The Search
I have been using Ubuntu Linux for the last one year, and any Linux user will know that there isn’t Internet Explorer (IE) in the Linux environment. Though IE clearly demolished the Netscape browser to be the most popular browser, I never liked IE especially with the click sound on every mouse clicks 
. It always gave me a feeling as if I was handling a brittle object. So I was searching for an alternative, I tried several browsers like Netscape (post version 4.x) and Mozilla but none ever impressed me.
In 2004, the Mozilla foundation was working on a fork of their Mozilla browser called Firefox (Fx). Their goal was to produce a standalone-browser which was intended to replace the Mozilla Suite. When released in November 2004, the browser was an instant success with features like Tabbed Browsing, Integrated Google Search that IE could only dream to have (then). Firefox is my primary browser ever since version 1.5 and I have never looked back.
The Test
For every modern browser today, it has become mandatory for it to follow the web-standards. Right now, you have the Acid 2 and Acid 3 tests to test the browsers if it follows the web-standards.
You can test your browser right here [link]
Safari version 3 was the first browser to pass the Acid 2 test, followed by Opera. The current development of Firefox 3 and IE 8 also passes the test. Internet Explorer never had followed the web-standards until version 8, wherein the real problem lies.
The Scratch on the Head
Firefox is clearly the #2 browser in the market headed by IE. Firefox fans always bite their tongue when they come across a site that says ‘Best viewed in Internet Explorer 5.5 and above’. I too, have such woes as many of the Indian websites aren’t standards compliant. Instead they follow another rendering mode called the “Quirks Mode”. The very idea of Quirks mode is to support older browsers and you find most of the banks, trading websites as well as Google Search in Quirks Mode. Many of these websites are poorly designed with CSS and JS errors making them unusable in non-IE browsers.
What I don’t understand are there people who use an Old Browser or why do people still use an Old Browser? Even if there are people who use an obselete OS like Windows 98, and if they can’t afford to upgrade their PC there is always an option to use Linux. Linux can run even in a 15 year old computer and currently is very user-friendly and modern with the latest FOSS.
As I currently only use Linux, I find it difficult when my Trading Website HDFCSec doesn’t work in Fx. Similarly there are other websites that really irritates me. There are options like the User-Agent Switcher and IEs4Linux but it is never good enough as the real thing. As of now, I’m virtualizing Windows XP in Ubuntu with XP occupying 1.4 GiB of my hard-disk. I know its not worth it for a browser, I’ve no other option.
I pledge all the web developers to hear all the cries of non-IE users and please make the change! I hope with IE 8, that change will come.
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