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Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 As a heavy web user, and web developer, I make no secret of the fact that my browser of choice is Firefox. But that isn't to say I don't occasionally dabble with the others, beyond of course the usual testing that my work appears correctly in them. Spending the week tied to a desktop, it is usually weekend browsing on my laptop that gets to experiment with alternatives.

I tried Opera for a bit, and quite liked it, but certain key combinations I was used to had equivalents that I couldn't get on with, so that experiment was short lived. Safari is quite nice, even if it's early days on Windows was somewhat slow and buggy, and I've even tried Chrome for a bit. Speed wise Chrome was good, but I remain unconvinced about the minimalistic interface.

What I'm really waiting for is Firefox 4 and it's new grouping features, which really appeals due to the way I work. I'm a tabaholic, loads get opened every day and rarely do I close Firefox without at least 7 or 8 containing things I intend on reading. These are pages that perhaps I should bookmark for later, but to me bookmarking is about keeping a reference to a page that I might want further down the line, and not one I intend to read within the next few days.

But in the meantime, I thought I'd give Internet Explorer 9 a quick go, and see if it has overcome all the stupid annoying things that have made me despise Internet Explorer over the years. Everything from crashing more than a dodgem car, to the horrendous delay in loading a about:blank page. Seriously Microsoft, it's a blank page, you don't have to think much about it, just display a white box!

Installation


Downloading the web installer, things don't appear to have changed much. It spends a short while getting the data over the Internet, then begins the installation proper, at which point it pops up the dialogue box below. Er, okay, I know Microsoft have got IE's fingers into many parts of the operating system, despite anti-trust investigations and demands, but this is ridiculous.

Apparently I can't install IE9 without first closing practically everything I'm running, including uTorrent, AnyDVD, the DivX Updater app, the Logitech app for my G15 keyboard, my messenger client Pidgin, Winamp, Windows Media Player (which I didn't even know was running, because I can't see it), and... Firefox!!! What the hell has IE9 got to do with Firefox! I'm pretty sure the answer is nothing at all.

Inline Image

So it wants me to close Firefox, but my email client Thunderbird is fine, so is XnView that I had open, Microsoft's own Word Viewer, and it has no problem with CloneCD or TomTom Home. It makes no sense, IT MAKES NO SENSE!

Anyhow, it says if I don't do this I might have to restart later, so fine I'll let it close all the applications and install. Off it goes closing a whole load on its list, and a bunch that weren't even on the list. Er, what was the point in presenting me with a list and telling me to make sure I've saved my work before it closes them, and then closing a load of others that it didn't ask me to make sure I'd saved my work from?
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Posted by Robert John Shepherd