Permanent Accounts, Browsers and a poll

[jenepherre]

Found this info here:

Psst, start saving up now -- permanent accounts will be available for sale sometime in the next few months. A permanent LJ account is a paid account that never expires; you guys have been asking for them a lot lately, and we're going to have a limited-time sale in the near future. We'll give you more details, including the price, as we come closer to setting a date.

So any of you who were jealous of me when I got mine wishing you'd purchased one last time they were available, I'd be watching news if I were you. And btw, the cost was $150 last time around, which was on June 7, 2005. One day only.

And now, a poll. Because I've been wondering...

[Poll #951597]

If anyone is curious, I have IE 6, Firefox and Netscape. Why? Mainly because I like to be able to check the websites I make to see how they look in different browsers. And I use both Firefox and IE 6 regularly - probably 50/50. I love Firefox, but there are still some sites that won't work in anything other than IE, plus IE is still set as my default, which means anytime I click on a link in an email it'll open in IE. But Firefox has been steadily gaining on IE, no question (for me, I mean... not just in general).

Part of the reason I'm wondering about the IE 7 upgrade is because:

• PC World and similar magazines/sites are recommending that you upgrade to 7 if you use IE at all, because even though it's not as good as Firefox, it's much more secure than IE 6, apparently.


• I'm not sure I want to lose IE 6 if a lot of people are still using it, and I don't think it's possible to have 2 different versions of IE on your system at the same time. (If I'm wrong about that - please tell me how to do it!) That would mean I couldn't check my sites in the browser most people use to visit my sites, and to me that would be a bad thing.

So... what say you all? Share your wisdom with me!

Comments

[agneson9.livejournal.com]

I only use IE for Microsoft sites like microsoft.com and msn.

[agneson9.livejournal.com]

is IE7 limited to people on XP and Vista? I'm use 2000.

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

Doesn't look like it's available for anything earlier than XP and Server 2003.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/sysreq.mspx

[fiercediva.livejournal.com]

I upgraded to IE7 on the only one of my older machines that I sacrificed to Vista. The tabs are nice ,but the new position of favoirtes/history took some getting used to. I also don't like the way Vista in general tries to overprotect you in the security department; the defaults are very restrictive and the OS dosn't make it easy to find where to turn things off. And the IE7 phishing filter makes pages take a longer time to load.

[armandlegg.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the new Apple commercial with the Vista security guy...it's hilarious...

http://www.apple.com/getamac/

It's called "Security" (first one on the left). And from what I've seen of Vista (one computer at work has it) it's pretty close.

Enjoy!

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

Well, I won't be upgrading to Vista for a while yet, so that's not a big issue for me. Yet. And Firefox has tabs. Hmm.

I did notice a patch for IE 7 regarding the phishing filter and RAM usage when I was snooping around the Microsoft site. It's from December, but it might be worth checking to see if you have it already or not.

[armandlegg.livejournal.com]

99.9% of my home computing time is spent on my Mac - so IE is no longer a viable option for me.

Now, at work - some of what I do is support for MSN...and they (Microsoft) are forcing the upgrade on all MSN users and are (as rumor has it) putting it in an automatic software patch for windows users...

I have heard of folks running both IE6 and IE7 (my mom is one of them, but she was a beta tester as well, sooo....). I think it has more to do with doing a clean install instead of an upgrade...

I'll do an informal survey at work tonight and see if anyone knows for sure how to accomplish this.

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

Yet another Mac snob, I see. ;-P Actually, with Vista out now, I'll be looking even more seriously at Macs when it's time for a new computer. The one thing that's always stopped me is that the graphics software I love isn't available for Mac. But the company got bought out by Corel, and I loathe their new version of the program. So... if I get Vista I have to get the new Corel version of the program which means there's nothing left to keep me from moving to Mac.

Putting IE 7 in automatic updates isn't a rumor. It's attempted to get on my computer at least twice already. Both of my parents' computers too. So far we've refused it, but we're starting to rethink that. Oh - there's info the auto updates thing here.

Just thought of another question, actually. Not sure if you'll know, but ::shrug:: Do you think it's possible to completely uninstall IE (any version) from Windows? Might have to do a new post asking about that.

Any info you can get on having both versions of IE on one computer would be much appreciated. Thanks Em. :-)

BTW, I totally owe you email with thanks and hugs and much appreciation for being so kind and supportive in response to an email reply you sent me... oh... slightly over a month ago. Heh. I am a horrible ungrateful friend. :-( It did mean a lot to me, even if I didn't tell you. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, let me know. That's what I get for letting it go so long. ::shaking head at self::

[armandlegg.livejournal.com]

Yeah, mac snob over here. *snigger*

Bad news - can't totally uninstall IE from windows. It's one of those essential component thingys - Microsoft doesn't like anyone using another browser to access their official downloads. Bastards. Elitists.

