As I develop this site, and others in the past, I have begun to hate Microsoft increasingly more. I used to be an avid fan of Microsoft, and would back all of their products. But then they got too greedy, and most of all, too lazy. One by one, I am dropping their programs for alternatives that do the job far better than Microsoft.
During the summer I finally ditched FrontPage and started developing in Dreamweaver MX. Why I waited so long is beyond me, but I just got sick of having FrontPage rewrite my code however it liked.
Reason #1 – FrontPage thinks it’s a better programmer than you, and will rewrite your code at will.
Since I’ve switched, I’ve openned myself up to a whole new world of webdesign. Just a few days ago I discovered how to arrange element boxes freely within Dreamweaver, which is how I created this new site layout. Sure you can do the same in FP with tables, but come on… tables? Who creates table layouts now that we have CSS?
Turns out that Microsoft really messed up when it came to CSS. Internet Explorer will render CSS pages differently than any other web browser, and many CSS standards are not supported/followed. On top of that, they made up their own! iFrame? C’mon, I thought we got rid of Frames for a reason…
Reason #2 – Microsoft does not follow CSS standards, and think they hold the right to make up new standards.
Speaking of Internet Explorer, nearly every time I have a friend or family member ask me to fix their computer for them, it is INFESTED with spyware, malware, worms, dataminers… You name it, they’ve got it. Where does all this crap come from? You guessed it, IE and its ActiveX support.
Reason #3 – Internet Explorer is insecure, and vulnerable to the vast majority of malicious code.
So what’s the alternative? Well there are many products available to you, there’s still Netscape, but I was never a huge fan of it to begin with. There’s also Opera, which I would rate second best. But the one that stands above the others is Firefox. Perhaps in the future I will write up a detailed comparison of the three alterntives vs IE, but I’ll say that for another day.
A seasoned Senior Solutions Architect with 18 years of experience in technology design and implementation. Renowned for innovative solutions and strategic insights, he excels in driving complex projects to success. Outside work, he is a passionate fisherman and fish keeper, specializing in planted tanks.