Do you run Microsoft Windows? Then you better read this...

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Do you run Microsoft Windows? Then you better read this...

Postby Mithrandir » Thu Sep 23, 2004 9:11 am

Well, we've been waiting for this one to come down the pipe for a while now. Looks like M$ is not longer going to release security updates for IE on anything except XP. If you use anything else, I would STRONGLY recommend downloading a different browser. Firefox is a good choice, in my opinion. In case you don't understand the technical side of this, it basically means that if you run any Microsoft OS (except XP) and you use Internet Explorer, then your computer will probably get taken over by some hacker somewhere in the next few months. (You think I'm exagerating, don't you? Well, word on the street is that the reason M$ is dropping support now is a major bug in the pre-xp code that would be too costly to try and fix. It may only be a rumor, but I'm not taking any chances.)

Microsoft Story:
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+to+secure+IE+for+XP+only/2100-1032_3-5378366.html

Download Firefox:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

I love this quote:
"We do not have plans to deliver Windows XP SP2 enhancements for Windows 2000 or other older versions of Windows," the company said in a statement. "The most secure version of Windows today is Windows XP with SP2. We recommend that customers upgrade to XP and SP2 as quickly as possible."


I'll bet you do. That's $99.00 per person in your bank account...
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Postby kaji » Thu Sep 23, 2004 9:14 am

Thanks OldP, it can never hurt to be a little cautious. :thumb:
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Postby Mithrandir » Thu Sep 23, 2004 11:12 am

Unless you are afraid to jump out the 2nd floor window of a burning building because you *might* sprain your ankle...

:grin:
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Postby Link Antilles » Thu Sep 23, 2004 12:06 pm

How ironic.... currently I'm working on a paper for my English Class and it's about why the average PC user experiences so many problems with their computer and so forth. :sweat: :lol: Though, this isn't really surprising of M$.... anyways, download Firefox even if you have Windows XP, folks. Down with IE!
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Postby Kaligraphic » Thu Sep 23, 2004 1:37 pm

Or, better yet, Opera. It's got the features of Mozilla, but is more friendly.
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Postby Mithrandir » Thu Sep 23, 2004 3:29 pm

Now, now. Let's not get into the browser wars in this thread, people. No wait... If we DO get into browser wars, then this thread will be at the top of the "get new" list more often, and people will see it... NOOOOOO! Must not give in to flimsy rationalizations...

><

I personally don't care WHAT browser anyone uses - provided it's not IE, though I tend to side toward firefox, as opera isn't quite as feature rich. Then again, I'm a bit more of a 'power user' than most people...
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Postby glitch1501 » Thu Sep 23, 2004 3:44 pm

hopefully when they release ie7 it will fix alot of the css and other junk that ie doesnt view correctly, one thing that i really want is full alpha layer png support, i wont switch back from firefox, but i do want the general mass to be able to view pages correctly,

this news, (come on, we all knew it was coming) doesnt really effect me, cause i have xp and love it, although i know that people still use 98, 2000 and even 95

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Postby shooraijin » Thu Sep 23, 2004 5:43 pm

If I *have* to use Windows, I strongly prefer 98SE. (2000 is okay.)
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Postby panegryst » Thu Sep 23, 2004 7:20 pm

shooraijin wrote:If I *have* to use Windows, I strongly prefer 98SE. (2000 is okay.)

YES! I love 98SE! in fact, I'm running it right now. oh yeah, nothing's cooler than an XP/98SE dual-boot setup.

back on topic... I was skeptical of everybody's 'I hate MS!! down with the evil corporate entity' stuff, and what's more I quite like IE... but now, I guess I don't really have a choice. I think Mozilla's OK, so I'll give Firefox a shot.
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Postby Kaligraphic » Thu Sep 23, 2004 11:24 pm

Opera has become significantly richer in its feature-set in recent versions - if you haven't tried it in a while, I'd say give it a shot.

Of course, I personally also have both regular mozilla and firefox in my quicklaunch, so I'm not about to discount them.

Of course, we shouldn't be arguing whether the best browser is Opera, Mozilla, or Firefox. Everyone knows that the best browser is lynx. (and, if you are on Linux, I highly recommend trying out dillo, if you haven't already. It renders extremely quickly - at times displaying whole seconds faster than other browsers.)
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Postby Mithrandir » Fri Sep 24, 2004 8:57 am

...O.o

Someone else who's HEARD of LYNX? I guess the world is just full of surprises. I conceed.

;)
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Postby Debitt » Fri Sep 24, 2004 3:26 pm

Wow, I guess I'll be doing a browser switch for good, then. o.o

But a quick, slightly off topic question: Does Mozilla Firefox and Opera support CSS? The main reason I haven't gone 100% Mozilla yet is because it wasn't displaying the "A:*insert vairable here*{font-face: Verdana..." or colored scrollbars correctly...
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Postby Mithrandir » Fri Sep 24, 2004 4:06 pm

Um. Yes they are supported, but you really should make sure you're not using any of the IE perversions of the language. In order to further their dominance in the industry, M$ put some extra functions that are NOT part of the standard into their version. But CSS has been supported for a LONG time by ALL browsers. With the possible exception of lynx...

