which can be found in places almost all around the world. Just by watching the results of Goumi’s work, you will understand that. I hope that they are really going to fill their portfolio with the images of their work, because i expect them to have a great future. No, it is not a promotion, but as for me - i know where i am going to get some furniture for my future house =O)

The site of Goumi was created using XHTML 1.0 strict and CSS 2.1. Also there is a “small” flash animation on the, which was quite easier to do in flash then in XHTML. I did my best to make this site working in 800×600 since viewing the statistics of this resolution usage in Portugal made me thing on this subject, but i am still considering that some of the things are not the way they should be, but when you have some big images, there are not many ways of making site 100% fluid while not breaking one thing or another in HTML.

There are two other projects, which are on their way to be published in the next weeks, i hope.