Why Internet Explorer Sucks

I will prove why Internet Explorer is such a bad browser. You might have heard me complain about IE 100 times and ignored me. Well, I've compiled an interactive demo to prove how bad IE is. Try out the links below. Save your work first in case your computer crashes.

Exploits

  • IE Crashing Link - Crash a completely patched IE6 - as of August 30, 2006. One line of javascript - a loop, to be exact... It's pathetic that you can crash IE with one line of code. We're sorry, but this does not crash IE7

Patched/ Minor Things

These are some old crashes that have been patched already. (Or are not crashes at all - just annoyances). If your IE crashes by clicking the following links, UPDATE your windows to get the latest security fixes. I have not tested thises with IE 7 and they affect unpatched versions of IE6.

  • IE Crashing Image - This is a perfectly valid image that takes advantage of a buffer overflow in Internet Explorer. Check out the image in IE then check it out in Firefox. Edit: Microsoft has recently released a patch that has fixed this. If you are still crashing when clicking this, you should run Windows Updates.

  • IE Crashing Link - This is a typical overflow in mshtml.dll that corrupts memory locations using a massive amount of malformed html tags and legitimate attributes such as onclick, onmousedown, etc. Even a fully patched Service Pack 2 computer is vulnerable to this crash. If you click the link in IE, it goes bye. Firefox is invincible to this nonsense.

  • Computer Lockup/Bluescreen - This IE exploit will freeze the users Internet Explorer almost immediately after clicking it. It works by an HTML file trying to load an image with excessively large dimensions specified by the coding. Right as the image begins to load, IE just starts to lock up and the user might possibly hear some beeping noises coming from the inside of the computer, and possibly a blue error screen. 97% of the time, this ultimately results in the user being forced restart his or her computer. No long-term harm is done to any computer from this crash, it is just a simple overload which causes the computer to lock up. You will probably need to restart. (For some reason I couldn't crash my old Win 98 laptop on this, but my Pentium 4 with Windows XP was owned)

  • AIM Nuisance - IE can execute AIM hyperlinks if they have been placed in Iframe windows. This cau automatically set anyone on AIM as away, make the AIM today Window pop up, and do all kinds of weird aim stuff. Normally, the user would have to click the AIM hyperlink, but the iframe tricks ie into clicking it. Besides AIM stuff, you can also use this Iframe vulnerability to access the A: drive (making it spin), open up a telnet window, and attempt to run programs (In this case I chose notepad, but most likely you'll get a security warning). In Firefox, it will ask you if you want to execute the external hyperlinks. When you click cancel, you're golden and nothing will happen.

  • Javascript Popup Vulnerability (Pre SP2) - This is a massive nuisance. This page will call 30 popup windows by using the body onload tag to execute a javascript popup function when the page loads (pre SP2). However, the popup windows each have javascript within them that will make them bounce all over the screen if the link inside this page is clicked. In older Versions of IE (pre SP2), you cannot stop the windows because there is a flash animation in them which prevents the user from clicking the popup (that would break the script and stop it from moving).

Try these links in Firefox and you'll learn that nothing bad happens

Other Reasons Why IE Sucks

  • ActiveX Controls are insecure - ActiveX is a technology that enables interactive programs, called controls, to load from web pages and run inside IE, with the same privilege levels as the user running the browser. In other words, if you're running as Administrator, and can therefore do whatever you want on your PC, any ActiveX control you load in IE has full access to your PC as well. These will pop up and ask you to click yes or no. Some websites will not let you enter unless you accept the ActiveX Control (which is most likely a virus or spyware)

  • Stupid Nuisances - See the above Exploits. Other browsers will not let stupid script kiddies crash IE, freeze your computer, or interfere with external applications.

  • Ads - With Internet Explorer, instead of enjoying the internet, sites are obstructed with annoying ads. Some javascript ads fly by on the page, others are flash ads with sound. If you use Avant (another browser), it has an ad blacklist feature. This will prevent the ads from loading, saving page load time and allowing you to view the web without annoyances. Mozilla Firefox has a killer Extension called Adblock. If configured properly, you can block 90% of the ads on the web.

  • Web Standards Ignored - Some people complain that sites work in IE and not Firefox. This is not true and is the fault of the web designer. Firefox uses WC3 web standards like CSS and things to that nature. IE is the one that does not comply. So the next time a site works in IE and not Firefox, the html is wrong. Because Internet Explorer doesn't support CSS properly, programmers and web designers must use 'hacks', or old or invalid code which takes longer to load. This means IE is slowing the entire Internet down significantly.

    Check out this page of javascript demos that work in Firefox, then check them out in IE. You'll find that they're either messsed up or do not display at all.

