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Daddy, What's Internet Explorer?

daggle.com — "The words of my eight year old should send shudders down Microsoft's spine. The default browser on Windows PCs, and my kid has no idea what it is? A sign of the future?"

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  • phjr, on 10/11/2007, -21/+216I hope we'll get more of those in the coming years!
    • Waterrat, on 10/11/2007, -30/+7 Agreed...But how could the kid not get Firefox to work?!
      DUH! We are talking rocket science here.
      • AlexFerny, on 10/11/2007, -7/+5TBH, its worrying when a kid doesn't know what IE is, FF is as much about being a better browser as being about choice, the choice to use whatever you want - and the most important thing for choice is consumer awareness. Its about education the masses about the technology, not about forcing it down thier throats (like it more or less was in this case).
        • gameforge, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6First of all, he's eight. It's not like he can't use Firefox to discover the many choices he'll be able to make when he buys his own computer... but as long as he uses his parents' PC, the choice is not his to begin with. That said, read this quote FTA:

          "...my oldest son couldn't get Firefox to work. I told him to try Internet Explorer, only to get asked, 'What's that?' "

          It's not like he was trying to impede any knowledge of IE he may ever incur in life. You said it - FF is about being a better browser... IE becomes less and less of a valid choice as Firefox matures and gains popularity and remains more secure.

          Incidentally, I barely knew what DOS was at age 8 (that was in 1990) but I was still better with the command prompt than my parents... but today I'm well aware of all my different OS choices, believe me.
        • gameforge, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Ahem... incidentally, my post *was* broken into nice paragraphs, and it looked just fine when I submitted it... did I miss something or is this a bug they're still working on? I never did read the memo about the new comment system...
        • kcpwnsgman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3no clue, but it sure makes me not want to read comments anymore
          if you look at level one and two comments, they don't have that issue, so I think that its a problem with that, i would file a bug report or email them
        • AlexFerny, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3the whole multi-level comment system just pisses me off, bring on the old dig comment system - or make it a full BBS style comment system :(
    • estvir, on 10/11/2007, -28/+12You mean hypocritical stories? Yeah, let's all moan about people being 'brainwashed' into thinking IE was the Internet then let's do the same thing, yeah!

      Oh, and don't start rubbish about IE being a monopoly because as far as I could remember I've been able to install different browser in Windows and once again, if you start saying IE was forced or simply became the default because that's what people first used than you must also dislike this story.

      And as much of a geek as I am I find this an incredibly lame story. :/
      • jrbrewin, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1agreed. it's akin to brainwashing your child to become a part pf a cult / religion.
        Do you expect us to applaud your parenting techniques? If you want to bring a kid up properly, bring it up to learn impartiality, and to find out what works best for her, and not force your illfounded ideals upon it at such an early age.
    • crazybrit, on 10/11/2007, -7/+17Yeah, and then Mozilla can have a monopoly on the software industry!
      • seventoes, on 10/11/2007, -6/+10I would rather have mozilla than microsoft.
      • oxdeltaxo, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3Mozilla even has a more menacing name, like a giant mutant lizard coming to crush M$.
    • theonlyvlad, on 10/11/2007, -14/+37Oh come ON! I saw this story in upcoming, and I thought to myself "this stupid anectdote will never make it to the front page"
      So, this is for you the gleaming future huh? Your arbitrary hate for one giant will lead you to create and support, and subject yourself to two others (Google and FF, they have enough partnerships to be one now). And you're all blind about the fact.

      How the hell is this a bright future? How is FF gaining browser share going to reflect on any real changes in the world? Will it eliminate hunger? Will it cure the sickly?

      No, it won't do *****, besides bolster the ideologies of open source. Bill Gate's fortune was amassed by selling Windows and your horrible IE. Now he's using that fortune to give back to the world in terms of real, actual, physical aid. By that logic you can claim IE saved many more lives than FF ever did.

      I really hope Digg users one day grow up and stop living in a box.
      • Bamborzled, on 10/11/2007, -6/+32Bill Gates never sold IE. He never made IE; he "licensed" it from Spyglass, Inc. who expected their browser to be sold. Instead, he gave it out for free.
      • sidd, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8theonlyvlad: I doubt anyone ever suggested that FF will "eliminate hunger" or "cure the sickly" (google, on the other hand, is debatable). People are glad to see FF take over the browser market share because IE has a notorious past of ignoring language standards, being insecure, and being comparatively behind in technologies such as javascript, css and svg, though I hasten to add that IE7 is a promising trend on all three of these points. Still, the idea of using a lesser, free browser because Bill Gates gives to charity is utterly irrational, and suggesting it is idiotic.

        As for the argument that people are simply favoring one giant company rather than another, I'm not sure what you are suggesting people do instead. Maybe you think we should use IE half the time and firefox the other half? In any case, regardless of which browser has the most fanatical supporters, the reality is that IE is losing market share to /several/ other browsers, of which FF is the fastest growing. There is Opera for a start, plus the effects of users switching to OSX or linux at an increasing rate.

