Why use Internet Explorer

With all of the security explots that plague IE, and its lack of proper CSS support, many people have long been questioning why IE is still used. The WASP Buzz points to a couple of articles in mainstream journalism that list some of the alternatives available to IE. But still it’s used. Why?

I’ll give you one reason why none of the rescue departments in Finland can move away from Internet Explorer for the time being. We are required by the Ministry of the Interior to use a Web application in which we log data related to all of the calls that we get. The information obtained through the application can then be used to collect statistics. I have more than enough problems with how the application is desinged and how it works, but the issue here is that it only works on Internet Explorer. I wonder how many companies in the world there are where the Web applications they use require IE. Converting all of those applications may not be a simple task…

As to why most normal users still mainly use IE? Well, it comes preinstalled (update it? me?) and a few years ago still the sites that only worked on IE were abundant. Luckily now we have transitioned away from that phase of the Web where accessing sites was limited by the browser and platform that you used. Now all we need to do is educate the masses! Especially since Firefox now has an installer.