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Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

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Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#131

Post by dangrossman »

msujaws wrote: post #127
dangrossman wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IE9 implements too much of its modern HTML5 and security features using Windows 7. DirectX 10, which it uses for hardware accelerated graphics, text and video does not run on XP. XP is eons behind the times in security features. It's not just a marketing decision, at some point if they wanted to do these things they had to say "this version of IE will not run on our 10 year old OS."

Hmmmm.... I wonder how other browser vendors are able to pull it off then? This answer doesn't seem to carry much weight if Firefox and Chrome can do these things and still remain secure.

They use OpenGL instead of DirectX for hardware acceleration. Microsoft's obviously not going to do that; using DX plays to their strengths in every possible way, from what their developers and toolchain is already optimized for, to what's already rendering the entire desktop in WinVista/Win7... so it could even mean IE10 on Win8 tablets will be better on battery life than FF/Chrome. I'm not an expert on this, but DX is likely the objectively better choice for hardware acceleration on Windows -- the reason FF/Chrome use OpenGL is because they have to support other platforms IE doesn't, and doing everything twice in OpenGL/DirectX to get the best result on Windows while still supporting Mac/Linux has obvious downsides.

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#132

Post by shapeshed »

still seeing 20% IE6 usage in my Corporate clients in the UK. I have spoken with IT administrators and they give the reason of internal tools needing IE6 to run. Some kind of backwards compatibility might help but until hardware is upgraded and there is an OS upgrade from XP IE6 will be around for a while IMHO.

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#133

Post by mrspeaker »

veidr wrote: post #112
ArbitraryLimits wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, what makes you think the "enterprise" market is less lucrative than it used to be?

Well, it's still pretty lucrative, but for Microsoft, it doesn't go anywhere anymore. I am persuaded by some of the recent arguments (John Siracusa's maybe?) that both the innovation and the money in general-purpose computing industry have moved over to the consumer side of the equation, and that this change has put MS in a worse position than they've traditionally been in. Dominating corporate computing (for soooo f…

Hey veidr, Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter (cold fusion... made me snort baba ganoush out my nose) - update your profile with further information, dagnammit!

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#135

Post by lallysingh »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #117
antinitro wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly can't see the reasoning behind this.

They want people to buy a newer version of Windows.

And more subtly, the "support windows, support office" mentality that forces each team to link arm-in-arm with other team. Everyone slow is sped up, everyone fast is slowed down.

Btw, running that forward, everyone fast learns to slow down, and the slow ones aren't pulled ahead as much.

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#136

Post by tikhonj »

mbell wrote: post #92
dpark wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, yes. http://www.ie6countdown.com/ IE 6 holds a 1% market share in the US. How many corporations in the US are mandating IE 6 if it's only got a 1% market share? You'll also note that IE 6 has a nearly 28% market share in China. Now, this doesn't say that these are pirated installs, but they are obviously XP or older, and this is clearly where the bulk of IE 6 market share is.

Keep in mind where browser usage statistics come from, in this case, NetApplications. If your not visiting some chosen list of sites you are not counted. Thus IE6 installs used mostly internally or stats from sites that don't really support IE 6 won't end up getting counted properly.

On the other hand, if you're developing a website for the general public, you probably don't care much about people who only use IE6 for internal sites either.

If you rarely or never go on the actual internet, the fact that you're using an old browser doesn't matter any more than if you're using an old native program to do the same things.

Of course, there is still the issue of people who do go on the internet but don't visit any of the sites that actually track these statistics; however, I don't know how much of an issue this is because I don't know which sites do the tracking.

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#139

Post by tomkarlo »

phillmv wrote: post #88
tomkarlo wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right in that most businesses need to grow to increase their value (generally because growth is built into their current valuation) but the narrative you're using isn't on target. It's entirely possible for a business to give investors good returns even if their business or market isn't growing. Profitability and cash returns from a business can grow as revenues decline if the company either increases operatin…

Please correct me if I'm wrong! But: >Profitability and cash returns from a business can grow as revenues decline if the company either increases operating efficiency, or reduces in investment in recognition of the declining opportunity. Sure. When I say growth, I mean "make more money this year than you did the year before". This doesn't directly translate into "make more widgets", of course – that's just the (in an…

It's this statement that is incorrect: "In real terms, this means you need to grow your business by at least 3% in order to give me that return."

In almost any definition "growing a business" means increasing unit sales, or increasing revenues, or both.

Neither is necessary to provide acceptable returns to an investor - there are great investments around in businesses that have long since peaked in terms of unit volume and revenue. Much of the private equity world focuses on these kinds of investments.

Re: Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone

#140

Post by electromagnetic »

danudey wrote: post #130
commandar wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>One of the things that really blew my mind this year was a large ($40MM) software development project I became familiar with (a worldwide internal system for a multinational corporation) that concluded -- in 2011 -- and required MSIE 6. MSIE 6! Doesn't even run on MSIE 7, much less any modern browser. This happens all the time at the hospital I work at. I'm constantly flummoxed by how behind the times software vendo…

I worked at a hospital in 2008, where, mid-summer, the IT department had just approved the use of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (which was released in August 2004). Note that this doesn't mean they were actually going to start deploying it. It just meant that they were open to the idea of doing so. I'd be surprised if they'd actually upgraded any machines yet.

The law firm my wife works for has just switched to the new version of office, because Word Perfect is no longer supported by their billing software. I don't even think their version was new either.

It's kind of sad that you'll only modernize when you'll no longer get paid. You'd think improving efficiency would be motive for modernization, but I guess not.

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