        Lastly, if you don't want anecdotes about people's children making it to the front page the best you can do about it is not digg.
        • jrbrewin, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1considering the amount of information google holds about us all, it's getting ever more likely they'll ***** us all over, than save lives. Yes, their solar project is applaudable, but they're only doing it to shred dollars off their bottom line.

          "IE half the time, firefox the other."
          I'd prefer it if people would get of their ***** high horses and stop preaching what we should use, or how it's supposedly 'clever' to product-x and moronic to use product-y. Get a freaking life ffs. Be passionate, I'm all for passionate. but please direct your energies to something that's worth fighting for, like getting bush / cheney out of office, or eradicated third world debt, or cutting your carbon footprint; things that make a difference. Not what piece of code you use to browse the internet.

          Who gives a *****! and we can all get our idiotic offspring to ask cute / funny questions, and post them to digg. Big up you!
          "daddy, daddy, what's with all these dickwads on digg.com that keep ranting on about iphones, and google apps, linux and firefox? Its almost as if they have no actual life outside of their self obsessed rants, and are, to some degree suffering from attention deficit disorder"
      • sidd, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1theonlyvlad: I doubt anyone ever suggested that FF will "eliminate hunger" or "cure the sickly" (google, on the other hand, is a debatable). People are glad to see FF take over the browser market share because IE has a notorious past of ignoring language standards, being insecure, and being comparatively behind in technologies such as javascript, css and svg, though I hasten to add that IE7 is a promising trend on all three of these points. Still, the idea of using a lesser, free browser because Bill Gates gives to charity is utterly irrational, and suggesting it is idiotic.

        As for the argument that people are simply favoring one giant company rather than another, I'm not sure what you are suggesting people do instead. Maybe you think we should use IE half the time and firefox the other half? In any case, regardless of which browser has the most fanatical supporters, the reality is that IE is losing market share to /several/ other browsers, of which FF is the fastest growing. There is Opera for a start, plus the effects of users switching to OSX or linux at an increasing rate.

        Lastly, if you don't want anecdotes about people's children making it to the front page the best you can do about it is not digg.
    • catskin, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1yes. Never would've thought that day would come!
    • Cmain, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2"Just remember son, every time you click that icon, you kill a kitten."
    • arTech, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3Reminds me of my seven year old son. I bought him a brand new Toshiba laptop with Vista, disabled IE and installed Firefox. He goes on his mother's computer sometimes to play games (because he still has a problem sometimes figuring out wireless connections) and gets all angry because she didn't install Firefox on it. IE is s-h-i-t (his words not mine), I know, I know sometimes I let him get away with stuff:)
      • mercurysquad, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1"my seven year old son"
        "bought him a brand new Toshiba laptop with Vista"
        "s-h-i-t (his words not mine)"
        "sometimes I let him get away with stuff"
        • jrbrewin, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2seems everyone on digg is just super-great at parenting.
          you'll probably let him get away watching porn, and adult rated horror movies by the age of 9, right?
          • zezerik, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0No *****, what kind of dumbass parent gives a 7 year old unsupervised internet access?
  • dgblackout, on 10/11/2007, -13/+86if only my parents would have been like that -_-
  • whatthefu, on 10/11/2007, -8/+153Well when I was younger and didn't know anything about computers I didn't know there were different types of browsers. I always thought Netscape Navigator was all there was :(
    • therightclique, on 10/11/2007, -28/+5but netscape was NEVER good, so somebody in your house just ***** up.
      • Tippis, on 10/11/2007, -0/+15Oh, I don't know... the v2-ish ones were quite good for the time...
        • cquilliam, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9Netscape was good, when your choices were between a god-aweful and ugly (but oddly more secure) internet explorer 2 and mosaic.

          Looking back, Netscape was really the ONLY sensible choice. It was an added bonus that it was later ported to Linux.
    • plutpwnium, on 10/11/2007, -8/+1i actually LOL'ed at this.
    • flarn2006, on 10/11/2007, -4/+3That's right, Netscape *is* the browser of the past!
    • svenathon, on 10/11/2007, -1/+14Exactly. Your average kid isn't going to realize there are browsers other than the one they've been taught to use, regardless of what they're using. I wouldn't be surprised if his kids don't actually know what Firefox is, either.
    • Dissociation, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1When I was young I only used a library at the computer or at school and all they had was Netscape Navigator. I never paid much attention to browsers until I started to play browser games when I finished with my school stuff.
    • Rileyper, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Daddy What's Netscape
  • macijuana, on 10/11/2007, -31/+63A sign of what's to come: New generations won't be so 3rd party ignorant, brainwashed my Microsoft, and narrow-minded.
    There is a god after all.
    • jiub, on 10/11/2007, -4/+84Or it could just be that she's um....8?

