Those who know me, know that I don’t like the Firefox browser. There are many reasons why, but I simply prefer to use IE. And, the incredibly pompous tone used by Firefox’s own documentation and by its users/fanboys has further alienated me from otherwise giving it a try.
I also have done a lot of web design over the years, and I’ve never really given a damn about what my sites look like on Firefox. This goes back to the whole pompous-users syndrome I mentioned, and the fact that when Firefox first came out, and my validated-HTML pages had rendering errors in it, I got accused of writing IE-specific code and ignoring the presence of Firefox, even though said rendering errors were due to known issues in Firefox’s rendering engine. Annoyed, I decided to ignore the presence of Firefox in my designs. I was only designing my own sites at the time anyway.
Lately, I’ve been contemplating the prospect of doing web design as a career, or at least on a semi-professional basis. The jury’s still out on that decision, but after seeing just how ugly Lupinia looked using Firefox, I decided to change positions a bit and stop ignoring the existance of Firefox in my designs.
So, I downloaded and installed a copy last night, plus a couple handy extensions to ease the process of building my sites. And admittedly, the tools I grabbed are pretty handy for design purposes. I’ve been working this weekend on correcting for the bizarre way Firefox renders things, and it’s also easier to disable scripting to check my no-script content.
However, I still greatly prefer IE for general browsing, and I don’t like Firefox for that purpose. And, I kindly ask that all you Firefox fanboys I know (you know who you are) stop harassing me for using IE. I’ve heard all the reasons not to, I’ve heard every sales pitch imaginable trying to tell me how tabbed browsing is something I simply can’t live without, and I’ve heard how using IE sends a personal invitation to every hacker on the planet to come screw with my machine. I’ve heard everything you all have to say, and I’m fucking tired of it. I don’t try to convince you to use IE every time the subject comes up, I merely assert that my personal preference is to use IE, and leave it at that. I would appreciate it if you all extended me the same courtesy.
If I mention that I use IE, don’t react like I just told you I like the taste of char-grilled human babies. If you’re using my computer, don’t install Firefox on it, hell, don’t even ask. If you ask where its icon is, don’t freak out when I say “there isn’t one”. And if you see me browsing using IE, don’t start your “Firefox is the most awesome program ever written ever” speech. It’s not 2003 anymore, you don’t have to evangelize the virtues of your favourite browser to everyone who chooses not to use it. Just let me look at websites in peace. Please.
Thank you.