Everyone I've ever dealt with that has removed IE has had such nasty problems we've had to redownload it from download.com.

The two version thing? May be a beta-only thing. Not quite sure. Still checking on that tho.

BTW - I know what email you're referring to. You're not a horrible ungrateful friend - I understand how life goes. It's doing the same for me lately...so no biggie :)

::hugs::

[larissa-j.livejournal.com]

Do you think it's possible to completely uninstall IE (any version) from Windows? Might have to do a new post asking about that.

In a word, no. The only way I know of to do it is to hork the install of the OS by not allowing iexplorer to install. You have to do this by getting ahold of OEM install disks and lying to the install. It's hard to do. You have to misplace iexplorer.exe.

What you get is a horrible version of Windows that looks like a throwback to Win2K but worse. It's like NT and 95 had some sort of horrible lovechild.

It's wrong on all sorts of levels.

Any info you can get on having both versions of IE on one computer would be much appreciated. Thanks Em. :-)

I can't imagine how you could do this and have it be stable or work. Beta testers should not have been running both on one machine unless they were dual booting.

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

Oh, I was *so* hoping you would come and voice in on this! And I pretty much knew what you're saying here, both about not uninstalling IE and about not having 2 versions on the same machine. But I had to ask.

[larissa-j.livejournal.com]

Sorry it took me so long. It's been a long week.

FYI, I've been running IE7 for a long, long time. *laughs*

[mellicat1963.livejournal.com]

I use Maxthon - it used to be called MyIE. I really like it. I have Firefox and have tired to bring myself to get used to using it, as I know it has some really cool features and add ons, but so far I only use it on occassions...

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

Interesting... I may have to go in search of this Maxthon. Like I really need yet another browser, but you've got me curious. ;-)

[mellicat1963.livejournal.com]

If you google Maxthon I'm sure it will come up. I think it's maxthon.com, but I'm not sure.... It's a lot like Firefox, only simpler

[phibetafunkay.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads-up on the permanent accounts! I shall have to acquire one, yo.

I have a Mac as well as a PC, so I also have Camino and Safari as well as IE, Opera and Firefox.

I am madly in love with Firefox, though it is a bit of a memory hog (I have 1GB of RAM in my Mac and it takes up a huge chunk, though I tweaked it to not take up as much). It works beautifully on my XP Pro laptop, and I love having features such as AdBlock Plus and DownThemAll.

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

Tracie! ::tacklehug:: I don't see you around as much anymore. Of course, that could be because I never read my friends page. At all. Yeah. Anyway...

The Firefox plugins are a big selling point with me too. I've never had a problem with it being a memory hog on my desktop, which runs XP Home Edition and has 1 GB of RAM. And I sometimes have more pages/tabs open than it can show across the top of the screen without making you arrow through to see them all. And you know if I had that many instances of IE running so I could have all of those pages up at the same time using IE it would be a very different story.

Another Mac & PC person. Is there a name for that? Like bi-operating system or something? LOL

[phibetafunkay.livejournal.com]

Yeah - grad school's kicking my arse, but at least I'll be done soon (4 classes left)!

I also have Firefox on my work computer, and it runs slow as hell - could be because I'm long overdue for a RAM upgrade, which my company would consider frivolous.

I just call myself "OS-bilingual." LOL

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

I just call myself "OS-bilingual." LOL

Hey - that works! And YAY on almost being done with grad school. That's awesome!

[darksylvia.livejournal.com]

I think I have IE6 somewhere buried on my computer. I use it for what you said--checking to see that my websites work in it, and if they don't, having to add extraneous IE6 specific code to make it work. I firmly maintain IE6 is the DEVIL, and now that there are such good free browsers everywhere, no one should be using it.

I also use Safari, the native Mac browser. It's really good and it never crashes, but not all media is Safari-friendly, so I've started using Firefox now, even if Safari is faster.

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

Okay wait... do you mean that there's a Windows version of Safari? Because, if so... 1) where have I been? and 2) I want it!

You are on a Windows machine, yes? So you'd have to have some version of IE on your computer somewhere as it's so heavily integrated into Windows that you can't get rid of it. That alone makes it the DEVIL. But I'm becoming more and more convinced that the upgrade to IE 7 is somewhat like the XP upgrade to SP2. Everyone is reluctant and wary at first, and not without good reason, but eventually everyone will want to make the switch, because despite the problems - most of which will probably be resolved over time - the security issue means that you're much better off upgrading than not upgrading.

[darksylvia.livejournal.com]

Hee, no I'm on a G4 ibook. My friend who has a PC explained how hard it is to get rid of IE.