      Got the internet in my house when I was 4 and it was just "The internet" until I was 12 or so and realized what a browser was.
      • macijuana, on 10/11/2007, -4/+33Well when you had the internet I was stuck in the world of AOL. Parental controls wouldn't let even let me navigate to, get this, aol.com.
        • mtheoryx83, on 10/11/2007, -0/+18I remember back when i was on AOL....and the only "parental controls" that existed were my parents yelling "get off the damn computer, you've been on there for 18 hours already."
        • macijuana, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13@mtheoryx83
          I wish I had your childhood. All of my im transcripts were saved and emailed to my parents weekly along with a report of all the websites I had visited, I could only view websites my parents preapproved, AND I had to suffer through all this with a dial-up connection.
          • Gatesophile, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10I had AOL with parental controls, but my dad just let AOL's built-in thing decide which websites were "bad". All the emails that he would get with my chat transcripts and such would just bug him so he turned that feature off. I like to call it "Lazy Attentive Parenting".
      • elsJake, on 10/11/2007, -5/+3sadly most people don't realize what a browser is by any age.
        Also , is it me or is your name from Morrowind ? First npc you see.
        • Duhitsmichael, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5Wake up, you were dreaming. Not even the storm could wake you. Whats your name?
        • jiub, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I'm amazed, you're the first person that's ever gotten that.

          Kudos
      • mindsnare, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7Right now I feel old. When I was 4 I was playing with my dad's woodgrain finish pong console. Just 2 up down joysticks fixed to the console. When I was in high school, in the senior years, all we had were 2 computers sharing 1 33.3k dialup connection.
        • specialK16, on 10/11/2007, -12/+1"When I was in high school, in the senior years, all we had were 2 computers sharing 1 33.3k dialup connection." Well, how do I put this... you are old.
          When I was in high school, and that was, heh, 8 months ago, I had 2MB down...
          • jrbrewin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2that's okay, there's more agnsty, opinionated, young people here, than old.
            which reminds me, i must get back to that proper site, reddit.
    • therightclique, on 10/11/2007, -1/+16the world wide web didn't even exist when i was 4. that was the year the NES came out. it barely existed when i was 14.
      • allhard, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2How did the internet barely exist in 1995?
    • esotericguy, on 10/11/2007, -4/+3@ macijauna,

      dont ya just love elephants? ;)
    • DforSpiD, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2Well no, there still isn't a god. . . but those things ARE nice.
    • DonPMitchell, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Nobody is brainwashed by Microsoft. How can people be so religious about such a petty issue? IE is fine, and if you bother to use the security zone system, you can make it safer than anything else. I also like the look of the cleartype font rendering. Opera is pretty good too. I don't care for Firefox or Safari, both of which seem to mess up fonts on some sites, and I found Firefox to be somewhat slower than the other three, and I disliked its default handing of file downloads (no progress feedback, dumping files onto the desktop without asking where to put it).
  • DevastatorIIC, on 10/11/2007, -7/+45Part of me thinks that's really cool, but there's something to be said for awareness. I believe that open source is all about choice.
    • mtheoryx83, on 10/11/2007, -1/+18She's 8 years old. Exactly how "aware" are 8 year olds of anything, much less browser choices.
    • ElusiveByte, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5I agree. I think it's a failure on the father's part (as a teacher) that he did not teach his children that there are alternatives, but that the alternatives should not be used because they are not as effective or secure, or what have you. I agree with the father's opinions, but he is basically instilling prejudice into his children, even if a beneficial one. He should teach his children how to think and judge. This is something an 8 year old should be capable of doing in many instances.
  • wildfire, on 10/11/2007, -9/+116It's where I get all my por... uh, news from, son.
    • ablez3, on 10/11/2007, -10/+3i get my news from brandibelle.com
      ;-)
    • Darth_tater, on 10/11/2007, -4/+43IE?!? IE for porn?!!?!

      you have got to be kidding me
      • wildfire, on 10/11/2007, -1/+30Ever clean spyware off of a friend's computers? Yes? Well, I rest my case.
        • crashflow, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6helped my cousin set up his PC a year ago. told him to use firefox, even set it up for him with the adblock plugin and spybot S&D. just a few months ago, my other cousin, who was visiting, wanted to pay her bills online. She asked if she could use the PC, and then clicked on IE. The whole desktop exploded with pop-ups.
          So yeah, I rest my case. He's adopted. at least that's my reasoning. Except my brother also has that same problem...ok then...they're all adopted.
        • jrbrewin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1nope.
          ie7 + spyware blaster (works for firefox as well before you get allhigh and mighty) gives you all the protection you need. want no ads in all windows apps, get admunch.

