Internet Explorer has a PR problem.

thelonelycoder.wordpress.com

For me, as has been mentioned before, the problem is not necessarily with the browser, but with the extraordinarily long support that Microsoft has with previous versions. Instead of just hacking for IE6, I have to accommodate for all of the versions that have a acceptable usage rate.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with the direction, but IE has caused a lot of pain for a number of years, and I anticipate for a number of years still to come. No amount of PR is going to fix that IMHO

I think the shelf life for the "pain" IE has caused, is going to be a lot less than we both realise.

The iterations on developing browsers has gotten tighter and it is very much a thriving ecosystem of innovation. As people start using newer versions of all browsers, "pain" from yesterdays browsers will drop. Looking at the recent deal of Mozilla and Google, even with Chrome demonstrates quite clearly the huge value a good browser has for a companies bottom line.

Im not sure if there is a large deal of code sharing, yet I would imagine any effort to bring an "IE" browser to their mobile platform will have it working quite closely with the proposed "html5" spec. This in turn I think would force updates to the "desktop IE".

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