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

::sigh:: Another Mac snob. I'm starting to get that whole 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em' feeling. LOL

[darksylvia.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. :D I feel like there's a sort of language barrier between Mac and PC users. It took my friend Heidi to explain to me that on a PC you couldn't just "delete" an application. We were discussing it because of IE, actually, and I said, "Well, my computer had software that I didn't want that Mac put on it, so I just deleted it. Why can't you do that with the IE?" After she explained it, it just made me despise microsoft even more, heh.

[film102.livejournal.com]

OMG, the icon is gorgeous! Is there a larger pic somewhere on the web I could use to draw or paint from. The anatomy is great. I'm an upper torso person and his is beautiful.

Lyn

[film102.livejournal.com]

OMG, the icon is gorgeous! Is there a larger pic somewhere on the web I could use to draw or paint from. The anatomy is great. I'm an upper torso person and his is beautiful.

Lyn

I thought there was a windows version of safari for some reason.

[meimur.livejournal.com]

I dled IE7 about 2-3 weeks ago, and really like it. As someone mentioned, some toolbars are in different places, so it does take a little getting used to. I've always wanted tabs, but now that I've got them, they're hard to get used to. I spent the first few days closing windows all over the place instead of going to the tab that opened up!

So far so good, I'm glad I made the change.

FYI, like you, I didn't want to loose IE6 (in case I didn't end up liking IE7), but I noticed that when you dl IE7, they do give you directions on how to get rid of IE7 and go back to IE6.

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

Okay, now this was v. useful information. I think I probably am going to go ahead and upgrade. At least I'm already used to the tabbed browsing from using Firefox. Thanks for the insight!

[meimur.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of some help!

Thanks

[film102.livejournal.com]

for the info on permanent account. and the rest. My IE for mac can't be upgraded, sigh. So I let it go.

How does one get the happy face kind of things, like the one above that is writing.

Lyn

Re: Thanks

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

How does one get the happy face kind of things, like the one above that is writing.

That's something completely separate from LJ. It's just an image embedded into my post. Just like you would do with a photo or whatever.

[mi-nion.livejournal.com]

my brother upgraded to IE7 and had all kinds of problems. Finally uninstalled and went back to 6. I also use firefox, but certain sites I use for work only work in IE.

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

What kinds of problems did he have? Do you remember, or can you ask him? I'd really really like more information before I attempt this 'upgrade.'

[mi-nion.livejournal.com]

I don't remember specifically. It was general wackiness. IE7 wants to be like Firefox with tabbed browsing and all, but it's too buggy right now IMO.

[bksbracelet.livejournal.com]

Hi Jen the real problem I have with IE7 is it needs to update everything else you have on your PC . For example Adobe for pdf files was a bitch and I have not been able to get a lot of icons to work the pics just will not open. All those wonderful ones put up recently on Rramblers I only got about 6 cheers Chris

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

Well, I suspect updating everything else is inevitable anyway. Thanks for the info though - at least I'll have an idea of what to watch out for. I wonder what the deal with the icons was? That still doesn't make sense to me. Hmmm... Anyway, thanks Chris!

[tink821.livejournal.com]

I dled the IE7 about a month ago and haven’t had any problems *crosses fingers*. Anyway, the tabs did take a while to get used to and I didn’t know it still had the ‘view history’ button until last week (it’s now under favorites for anybody else who was as confused as I was and didn’t know that).

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

I'm not worried about getting used to the tabs, since Firefox has had them for a long time now. Good to know where the View History button is - somebody else mentioned that they couldn't find it for a long time either. Thanks for the info!

[larissa-j.livejournal.com]

IE7 is no longer integrated with the shell as IE6 was.

In Vista, IE7 defaults to protected mode (annoying to some), LORIE or lower rights only allows you to write to the TIF (temporary internet files). You'll get a UAC prompt if you attempt another action outside this folder in Vista.

RSS reader/tabbed browsing

Active X blocking

Phishing filter (slows down IE but eh, what can you do?)

address bar blocks javascript execution

Most sites should be up to date with IE7. For those they aren't, I know there's a regkey setting to make their code think you're running IE6. I can't remember it off the top of my head.

Thanks for the heads up on Permanent accounts.

[jenepherre.livejournal.com]

So does this mean 'yes, you should upgrade?' Like now? Is it dangerous to still be using IE6?

[larissa-j.livejournal.com]

It's not dangerous to still be running IE6. (insert disclaimer so I can't be sued)

These are just the main features that IE7 has over IE6. It is more secure.

It's hard to say what your experience will be because I don't know what else you have on your system. Appcompat is usually a deal breaker for most people. Your firewall software and antivirus software could make or break your upgrade. I've even seen router software throw errors. I'm not trying to frighten you, just make you aware.

However, we all know that websites giving wrong browser errors are the fault of the website and not IE. And I believe that MS hounded all the banks prior to the shipping of IE7 so that they were up to date.

These other problems that I see people talk about on here could be anything. They are just random mentions of problems. You and I know how hard that is to triage :D