          hey presto, a clean pc, for ever.
    • elsJake, on 10/11/2007, -3/+9firefox can has profiles ya know
  • loqqq, on 10/11/2007, -8/+345My wife and I decided many years ago, when our kids turn 16, they're free to make their own choices about their Internet browser.
    • sanman, on 10/11/2007, -4/+48Their own choices?? For gawd's sakes, what if they start, you know... liking Opera or something?
      • afx1, on 10/11/2007, -1/+19I think it's a risk they're willing to take.
      • HigherLogic, on 10/11/2007, -4/+5Then they would have made a great choice.
        • jrbrewin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2higherlogic: you should know, most firefoxkids hate on opera just as much as ie. I know, it's unfounded, but since when are the opinionated fair?
    • Slyer, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6I laughed. :)
  • ProtossX, on 10/11/2007, -28/+11Internet Explorer is the most popular browser in the world.

    You're kid's retarded has he not heard of Window's either?

    Yeah IE is integrated into window's ever click folder's? It' all mixed with IE THAT IS IE. Where did you raise you're kid?
    • cesclaveria, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10may be with linux?
      come on, everybody here on digg nows how deeply mixed are IE and the Windows Explorer, but sometimes that is not so obviuos to everyone else.
    • therightclique, on 10/11/2007, -3/+14after using seven translators to figure out what the ***** you were talking about, i found that what you were saying was true, but honestly, learn to write sentences that make sense.
    • stevenvh, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2"Internet Explorer is the most popular browser in the world."

      Nope. It's the most used. Most popular would mean most chosen.
  • sharigan, on 10/11/2007, -6/+37it's nice that use of alternate browser is increasing but this story is totally lame. Anyone will say what is "Internet Explorer?" if they never experience it. This apply for everything -- even firefox.
    • PJBonoVox, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1True.

      The title should have read 'Daddy, why am I such an insufferable ***** who is going to die of a really horrible disease before I'm 21?'
  • mark_1581, on 10/11/2007, -3/+218I work with adults all day long who have no clue what IE is even though they use it every day.
    • sLeeT08, on 10/11/2007, -4/+13Many of my friends are ignorant that other browsers exist, they've always associated the Internet with the IE icon and had no reason to believe that there are other ways to access the Internet more efficiently.
      • quikboy, on 10/11/2007, -5/+6I don't get what you mean. I have used both, and IE7 works very great. I have no problems with it whatsoever. Like most people are.

        Firefox is great too. So I don't get your deal with how one is more efficient. It lies in the eyes of the beholder.
      • MrLunar, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1They're ignorant because they're perfectly happy with what they have? I've heard this saying before, can't quite remember....something about black pots and kettles.
    • jazzjeff, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Where do the adults work? In the White House???
    • floort, on 04/10/2008, -0/+0My mom just calls it 'The Internet'
  • Avalontor, on 10/11/2007, -15/+39Does your child know which is the worlds longest river? the Nile or the Amazon? If she answered the Nile would you make a post about it? Do you even know which is longer? Why don't you take a break, and spend some time with your family. Your children have more important things to worry and talk to you about then the name of the browser.
    • jasorn, on 10/11/2007, -15/+7well spoken by someone sitting at his pc instead of spending time with his family. and taking time to comment on a digg story that's obviously unimportant in his mind.
      • LemmingJesus, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6How do you know he and his family aren't all Digging together?
      • Avalontor, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Thanks for reminding me that my wife left me and took the kids with her. I appreciate that jasorn.
    • Threlly, on 10/11/2007, -7/+2Boom, fanboy2
    • weirddave, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2Dad: "Hey son, what's the longest river in the world?"
      Son: "Wikipedia says the Nile is the longest river."

      Avalontor, I'm not sure why you think this specific fact is vital for everybody to know off the top of their heads. It's useless trivia.
      • Avalontor, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Because weirddave, it's proven that the Amazon is now longer then the Nile and the Wikipedia cannot keep up to current events. I guessed you really missed the point. Why is it so important that an 8 year old know the name of the browser which is a tool to access the Internet? Why post about it? Even people like yourself don't keep track of current events obviously. Wanna know a secret, the Russians might own the Arctic. Keep it just between me and you OK? We sure wouldn't want the whole world to know about our changing planet.

        and BTW, don't you think knowing your browsers name is also useless trivia.
        • weirddave, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Hahaha all of that stuff that you seem to think is important is useless trivia. That Russian geography secret was about as interesting as the guy who claims he owns the moon. I'm not saying that you shouldn't teach your children that stuff. It doesn't hurt to know more stuff. It's not like knowing which web browser you're using precludes you from knowing trivia. However, I think it is slightly more important to understand the world that you're interacting with, and so yes, I'd disagree with you about the browser being trivia. The kid uses that web browser every day. That's like telling a mechanic that knowing the brand of tools he uses is useless trivia.
    • multitude, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Community-based software, as opposed to junk produced by some company looking for profit, is important. Not the most important thing in the world, certainly, but a step in the right direction.
    • magic6435, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I hope that if she said Nile he would post so we could make fun of his daughter for being WRONG.

