IE8: Why?
With IE8 closing up to a final release, and still having a bunch of bugs that don’t get fixed, I begin the wonder why Microsoft even bothers.
Just think about it for a second – they have a big team of IE8 developers, which obviously costs them money. Yet they don’t get anything in return for it.
It makes no sense for Microsoft to be creating another Internet Explorer, because it gets them no profit whatsoever. There are enough open source browsers that are better than IE, and absolutely free to use. Why shouldn’t Microsoft just bundle those with its new operating systems?
It would mean admitting a “small” defeat in the browser wars, but it would also mean a great deal for browser consistency, and an even greater deal for those web developers that are now stuck developing 3 different versions of a website (IE6, IE7 & Firefox/Chrome/Safari).
We know they’d never do it, so it’s futile to ever hope for it. But it would save Microsoft money, and make the world a better place. So what gives?
Microsoft got into a lawsuit for bundeling its Windows Media Player together with its Operating System, because some companies distribute Media Players as an actual product – and this was considered a false advantage for Windows’ Media Player.
This got me thinking: if someone makes a browser, and charges people for it – could he force Microsoft into creating a version of the OS without a browser integrated? Would this person not be considered a God amongst us mortals?
I’ve often wondered the same thing. I realize that they’ve invested massive amounts of time, energy, and money into the Trident rendering engine, but like you I just can’t help but feel like it’s time has come and Microsoft should abandon it for a stronger rendering engine and then focus on enhancing that engine with the supportive features that they feel are necessary.
You’re describing a Utopia, David. :-) I don’t expect them to abandon ship on IE (though it would be awesome), and they’ll never adopt Chrome (Google) or Firefox (Google funded).
Every competing browser for IE has some connection with an even bigger competitor for Microsoft, which I assume will be the main reason why it will never be adopted.