The case for Microsoft Internet Explorer

I love Firefox and I love Chrome. I use them both interchangeably, depending on the task in hand. The only time I load up Internet Explorer is to test a site that we’re building, and even then I cringe at its slow clunkiness.

Today Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer would be missing from Windows 7.0 when it launches in Europe, in response to competition rules. A BBC article says that “European buyers of Windows 7 will have to download and install a web browser for themselves.”, although its not quite clear how they’ll do that without a web browser.

And that’s probably the biggest issue. These days the web browser is a vital part of any operating system. Linux has Konqueror, IceWeasel or Firefox; Mac OS has Safari; and Windows has Internet Explorer. Without it we wouldn’t have cool things like Apple’s Dashboard Web Snippets. We also wouldn’t have an easy way for the average Joe to just turn on their computer and say “I’m going to browse the web.”.

I’m not a big fan of the Microsoft monopoly, but what we’ve needed for so long are good competitors. And I think we’re getting there now, without the help of EU intervention:

• Apple are finally giving Microsoft a run for their money on the OS stakes: OS X Leopard is awesome. Linux is still quite far off, but getting there.
• Firefox and Chrome continue to steal market share from IE, and although I don’t believe they’ll ever capture the desktops of aforementioned Average Joe, I’m not sure that’s where they belong
• Google have been killing Microsoft online for years now.
• Apple and Google are making speedy in-roads into competing on smartphone market share, and have products way better than any of Microsoft’s. Palm is set to attack with the Pre. BlackBerry have already cornered the business market.
• Apple have destroyed Microsoft’s attempts at portable and desktop entertainment.
• Linux, Apache and PHP have been consistently battering Microsoft’s web server business, even since the launch of ASPX.
• Even Microsoft’s most sacred product – Microsoft Office – is under attack from Sun’s OpenOffice and Google’s online Docs

Microsoft is still a massively profitable and successful business, but it is under fire from all angles. It has been in the lead for so long partially because of dubious business practices, but mainly because it produced some of the most functional products the computer world had ever seen. And yes, they’ve often been buggy, and they’ve been bloated and they’ve been slow, but they have changed the world. And because they’re under natural stress now, these products are getting better and better much quicker than ever before.

These days at home I use a Linux laptop, a Google phone and OpenOffice. A few years ago they all would have been Microsoft products instead. Lets not make the world of computing harder for the average user just to spite the dark side – let’s fund organisations that can make a positive contribution, can compete with M$ and make things better for everyone.

I think the EU should leave Internet Explorer well alone.