[iranfromthezoo]

Microsoft is getting pretty desperate! Anyone going to try?

Sorry, Microsoft pulled the link. They had a pic that said something along the lines of, Get rid of using the boring browser Safari and upgrade to IE8 for the best internet experience!

They said only users of IE8 can find $10,000 hidden in the internet.

Here is their twitter page. http://twitter.com/tengrand_IE8

[Big Mac]

Your link failed. What was the competition, finding security holes?

[Andy8]

Here you go

[ghporter]

Funny-MS can tell I'm using Firefox, but not that I'm using it on a Mac.

And if you can "only" find this treasure using IE8, that means that it's using some sort of non-standard mechanism, right? In other words, Microsoft is thumbing its corporate nose at web standards (yet again). Yes, I could use ten grand, but I'm not changing my platform, changing to a browser that's inherently insecure, and THEN snooping around for it.

[shifuimam]

I wouldn't really say anymore that IE is "inherently insecure" - IE8 really isn't all that bad, especially compared to older versions. It's very clear about when you are visiting a malicious site, much the same way as Firefox gives you a giant red warning sign. It also openly warns about mismatched SSL certificate domains, and makes you actually look for the link to continue on to the site, rather than giving you an annoying popup that's easy to ignore.

As far as IE8 not matching current standards, that's going to be a problem for at least a little while, if only because they continue to render pages incorrectly so that sites that accommodate earlier versions of IE (the crap way, through CSS hacks, rather than through browser identification and browser-specific CSS files) don't break overnight.

I have to use IE at work to test web apps - it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. In fact, the included developer tools are almost as good as Firebug in Firefox.

[besson3c]

I agree with Shif, it has gotten much better, but then again it has had to come a very long way... Their IE 7 compatibility mode is confusing and awkward though.

I'll be much happier when IE supports CSS border-radius, and when people stop using IE 6 so that developers can incorporate transparent PNGs more frequently. The Javascript toolkits seem to take care of most of the annoying JS problems, and using a CSS reset library helps a great deal with rendering quirks.

[shifuimam]

Ditto on transparent PNGs - although Safari and IE7/8 both have weird PNG rendering that causes colors to show up inaccurately sometimes - very frustrating, depending on what you're doing.

I sometimes get the feeling that even if Microsoft were to make a perfect product, people would still decry it simply because it's Microsoft - they've come a long, long way since the days of IE 6 and Windows ME.

[brassplayersrock²]

Is it sad that even that bribe doesn't compel me to want to download the browser?

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

I wouldn't really say anymore that IE is "inherently insecure" - IE8 really isn't all that bad, especially compared to older versions.

Originally Posted by besson3c 

I agree with Shif, it has gotten much better, but then again it has had to come a very long way...

If it still supports ActiveX, and if Microsoft hasn't made ActiveX actually secure, then any version of IE is inherently insecure.

ActiveX is a back door into your browser and in Windows, your OS. ActiveX tools can be signed, but there's no verification that the signer is legit, nor that the content of the tool is legit-only that somebody signed the tool. I could write an ActiveX tool that makes your browser find anything that matches 9 digits in a row or separated by hyphens in a specific pattern (999-99-9999; the format for a US Social Security Number), and sign it, and IE would roll with it. If I package it pretty and make it do something else that users may think they want, users will agree to download it and their personal data will be mine. I abhor ActiveX because it's like WEP-it says it's a secure thing when in fact it's worse than an item that doesn't claim to be secure because it gives the user a false sense of security.

So anyway...

[Doofy]

Maybe it's me, but I'm fair sure that if Microsoft told me to "Get rid of Safari or get lost" here they'd get reamed by the monopolies commission.

Page bookmarked so I can demonstrate to anyone* who'll listen that M$ are a bunch of rude, arrogant, uncouth barstewards.

(* Anyone who's not already aware of Ballmer, of course. Anyone who's even vaguely aware of the dancing monkey already knows that M$ are a bunch of rude, arrogant, uncouth barstewards.)

[Andy8]

Windows Internet Explorer 8: Get the facts