      http://digg.com/environment/Amazon_river_longer_than_Nile
  • ruddy, on 10/11/2007, -9/+25its funny, we compliment the dad for showing the kid firefox and not ie while we are taking about being open minded of software. just ironic, i love firefox
    • mtheoryx83, on 10/11/2007, -4/+4it's funny? i guess i missed the punchline.
  • gcauthon, on 10/11/2007, -2/+44I'm assuming Daddy explained what Internet Explorer is, so now the kid knows. End of story?
    • DforSpiD, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Hopefully he replied "never heard of it" so they searched wikipedia using firefox or opera or something, and they all lived happily ever after.
  • Canute, on 10/11/2007, -11/+75If you still haven't removed the ads by google on the side, check them out. These are some of the ones I got:

    Fix Internet Explorer ?
    Get a Free Diagnostic Scan to Fix Internet Explorer Right Away!

    Fix Internet Explorer
    Top Rated Internet Explorer Repair. Free Download. 100% Guaranteed.

    All Windows Errors Fixed
    All Windows Errors Fixed Fast Safe & Secure, Free Scan Guaranteed

    Repair Internet Explorer:
    Ultimate Fix: Registry Errors Complete Scan. Takes 6 Mins.

    Might have something to do with why he doesn't want his son using it ...
    • dezmo, on 10/11/2007, -3/+8you know these are just scams right?
    • MrLunar, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I can repair the errors in your bank account, all I need are your bank details.
  • furmanvt, on 10/11/2007, -5/+11Yeah this is not much. Most of the people in my office dont know what it is and they use it everyday. I blame you for having ignorant kids if they dont know what IE is.
  • silverwolfe, on 10/11/2007, -6/+21The local high school here uses Firefox as the default web browser on both its Windows PCs and its Mac PCs.
    • Nateon, on 10/11/2007, -2/+16A lot of highschools do now and the students actually prefer Firefox of IE, even the less computer savvy kids use Firefox now.
    • P373Y, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3my school has opera, firefox, internet explorer and safari.
      so when firefox is already open, opera wont, safari wont open iGoogle, we have internet explorer 5. it opens, but it is not compatible with anything.
      and that is just about the only browser that works at the end of the year.
    • quikboy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Yeah, most of the school's around here have IE7 installed. Most people here prefer to use IE7 compared to Firefox.
    • allhard, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I set up every computer I used at my school with firefox and changed to shortcut to say "Internet Explorer", changed the icon and used a theme that looked identical to IE.. :P
  • digudown, on 10/11/2007, -5/+0no..
  • andregriffin, on 10/11/2007, -16/+11IE7 is a damn fine browser. I run all browsers, even IE6 on a VPC, while testing sites. I've yet to come across an instance where Firefox and IE7 behaved differently.
    • squeevey, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7Then you aren't paying close enough attention. Maybe your clients aren't pixel pushers. Or Maybe, you just aren't pushing the envelope for cool unique page design. I'm not saying FF is better or IE7 is better. However, they both render better than IE6, there are still PLENTY of differences.
    • therightclique, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8there are MANY instances where they behave differently. where have you been? some sites, like IGN for instance, load ads that overlap text in articles that can only be seen correctly in IE. that's not to say that firefox is bad, it just shows that most sites are coded for IE, including big sites (like IGN) that should know better.
      • andy6915, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I've never had that happen, and I use FF. And I visit IGN a lot too. I think it's the fact that adblock+ blocks ads altogether, so that they have no chance to overlap anything, because they're not there to start with.
    • LogitechG15, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Adblock....nuff said
  • Theipolicy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+7Everyone has to learn sometime. Should start by going through all the different things like security and what a cookie is. I learned that the hard way when my brother used my computer to look up porn.
    • jasorn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Sure, it's "my brother" who uses porn on my computer, too :)
  • jasorn, on 10/11/2007, -9/+40too bad the question wasn't, "daddy, what's windows?"
    • gquaglia, on 10/11/2007, -4/+7Give it some time. With Dell and soon HP selling Ubuntu mainstream and Mac on the rise, you just may.
    • pukiman, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2It it was. How deep under the rock do you think "that" kid would of live?
      I'd say over NINE THOUSAAAAANDD!!
  • Nadinengland, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11"The kids, of course, also think you find things on the web by going to Google" Were that articles last words... My ICT teacher thinks the internet is google... :|
    • mtheoryx83, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9i know quite a few people who go to google.com and actually type a fully qualified domain name in the google search box because that's how they think you get to a website.
      • itchyfeet, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I see this a lot.. It's really quite bizzarre, and ignorant imho...
  • max777, on 10/11/2007, -3/+16Im pretty sure most 8 year olds would ask what firefox is too.
  • sarahwynne, on 10/11/2007, -7/+8Well, at least the guy's got the decency to kill IE's hold on his family. :P I guess your average North American (being Canadian myself) just doesn't realize the differences between all the different browsers available, including advantages such as tighter security. (Or, come to think of it, that there are other ways of reaching the internet than through Microsoft's precious IE.)
    • Shenanigans, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Just HAD to throw in the Canadian bit, right?
  • antivirus88, on 10/11/2007, -13/+22You're a nerd. how did this get dugg?

