Lord no, I just use it for testing sites, and try to push that off on others when I can. But 7 was so bad (was installed on my work machine when I got it, not that 6 is any better) I decided to see if they might take a step in the right direction with 8, which I’d heard mostly good things about, believe it or not. I hear the rendering engine is roughly equivalent to what the rest of the world was doing in 2004, which is a nice start, but the UI is fug ug ugly.
But MS stuff for the past few years has just been a mess. It’s like they’ve lost the thread, and don’t know how to make good software anymore. For example, I don’t know if you mess around with SQL Management Studio, but even the simplest, most common tasks are three clicks deep in a right-click menu with misleading text on the first item. The packages themselves tend to work well (IIS, for instance, is pretty robust and relatively easy to use for all its many other failings), but the backend UIs tend to look like they were designed by autistic ambidextrous Martians who use a mouse with both hands while looking in a mirror.
Not at all. I had to try and figure out where Exchange user permissions were today–I got to waste 20 minutes digging for the config before I realized I was using the wrong application.
This is (slightly) less a critique on my stupidity than one on MS’s. Why do I need two separate utilities to manage Exchange users?
Well, it’s slow, the addon features don’t work, it can’t render compliant web pages with any reliability and the most commonly-used buttons are flung all the fuck over the place, with no ability to move them.
Also, installing it reset my Windows taskbar, Quick Launch and the two custom toolbars which I had to re-add, reset icon sizes (who uses large icons on the taskbar?), remove text labels (again, who?) and reposition them. That was after the 20 minute hang to “update” after rebooting (!!! after installing a browser!). The IE shortcut in Quick Launch I couldn’t rename or delete was nice, too.
But perhaps my experience was non-typical. Perhaps I am Thor, God of Thunder.
Oh and let’s not forget to mention the LINKS folder…which I used for bookmarks that I couldn’t put anywhere else to keep organized. Mine was fulll of things I kinda liked going to every once in awhile. However, this new Favorite Bar folder is apparently the same thing…AND…totally overwrites the LINKS folder. All the bookmarks…all 30 of them…gone. And irretrievable, apparently.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Can I assume that you are contractually obligated to keep using IE for work purposes? Or is this just one of your questionable hobbies?
January 6th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Oh and happy new year and stuff to you too!
January 7th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Lord no, I just use it for testing sites, and try to push that off on others when I can. But 7 was so bad (was installed on my work machine when I got it, not that 6 is any better) I decided to see if they might take a step in the right direction with 8, which I’d heard mostly good things about, believe it or not. I hear the rendering engine is roughly equivalent to what the rest of the world was doing in 2004, which is a nice start, but the UI is fug ug ugly.
But MS stuff for the past few years has just been a mess. It’s like they’ve lost the thread, and don’t know how to make good software anymore. For example, I don’t know if you mess around with SQL Management Studio, but even the simplest, most common tasks are three clicks deep in a right-click menu with misleading text on the first item. The packages themselves tend to work well (IIS, for instance, is pretty robust and relatively easy to use for all its many other failings), but the backend UIs tend to look like they were designed by autistic ambidextrous Martians who use a mouse with both hands while looking in a mirror.
January 9th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
That last sentance is going into my quotefile–hope you don’t mind.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Not at all. I had to try and figure out where Exchange user permissions were today–I got to waste 20 minutes digging for the config before I realized I was using the wrong application.
This is (slightly) less a critique on my stupidity than one on MS’s. Why do I need two separate utilities to manage Exchange users?
February 10th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
So, what exactly about IE8 do you dislike?
February 12th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Well, it’s slow, the addon features don’t work, it can’t render compliant web pages with any reliability and the most commonly-used buttons are flung all the fuck over the place, with no ability to move them.
Also, installing it reset my Windows taskbar, Quick Launch and the two custom toolbars which I had to re-add, reset icon sizes (who uses large icons on the taskbar?), remove text labels (again, who?) and reposition them. That was after the 20 minute hang to “update” after rebooting (!!! after installing a browser!). The IE shortcut in Quick Launch I couldn’t rename or delete was nice, too.
But perhaps my experience was non-typical. Perhaps I am Thor, God of Thunder.
February 14th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Oh and let’s not forget to mention the LINKS folder…which I used for bookmarks that I couldn’t put anywhere else to keep organized. Mine was fulll of things I kinda liked going to every once in awhile. However, this new Favorite Bar folder is apparently the same thing…AND…totally overwrites the LINKS folder. All the bookmarks…all 30 of them…gone. And irretrievable, apparently.
That really sucks…