Installing IE7
That’s right. I’m installing IE7 with the intention of removing my dependency on FireFox.
I love FireFox. I’ve gotten used to the browser. Using it just feels right. That said, FF used to lock up on me about once per day. Since installing FireFox 2, the browser locks up at least once every 30 minutes. On the one hand, this is kind of cool as it forces me to take a break every half hour. On the other hand, this is extremely annoying.
What about Opera? I have Opera installed on my machine, mostly for website testing purposes. Opera has tabs, the major feature keeping me from just using IE6. But then there is just something about the Opera interface that bugs me (I should figure out exactly what this is). That, and the compatibility issues Opera has with a few websites would bug me to death.
IE7 has tabs! But I’ve been holding back from upgrading because you can’t run IE6 and IE7 at the same time. So I wouldn’t be able to see my websites on the browser that most people (including clients) are using these days. But! I’ve just gotten my laptop fixed, which still has IE6. And so my laptop has been deemed “the testing machine” for website testing, IE6 goodness. I do use the laptop for more than testing though: when I’m out on the road or want to work from the couch. My backup plan if I can’t keep myself from installing IE7 on the laptop is to setup a Virtual Machine with IE6 on it. Anyway…
A perfect storm has been brewing to get me to switch to IE7. And the installation is done; time to restart. Let’s see how it turns out.
November 14th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
So far, so good. Only a few minor layout bugs on our sites in IE7. The interface is a little bit to get used to. The old farts on TWIT were talking about the lack of a menu bar, but I hardly every use it anyway. So that extra 25 pixels or so of vertical space might is better spent displaying the website.
I think it’s odd how new tabs open to the direct right of the current tab, rather than the end of the tab row. Although once I get used to it, I will appreciate more how this lets me group pages together.
I am missing my FireFox plugins though, most notably the del.icio.us plugin. I’ll have to find an alternative for IE or just use the bookmarklets.
November 14th, 2006 at 11:33 pm
Another note:
IE6 used to be my FTP client of choice. Simple and to the point. Now, if I enter an FTP address in IE7, it just shows me a file listing. I can\’t upload. There is a note:
\”To view this FTP site in Windows Explorer, click Page, and then click Open FTP Site in Windows Explorer.\”
But it shows up the same in Windows Explorer.