Okay, so I don’t want to lose access to youtube. ButYoutube is kicking me out, because my browser is IE 6.
And I’m a pretty simple* computer user. Well, okay… actually, I’m a Luddite. And proud of it.
Now, I have a firm rule in life: never allow anyone to use the word "upgrade"in my presence. For a very simple reason: it is a damn lie. Every “upgrade” I have ever suffered through resulted in several weeks of DOWNgrade---- Simple tasks becoming impossible,suddenly hidden behind obscure icons or incomprehensible new menus that were changed for no logical reason.
So, now that I am forced to get rid of IE6, which browser should I downgrade to, that will be the least painful?
I don’t give a damn about the new “wonders” of tabbed browsers or multiple task bars and user-panels etc,etc,… all I want to do is keep reading the Dope and a few news sites, use my Outlook Express email. (oh yeah…and look at goat porn).
(the only techie stuff I know about my computer is that it’s a simple PC.
Pentium 4, with 1k of Ram and a 300gH CPU. I have Windows XP Home Edition,sp2. (legally installed and configured by the service techs at the shop, with anti-virus NOD32).
*I define “simple” as somebody who uses a computer the same way they drive a car: without knowing what goes on under the hood, as long as it works.
Someone who barely knows that there exists such a thing as the Windows Registry , but has no understanding of what it does.
Look Grandpa, times change and it sounds like you’re stuck in the dark ages. IE6 was and is one of the most god-awful browsers in terms of every imaginable characteristic. And I can’t even imagine a browser without tabs anymore.
And you don’t need to know how a computer works to use better software for it. If you seriously just gave new browsers a chance instead of being against any and all change, you’d know that the new browsers are faster, better, and make your browsing more productive.
You basically have three modern choices, Firefox 3, IE8, or Google’s Chrome. Using archaic software, or “downgrading” as you put it, is definitely not recommended because old internet browsers are chock-full of security holes.
That’s not what chappachula means by downgrading. S/He plans to move to a more modern browser, but since it’s a hassle, it’s not positive, and therefore not an upgrade. It’s a very Humpty-esque way of viewing the problem, precisely because of the confusion. “What, you want to go to IE 5? Why?”
Keep in mind that you can use Firefox, for example, without using tabs. And if what you’re listing are the main sites you need, you can continue to use IE6 but then just open Firefox when you want to view a YouTube video.
This reminds me of an April Fools’ website that came out to try and “save IE6”: http://saveie6.com/ Which is pretty funny because the other pages on the site show why it’s such a terrible browser.
Actually, if you really don’t want to install anything, Google “portable Firefox”. You can install Firefox on a USB key and run it from there, so you don’t need to install anything on your computer.
thanks, people…I guess I’m gonna try to act like all you young 'uns and whippersnappers out there. I’m gonna take the bull by the horns, get all uppity, and try this new-fangled IE8.
But geez, the next thing ya know, somebody’s gonna tell me to get off my horse and buy one of those new-fangled Model T’s or something…It’s just so scary…
If I suffer an aneurysm, I’m gonna sue Bill Gates…
And more seriously:
Thats exactly what I’m complaining about…why the hell does the new "up"graded version drop all the menus that I am so comfortable using.?That’s why I call it a “Down” grade.
And how the hell am I supposed to know that there is a simple fix to it?. I can randomly guess, and try right-clicking on everything under the sun, or try hitting every combination of ctrl-plus random keys, and then try alt-plus random keys, and then try shift-ctrl, etc…
But there is no logical reason in the world the think, "hey, there’s a key here labed: “Alt”. I have NEVER in my entire life used it by itself, unless it was in combo with other keys. So maybe this time if I hit it, it will suddenly provide me with the magical,secret, hidden menu that I need.
You might like Firefox. It is pretty simple and old school plus there is no law against having more than one browser on your computer at a time. If you don’t want to do that, you can send me a handwritten letter whenever you want to see a YouTube video, I can print out the frames, send them back to you and you can flip through them really quickly to view it (but there won’t be any sounds unless you make them yourself). For a small fee, I could convert it to a black and white projection film and have it delivered via courier.
Hey , I was just rummaging in the attic(after a relative died at age 92) — and found a genuine 8-millimeter movie projector, with black-and-white reels of family from 50 years ago. And yes,I’m going to have it delivered via courier to the folks.
Maybe being a Luddite ain’t so bad after all.
The menus are incredibly redundant and a waste of space. They weren’t done away with they were simply condensed into other options. Look at the “File” menu in your browser, every one of those options is duplicated with a dedicated button elsewhere.
The “Edit” menu is the same as a right click. Almost no one uses that menu.
The “View” menu is just relocated as the “Page” dropdown in a less wasteful spot.
The “Favorites” menu is wholly redundant. It’s there fully twice.
The “Tools” menu is the same, just relocated to a less wasteful spot to.
The “Help” menu is the same, it just has a icon as opposed to a name.
Everything is the same, they just eliminated the redundancy and the menus that you NEVER use. IT looks different but it only takes a couple seconds to notice that nothing has actually changed other than placement. Considering it opens up more real estate for web page display you’d think this would be considered a good thing. If Mozilla had done the same thing it’s have been a revolutionary :smack: moment.
Given chappachula’s opinion on change, Firefox is an awful suggestion. They have a nasty habit of refusing to provide security updates for older versions of the browser thus forcing everyone to either use an insecure version of Firefox or deal with a new interface.
Firefox 2 was released with great fanfare and a huge plea to the public begging them to adopt it on October 24, 2006. The last security fix for the 2.x version of Firefox was released just a little over 2 years later on December 18, 2008. After that, users wanting a safe version of Firefox had to switch to Firefox 3, which featured a number of UI changes that pissed a number of people off – most notably the merged forward/back buttons and the misnamed “AwesomeBar”.