    go ahead, bury me.
  • gamemaster357, on 10/11/2007, -9/+4article:


    I had a real revelation on how you can shape your kids in tech potentially for life the other day, when my oldest son couldn't get Firefox to work. I told him to try Internet Explorer, only to get asked, "What's that?"

    What's Internet Explorer? What's Internet Explorer! The words of my eight year old should send shudders down Microsoft's spine. The default browser on Windows PCs, and my kid has no idea what it is? A sign of the future?

    Perhaps. OK, we're not a typical family. Firefox, last I saw stats, still had only a 10 percent share. But still, it's funny how it can make gains.

    In our house, I put Firefox on the family computer about two years ago and kept telling my wife to use it, especially when Internet Explorer had some problem as it would tend to do. Eventually, she switched over to using it permanently. That meant the kids started using it as well.

    Still, I never realized how ingrained it had become until I was asked that question about two weeks ago. Both my sons are avid Club Penguin users now. They wanted to get going at the same time, so I fired up one of the many other computers littered around the house. Firefox wasn't installed properly on one of them, so I'd gotten Club Penguin going using Internet Explorer until I could reinstall Firefox.

    They never realized which browser I used. That's why the second time, my oldest son came to me when Firefox failed to work. He found the icon, knew that Firefox = The Web, and that was it. He had no idea there was anything like Internet Explorer that you could use to also get on the web.

    Interestingly, he does use a computer at school to go online. I'll have to find out what browser they're using there, since he clearly didn't know IE.

    Well, that's just our family, right? Not so fast. I have a friend nearby who I got using Firefox. It's one of those things that happens to anyone. You're out for a nice dinner, just talking and enjoying not doing any work, when suddenly you're asked why his band equipment rental site isn't ranking in Google. Ulterior motive, eh, Nick? So next thing you know, you're on the computer diagnosing the sandbox issue. And I ain't gonna do that with IE. I installed Firefox, then went away. A few months later, I came back to find he was still using it.

    So there you are, Firefox means reaching the web. The kids, of course, also think you find things on the web by going to Google.
  • lokiworks, on 10/11/2007, -8/+14Who gives a ***** what browser you use.
    • gquaglia, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5Bill Gates and Steve Balmer do
      • pukiman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6And now for something completely different; What's Steve Jobs?
    • Rileyper, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2and so does jobs (safari)
  • Killwize, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8"He found the icon, knew that Firefox = The Web." Yep, That's how people are, I guess that is the reason Microsoft has such a strong hold on the market. Everyone knows (at the least) that Big Blue E = Internet. At least, I have got my whole family and 1 friend to switch. (4 computers) I don't think my family really notices, though.
    • mtheoryx83, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of people think "windows" = a computer.
    • jtablerd, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I think that one of the great things about firefox is that to those millions of people who think that Big Blue E = Internet will see a basically transparent change as mozilla's market share increases. Mozilla Foundation FTW.

      Sexier Icon + More Stability/Security > that Big Blue E + ***** bug-filled wasteland of a browser.
  • DivisibleByZero, on 10/11/2007, -4/+21Microsoft RELIES on people not knowing what Internet Explorer is by name. There are millions of people out there who think of it as "The Internet". Just click that little blue E icon and you're on "The Web"
    • gquaglia, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Yeah, they are called stupid people. They are also the same ones running zombie computers that spam the Internet daily.
    • spacebar14, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4Here here. My friend has IE and Fx installed on her box (her dad has some kind of a brain), and I clicked Fx instinctively when I was at her house - she said "What are you doing? I thought you were going on The Internet?" ..

      I tried to explain, but ... just gave up.
  • pintomp3, on 10/11/2007, -1/+26eh, most users just want to go online. i think it's a good thing they can't tell the difference between the two browsers, because there shouldn't be. i switched everyone at work to firefox a while back, i renamed the desktop icons to "firefox browser" because "mozilla firefox" doesn't really bring "internet" to mind. i know a few people who renamed it to "internet explorer". ha.
    • TheWiseNoob, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I couldn't get my mom to switch so I ended up changing the firefox icon to IE's so she would think it was IE.
  • nimd4, on 10/11/2007, -5/+0Yeah, sensational news..;) :) When 10% is mentioned and Google: could the author not have used it to find out?.. http://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+market+share Anyway, just posting a comment, tnx.
  • zivpeleg, on 10/11/2007, -2/+7they didn't knew what IE was not because they don't know what is it, because they don't know what a browser is. they learned in school you click on the blue 'e' and in home on the little fox and you have Internet. it's not the future it's people that don't teach things right. explain the kid what is an Internet browser and that google is a search engine and that there are many more of them!
    it's the exact same thing that caused one of the girls in my first computers class to shout "I have walla (a website) in my home too!" and also caused so many people to not even know that there is an alternative to windows and that Linux isn't just one OS! I'm getting sick of this ignorance!
  • OUChevelleSS, on 10/11/2007, -7/+10Maybe the kid is just stupid.
  • withears, on 10/11/2007, -11/+18Stupid kid. Doesn't even know the most popular web browser.