;)

So, what's not working right for you? Perhaps we can help figure out why...
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Postby shooraijin » Fri Sep 24, 2004 4:25 pm

I've heard good stuff about dillo. Maybe I should give it a spin.
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Postby Debitt » Fri Sep 24, 2004 7:34 pm

*bows* I'm sorry if this is even further off topic. @___@;

<style type="text/css"><!--
A:visited {color:"#FCE574"; text-decoration:none; cursor:crosshair;}
A:hover {color:"#FCE574"; filter:flipv; height:0px; cursor:crosshair;}
A:link {color:"#FCE574";text-decoration:none;cursor:crosshair;}
A:active {color:"#FCE574"; filter:flipv; height:0px; cursor:crosshair}

body{scrollbar-face-color:#000000;
scrollbar-arrow-color:#4D54FF;
scrollbar-track-color:#000000;
scrollbar-shadow-color:#4D54FF;
scrollbar-highlight-color:#000000;
scrollbar-3dlight-color:#4D54FF;
scrollbar-darkshadow-Color:#4D54FF}
span, div{font-family:georgia; font-size:10pt; color:#FCE574}--></style>

That's a CSS sheet I wrote about a week ago. Everything in blue doesn't appear in a Mozilla browser.
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Postby blkmage » Fri Sep 24, 2004 7:39 pm

Try getting it checked in W3C's CSS Validator to see if it's standard CSS. I know for a fact that scrollbars only work in IE.
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Postby Kaligraphic » Sun Sep 26, 2004 4:02 pm

Kokoro Daisuke: the attributes on the a element aren't workint because they're improperly formatted. Try taking out the quotes.
i.e.:
a:hover { color: #aabbcc; text-decoration: none; cursor: crosshair; }
or whatever the other stuff you want. But no quotes.

Mozilla's probably just choking on the quotes.
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Postby Mithrandir » Sun Sep 26, 2004 4:12 pm

Just a thought...

If you have a page that uses that CSS, we could check it with quite a few different browser(s)/OS(s) and let you know exactly which ones do/don't work.
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Postby Debitt » Sun Sep 26, 2004 4:55 pm

LOL, I don't even remember putting those quotes in there! :lol: I took them out and now my pages are working fine. :forehead: Thanks for the help everyone! That CSS validator is really useful. o.o
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Postby Mithrandir » Sun Sep 26, 2004 5:47 pm

You're welcome! I'm glad it worked out for you! Feel free to start a new thread in the main computer forum if you have these kinds of questions. (Not that I minded my thread being hijacked, acutally. ;) )
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Postby Zedian » Sat Oct 02, 2004 6:37 pm

I use Slimbrowser and haven't had any problems it so far, also I like being able to have multiple windows open up on one browser instead of having numerous browsers opened...it's just so much cleaner.

You know that is really bad on M$ part to not go forth with investing in the errors of previous Windows OS. To me, it just sounds like the company is lazily evading their own mistakes....they need to realize that not ever PC owner can upgrade to XP on their machines.

It's almost as if the company is forcing everyone to make the upgrade to XP to boost their declining overall market share.
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Postby Mithrandir » Sun Oct 03, 2004 7:53 am

Actually, it's not lazy - it's sneaky marketing. By not fixing the bad OSs, they force users to buy the latest upgrade (XP).

This style of marketing bothers me. You are essentially rewarding hold outs. Your loyal customers get the shaft - spending more money than people who wait until the next upgrade to buy the product. I'm not sure who convinced consumers that this was a good idea, but it kind of bothers me...
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Postby Shao Feng-Li » Sun Oct 03, 2004 2:52 pm

oldphilosopher wrote:Well, we've been waiting for this one to come down the pipe for a while now. Looks like M$ is not longer going to release security updates for IE on anything except XP. If you use anything else, I would STRONGLY recommend downloading a different browser. Firefox is a good choice, in my opinion. In case you don't understand the technical side of this, it basically means that if you run any Microsoft OS (except XP) and you use Internet Explorer, then your computer will probably get taken over by some hacker somewhere in the next few months. (You think I'm exagerating, don't you? Well, word on the street is that the reason M$ is dropping support now is a major bug in the pre-xp code that would be too costly to try and fix. It may only be a rumor, but I'm not taking any chances.)

Microsoft Story:
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+to+secure+IE+for+XP+only/2100-1032_3-5378366.html

Download Firefox:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

I love this quote:


I'll bet you do. That's $99.00 per person in your bank account...

Hmm, no skin off our noses, but that does suck.
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