| Well, the debates are obviously going to go on - referring to Microsoft as being "M$" hardly lends you an air of objectivity and openess in debating.
The purpose of a professional developer is to write, modify or acquire software that meets the needs of their target audience, and thus generate income. Several recent reports indicate that IE is still used by over 50% of internet users. This simple statistic leads to the inevitable conclusion that it is phenomenally successful software. You may think that its handling of ActiveX scripting is clumsy - irrelevent. Microsoft's bundling of the software with its operating systems may insult your sense of fair play - irrelevent. You may know for a fact that the software is outdated, has few benefits to knowledgeable users, contains more than its share of flaws - all irrelevant.
Microsoft are a business out to gain market share and ultimately make money. They sell a browser which holds 50% of the entireplent's market. High ideals about refusing to sacrifice time-to-market or market share for quality of code are all well and good, but they have to be balanced in the business plan. The vast majority of users do not give a monkeys about the quality of the product, and even if they do, Microsoft put the product in front of them anyway and they use it. Microsoft are a business, and from a business perspective, Microsoft are getting it right. You may not agree with them or their product, but they are getting it right. |