    Post next time he wipes his nose with his sleeve too.

    Dumb kids don't impress me.
    • AndyCool, on 10/11/2007, -5/+4Is that the reason you werent able to impress anyone including yourself when you were a kid? Just asking.
    • Threlly, on 10/11/2007, -4/+3Boom, fanboy3
      • mattmcm, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Boom, headshot.
      • withears, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Fanboy, good one. I use Firefox. But I'm also a believer in putting the facts on the board, not just my own feelings.

        Keeping a kid ignorant helps no one.
  • s1ade, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3More of a sign that kids don't care what browser they use to access the net, much like they don't care what brand toaster makes their toast.

    Just another alternative browser user that thinks it's cool to shout about the fact whilst the rest of the world gets on with business using IE or whatever.
    • withears, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1You win this thread.

      Browsers are simply commodities. It matters not whether one is using Firefox or IE or Netscape or Opera or Safari. It's about the toast, not the toaster.
    • whataboutdave, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Hate to disagree, but I spend probably 80% of my computer time in my browser these days, so I care a great deal about it. IE doesn't hold a candle to what my heavily-extensioned Firefox can do. I haven't seen an ad in over a year, and I can make my browser do whatever I want.

      To carry your metaphor, it would be like if my toast tasted 800X better than yours did, never got burned, and my toaster made me Belgian waffles, breakfast burritos, sausage, or anything else I desired with a little tinkering. There is no comparison. There is no competition.
      • withears, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1So you simply prefer the Firefox toaster because it has more features. Nothing more. Not at all.

        Again, unless you are developing web applications and need to focus on compliance differences, the browsers are fundamentally the same.

        It's just about features for web surfers like yourself. You'll pick whichever toaster has more. No difference except for features.
  • asskicker32, on 10/11/2007, -3/+15My three year old asked me the other day, "Whats a computer?" I think Apple, HP, Lenovo, Sun, Toshiba, Dell, MPC, Gateway, acer, fujitsu, hitachi, panasonic and all other companies that manufacture computers and computer parts should be worried :noes:
  • aydoubleyou, on 10/11/2007, -7/+2I knew Netscape before I knew Internet Explorer, simply because I was a kid back when the internet became popular and thats what we used at school.

    I got my first computer in 94 (it was a Mac), it took me and my older sister about 4 years to convince my parents to even get the internet (cheap ass parents). When we finally did, we had AOL.

    So I still had little knowledge of IE all throughout my childhood, but being the tech savvy kid I was, I knew about it... but never used it.

    So to sum up my comment here... I've never been an IE user. Period.
  • Phennim, on 10/11/2007, -5/+18Microsoft has a spine?
  • Kunal, on 10/11/2007, -9/+11The kid is not a bright one for sure...
  • 13thMonkey, on 10/11/2007, -7/+3Meh. Make the kid use Mosaic. Worked fine for me til I switched to Netscape. Shiny graphics and everything!
  • gooddoggytreat, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1You know, I think this is actually a bad thing. Microsoft is making Internet Explorer so transparent in their operating system, that they're going to gain market share just because people don't know that they're using crapware.
    • Bamborzled, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2So why does IE7 now have a distinct visual style separate from Windows Explorer? Why can you no longer browse to web pages from Windows Explorer?

      The only way IE7 has become more transparent in Windows is the transparent window border around it.
  • AndyCool, on 10/11/2007, -10/+3"IE has a bigger market share"
    "IE has a bigger market share"
    "IE has a bigger market share"

    Yea, yea, yea. Thats because it comes bundled with the OS & most people dont see any particular need to try anything else. They dont crave for the multitude of features that firefox offers because "they simply do not know these features need to be present in the browser"

    They feel that since IE is the native thing it is all that a browser can do & whatever else they mite want is simply not possible becuz IE cant do it.

    BTW, m an ex-IE-user, now a hardcore Firefoxie!
    • omarciddo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Andy, I'm sorry, but you are not cool.
    • withears, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I disagree Omar. Andy is not only cool, she is SUPER cool. Because she is (a) an ex-IE user and (b) HARDCORE!

