from Hacker News

Internet Explorer is evil (1996)

by Fiveplus on 3/9/21, 3:34 PM with 80 comments

• by dang on 3/9/21, 7:50 PM

  This is a dupe because it had significant attention in the last year - see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html.

  Internet Explorer Is Evil (2002) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23013001 - April 2020 (75 comments)

  Internet Explorer is evil - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4740890 - Nov 2012 (10 comments)

  Edit: btw, since http://toastytech.com/evil/ieisevilstory.html references Netscape 7.1 and that was released in 2002 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_7), it seems like the previous submission was more likely to have the year right?

• by steiner_j on 3/9/21, 3:56 PM

  "In conclusion, people are finally beginning to understand the hard way:

  Web Browsers really make poor client application runtimes for all but the most basic of things. ActiveX is a security nightmare and counter to making cross-platform applications. The web is a constantly changing and evolving standard separate from Microsoft or any specific operating system, as such implementing an application for just one specific browser and version with no intent to keep it updated is just asking for disaster. Tying local help files or other local content to a "live" web browser that may change in functionality is a bad idea.

  But, nobody ever listened to anything I have to say."

  Narrator: And nobody listened to anything he said.

• by OliverJones on 3/9/21, 4:21 PM

  Yes, the Redmond Middle School Science project called Internet Explorer, now in the dumpster of history where it always belonged, was evil.

  Its over-engineered idiocy (monikers? apartment threading? quirks mode? wtf?) slowed down the development of good internet applications by decades, and caused tens of thousands of lost developer and tester hours that we can never get back.

  Gates was too greedy to understand why it was a problem. Ballmer was too stupid. Now, Nadella finally figured out that developers might stop hating his company if he finally flushed that toilet. And flush it he did.

  Edgium is good. As good as all the takes-16-hours-to-compile stuff running on modern desktops.

• by tech-historian on 3/9/21, 3:55 PM

  If you want some IE nostalgia, here's a visual history of IE starting in 1995 (v1.0):

  https://www.versionmuseum.com/history-of/internet-explorer

  Factoid: There were versions of IE for both Mac and Solaris.

• by CountDrewku on 3/9/21, 4:02 PM

  Ha ha this reminds me of the first website I made. It was a site about Green Day. Of course, I built it on angelfire and it was chock full of gifs and midi music playing in the background. A lot of nostalgia seeing this.

• by veidelis on 3/9/21, 6:17 PM

  "And as if forcing IE on all Windows users wasn't bad enough, Microsoft forced Apple to bundle IE for Mac as their default browser instead of Netscape. If Apple refused, Microsoft would discontinue MS-Office for Mac. Steve Jobs was loudly BOOED as he announced that IE would be the default browser."

  https://youtu.be/WxOp5mBY9IY?t=142

• by careersuicide on 3/9/21, 3:54 PM

  Check out the "Firefox Doom Party" screen shots: http://toastytech.com/doom/ffdoompics.html

• by dec0dedab0de on 3/9/21, 4:33 PM

  I really miss when most of the web looked like this. And average non technical people knew enough html to put something out. In retrospect I think Myspace ruined everything.

• by alexfromapex on 3/9/21, 3:45 PM

  Wow haven’t seen that back button in a while

• by stephvd on 3/9/21, 4:23 PM

  This website is a nostalgia machine. Plus so many links - easy to keep me busy for a few hours.

• by rangoon626 on 3/9/21, 4:29 PM

  This is some wholesome caustic indignation I can get behind. Surely today’s social media networks would have classified this content as hate speech and inciting violence.

• by higerordermap on 3/9/21, 6:04 PM

  Slightly off-topic, this website has a collection of a HUGE number of retro GUI screenshots.

  (I can't help but feel interfaces were more usable those days, being a millennial)

• by lovedswain on 3/9/21, 5:55 PM

  > In conclusion, people are finally beginning to understand the hard way:

  > Web Browsers really make poor client application runtimes for all but the most basic of things.

  Aged like milk

• by srcreigh on 3/9/21, 4:56 PM

  Don't miss the "Rants" page. Its most recent post is dated august 2020.

  "Microsoft is really going down the toilet." - april 12, 2018

• by fullshark on 3/9/21, 4:35 PM

  The rants section has dates from as recent as 2020!

• by Robotbeat on 3/9/21, 3:47 PM

  Man, seeing Bill Gates with horns and in a pentagram sure hits different in 2021 due to COVID/antivax and QAnon conspiracy theories than it did in 1996.

• by jtdev on 3/9/21, 5:11 PM

  Remember, Bill Gates thought this was all a good idea. Maybe he’s not our omniscient savior after all?