In case you were wondering just why MSIE hasn't been updated at all in the last 5 years [I wasn't, but some people are I guess], you can read all about it here:



So as you can see, Microsoft does now and then get good people, which google then cherry picks.

I've posted this elsewhere before, and I'll probably have to say it again:

Microsoft does not care about the web. All they care about is perceived competive threats arriving via web based products, whether those are the original Netscape corporation, or whether they are modern day Google corporation.

Microsoft has not, does not, and never will [as long as Bill Gates is in charge at least] care about the web.

This is how you can rest absolutely assured that the supposed great new search engine MSN search will never be anything other than just barely good enough to compete with google, if that.

No matter what MS says publically, they hate the web. They hate the relative autonomy and platform independence it offers, they hate the fact that you can view web pages on other browsers, served by for example Apache. In microsoft's world view, there is only one computer company, and they run everything. Fortunately, the world does not fully share this world view.

You can read more comments from a Microsoft exchange guy here:


Remember, this guy is a Microsoft guy. It's really quite amazing to see Microsoft essentially implement a full on feature freeze on MSIE since about 2001, when IE 6 came out. And that was just a small upgrade from 5.5, just adding the box model support and a few relatively trivial CSS fixes.

That's almost 5 years now. In the meantime, we're on, what? the 3rd or 4th Office? Looking at vista coming? Don't believe the hype or MS marketing about them wanting to make you more productive, all they care about is making more money. MSIE doesn't make them money, so they don't care about it. Same with the web, they've never managed to make it work well for them. So they don't care about it. Of course, not caring is a sure fire way to not make it work for you, so they are stuck in a vicious circle.

Pardon me while I stifle a yawn, I saw the writing on the wall a long time ago, switched to Mozilla then Phoenix then Firefird then Firefox, switched from Outlook/Outlook Express to Thunderbird and email viruses and spyware, whether email or website delivered, are a thing of the distant past for me now.
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*laughing* Great stuff, dear heart! Amazes me every time I really think about some of it....

I'm running XP Pro SP1 on my desktop. I NEVER access the web with IE. I have a number of free programs to keep me safe. I haven't had a real problem in years. I repeat: I NEVER access the web with IE.

And I'm never going to.... (well, other than the inattentive moment during my last format etc. when IE dialed up without permission from me.... got to be a way to short-circuit THAT....)
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