      Why does anyone care? Unless you're developing sites for compliance, it doesn't matter if you're using Big Ed's Latest Kick-Ass Web Browser Surfer Thingy. They all give pretty much the same experience.
  • AndyCool, on 10/11/2007, -9/+1"IE has a bigger market share"
    "IE has a bigger market share"
    "IE has a bigger market share"

    Yea, yea, yea. Thats because it comes bundled with the OS & most people dont see any particular need to try anything else. They dont crave for the multitude of features that firefox offers because "they simply do not know these features need to be present in the browser"

    They feel that since IE is the native thing it is all that a browser can do & whatever else they mite want is simply not possible becuz IE cant do it.

    BTW, m a ex-ignorant-IE-user, now a hardcore Firefoxie!
    • goffy59, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Well IE is better then Netscape. Ill tell you that much lol.
  • Meja, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1my three year old HAS a computer. her own. dual core 3800 with 2 gigs of ram and a flat panel monitor. she knows how to get on the web and play all her preschool learning games and nick jr/noggin. and she's been doing since she was 2 and 1/2. her new computer (2 weeks old, for her 3rd bday) has vista on it and she hasn't quite warmed up to that yet... prefers XP so far. she knows about both ie and firefox... doesn't seem to have a preference for either yet.
    • CaptCrazy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1OMG Vista *dies* install Ubuntu or some linux distro on that thing lol.
      Pretty smart to be on the computer at that age, or maybe my sis is retarded...
  • theotherlight, on 10/11/2007, -3/+16This article was pretty much a waste of a few minutes. But maybe I missed the point... who cares if this guy's 8 year-old doesn't know what Internet Explorer is, or if s/he not as tech savvy as the 30-year-old developer living in his parents basement?

    People should be disallowed from creating blogs from this day forward.
    • dannysullivan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Indeed, he does, and it was written for them :)
  • tsbardella, on 10/11/2007, -7/+6This is a useless meme because the idea makes no sense to the general public. Also maybe the boy was just fool and had not a clue as to what shoe what goes on a foot. I know that there are so very many 8 year old boys who would not be able to do this unless instructed by The Man. Give it up this is a stupid stupid flow.
  • sunchiu, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer, abbreviated MSIE), and commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of proprietary graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995.
    After the first release for Windows 95, additional versions of Internet Explorer were developed for other operating systems: Internet Explorer for Mac and Internet Explorer for UNIX (the latter for use through the X Window System on Solaris and HP-UX). Only the Windows version remains in active development; the Mac OS X version is no longer supported.
    It has been the most widely used web browser since 1999, peaking at nearly 90% market share with IE6 in the early 2000s—corresponding to over 900 million users worldwide by 2006.[1][2]
    Though released in 1995 as part of the initial OEM release of Windows 95, Internet Explorer was not included in the first retail, or shrink-wrap, release of Windows 95. The most recent release is version 7.0, which is available as a free update for Windows XP with Service Pack 2, and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1, and is included with Windows Vista. Versions of Internet Explorer prior to 6.0 SP2 are also available as a separate download for versions of Windows prior to Windows XP. An embedded OEM version called Internet Explorer for Windows CE (IE CE) is also available for WinCE based platforms and is currently based on IE6. Another Windows CE/ Windows Mobile browser known as Pocket Internet Explorer is from a different codebase and should not be confused with desktop versions of the browser.
    • omarciddo, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2What on earth were you trying to accomplish with that comment?
      • ferrofluid, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Its a forum equivalent of banging your head against a brick wall, nice when you stop ;)

        One very big thing that induces people to install FF or some other third party browser, is that IE tends to get broken by web nasties,
        so how many IEs are still working on the average persons PC out there.
        Everybody knows somebody that knows about FF, and its far easier to install FF (plus spybotSD, Adaware,HThis ) to get somebodies web back up,
        than reinstall Windows and do the tedious data recovery on the average rat infested Windows PC out there.
  • smilingcrow, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3What worries me is this child has a father who is so immature that he thinks this is news worthy. I would rather show my son the options available and let him make up his own mind, rather than train him to use my choice of browser and then go WOW in a self satisfied and smug way when amazingly he only knows the browser that I show him! That’s just pure egotism.
    I use Opera usually, Firefox occasionally and IE7 only when I need it for compatibility issues. IE7 seems okay to me and you will need to use it for updating Windows so there’s no harm in knowing of its existence.
  • mihkeltt, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3what i did at home was create a new profile for firefox, applied the IE skin and added a shortcut to quickstart with IE icon and IE message - so my parents are using firefox without knowing it :)
  • Bradillac, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2I did a presentation of a website to a semi-large company the other day. When I asked which browser the company used, they stared blankly. They were using IE7, but had no idea that there was a program name to it... they just simply called the program 'Internet'... As if the entire internet is self-contained within one lone application.
  • donkeyshow, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2nerdblogspam
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