    Another good tool that tests CSS validity is the acid2 css test. It checks how browsers render CSS and then compare it to the reference rendering. Check it out over here. Internet Explorer 6's rendering is bad, IE7's is much worse and generates a scrollbar out of nowhere. Firefox isn't perfect but it's much better. I believe Opera is the only browser that passes the Acid2 test. My point? Mozilla is at least working to fix their rendering (which is 100% better than IE. IE however, refuses to follow W3 standards and continues to fail the test miserably, thus rendering pages incorrectly.

  • Not Customizable - Well this is a little bit of an understatement. It is possible to customize IE - with useless cluttered spyware toolbars and sidebars! But browsers like Firefox have thousands of useful extensions, themes and other customizations that can do anything like blocking ads, changing the look of the browser, enabling time saving shortcuts and whatever else your little head can think of.

  • Annoying Patches - In fairness to Microsoft, they have released patches for the more serious weaknesses, even recently. However new flaws seem to spring up very often, and computers which have not yet applied patches are still vulnerable. The most recent substantial patch, XP Service Pack 2, is just that. A service pack for XP. Users of older Windows are simply left out. The download size was enough to put many with dial-up off getting the patch and thus many computers are still highly insecure. Some patches even create new vulnerabilities. So instead of wasting time patching, just get something secure to begin with..

  • Search - Why you go to search for something on the page, the search dialog pops up and blocks half of the page. Most of the time it finds what you searched for, you won't even recognize it because the dumb search dialog is blocking it. Meet Mr. Firefox, where the searchbar is added to the bottom and does not block the page. It also finds as you type. IE can't do that!

  • No Download Manager - Everytime you download something, a stupid popup window shows you progress. With Firefox, you get a download manager. It shows multiple downloads at a time, saving space. You can also pause downloads and manage them much more easily.

  • Transparent PNG Images - Once upon a time there were only JPEG and GIF images on the web. Then along came the PNG. The great thing about PNGs is their support for variable transparency. This means that instead of a pixel being either entirely opaque or entirely transparent (like with a transparent GIF), you can have 256 levels of opacity for every pixel. Firefox fully supports transparency in PNG and IE does not (surprise!) A lot of cutting edge sites that utilize PNG transparency will look simply amazing with Firefox, and crappy with IE.

Is IE7 be better?

Since IE6 is such an inferior piece of crap, the fools at Microsoft decided that its time to release a new version of Internet Explorer. I got ahold of, Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2. They added useless features and utter ugliness. Microsoft decided to add tabs but at first, they were skeptical. Here's a quote from IE product unit manager Dean Hachamovitch: "Some people have asked why we didn't put tabs in IE sooner. Initially, we had some concerns around complexity and consistency--will it confuse users more than it benefits them? Is it confusing if IE has tabs, but other core parts of the Windows experience, like Windows Media Player or the shell, don't have tabs?" This ignoramus works for Microsoft? What's he on crack? What the hell does he mean that Windows Media Player or the Windows shell does not have tabs? Go into the options in Windows Media Player or any other M$ product like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, even the IE6 options - they all are tabbed. And if you are not counting the options dialog boxes, then if you want tabs go into Excel and look on the bottom - Sheet 1 Sheet2 and Sheet 3 - TABS. So tabs are part of the shell and widely used. And here's my other complaints about IE7:

  • he quick search in the top-right is stolen from Firefox
  • The organization sucks: The only buttons on the address bar are forward and backward. All other useful buttons like home, stop and refresh are scattered elsewhere. You need to look all over the place for them.
  • The address bar is locked at the top of the screen. You can't move it. Traditionally, the File Edit etc... menu should be there. In 99% of other programs the menu is on top not hidden under other ugly toolbars. Firefox is customizable - you can change its looks to your liking.
  • The tabs show up regardless of whether or not you are using tabbed windows.
  • EVERYTHING IS UGLY! (The tabs suck, the open new tab button is an ugly gray block etc)
  • It's even uglier if you have the XP theme off and have the Windows Classic Theme on.
  • MS has you paranoid about phishing (faking legitimate sites and trying to steal your information). Every time I got to a site it attempts to do a phishing check, which takes a long time. I disabled automatic phishing check but it still puts an exclamation on the bottom saying it doesn't trust my site (portfolioso.com)...
  • Favicon support stinks (the icons on the tabs/in the address bar) For some reason, if you check out my screenshots below, the google favicon is displayed on the tabs but the portfolioso favicon is not. Firefox never has any favicon problems...
  • RSS Feed support... It's decent but Firefox has a better idea with the live bookmark feature.
  • MS continues to ignore web standards because they don't agree with W3.The Acid2 css rendering (see screenshot below) stinks and is MUCH WORSE than IE6.

In Conclusion...

Get Firefox