What is Digg?245 Comments
- sinfree, on 10/12/2007, -21/+82I dunno. Stuff likes this makes me never want to use Windows again.
- bigtomrodney, on 10/12/2007, -4/+53I just switched my User agent to IE6 in XP, and it works fine. This is not a compatibility issue. You really want to thik the best of Microsoft when they are getting it from every side but this stuff just proves your gut feeling right.
- Submerge, on 10/12/2007, -10/+59I wish I could not make webpages work in FF and get paid for it.
- Andy.D, on 10/12/2007, -4/+41Somewhat, but not very well (with Opera). Why would you design a home page like this?
- nilobject, on 10/12/2007, -3/+37Oh, it works in Firefox. They simply do user-agent detection and bounce all non-IE6 browsers to their 404 page.
Way to promote the quality of the Microsoft brand!
Microsoft: Which whiny little toddler do you want to fight with today? - wildleaf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+35@robbh66
That is completely counter intuitive. If a company wants to have new customers then they should be targeting the people who don't already use their product. Unless of course they are trying to woo Firefox users into using IE because the ms.com site does not work on their browser. That would be silly. There is really no reason for this to be happening. If it works perfectly fine when I change my UserAgent - then this is just plain discrimination. A good way to NOT get my consumer $ is to restrict me for no good reason.
If MS really wants to get the Firefox market share back - here is how they do it.
Hire an adept technical writer who understands all of the previous arguments why Firefox is better than IE6, and explain - upon those same issues - how IE7 is better, faster, more effective. If they can somehow make their software better then I would gladly use IE7 - but right now it just doesn't cut it.
So stop being silly. - pmckenna, on 10/12/2007, -6/+31I wonder if it works if you change your user agent to match IE6
- Slashriffs, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24Right now it forwards you to microsoft.com if you use firefox
pretty soon you wont be able to view it at all. - robbh66, on 10/12/2007, -13/+32"Why would you design a home page like this?"
Because they dont care. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of people who use FF use it because they think IE is a POS browser and that those kinds of people generally have an inherent distrust towards microsoft products. IE probably controls 85% of the browser market anyways so they dont really care if they dont cater to people who werent really going to use their webpage anyways. If it's important enough, people will load IE. - Slashriffs, on 10/12/2007, -3/+21Just so you know IE tab has a HUGE memory leak it in
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions - dongiaconia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17Actually they are using Javascript to do the re-direct, so just turn off Javascript in Firefox Options and enjoy... http://preview.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx
- slyckidiot, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17Because live.com still doesn't work with firefox. Oh, wait.
- TedTschopp, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16Funny, I can play MP3's on my iPod that I didn't get from iTunes.
- bennyboy371, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18@nilobject
Those are just the stats for people who go to the w3schools site, which in itself is very overrated. - Nightfall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Damn, a preview site doesn't work? Isn't the point of a preview site to get feedback on it and work any site bugs? I just don't get why anyone should be bitching out this. It isn't in production yet, so submit a report on your findings and move on.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+22It doesn't work with Firefox because they don't believe in standard design and code principles. That's why Firefox will eventually surpass IE as the most popular browser because it supports standards whereas MS support their proprietary code only.
- bigtomrodney, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13It's a redirect to microsoft.com
- j0ew00ds, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15unfortunately, you're wrong. as long as IE is packaged with windows, 75% of users will use it, simply because its there and they don't know any better.
- Scruffydan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12before passing judgement i will wait for the page to come out of "beta"
- mrchucklepants, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Safari is a no go as well....big suprise.
- escheppa, on 10/12/2007, -10/+21This was the same case with live.com where it only worked on IE. Clearly microsoft has its head up its ass again... wait its always been up there.
- DigeratiPrime, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14or use the NoScript extension
http://www.noscript.net - uownedge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Don't give steadfast IE users too much heat, man. You need to remember, these are the people who pay us $60 to recover their data and reinstall their computers when the viruses and malware take over. :)
- DoQrs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10@dongiaconia
if you turn off javascript so you can view the page and that it doesn't redirect, odds are ajax isn't going to work. - DigeratiPrime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Its because you have NoScript on dude ;)
- escheppa, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13The internet is not a comodity (like coke) that microsoft owns so I don't think that they or anyone else should hold it at randsom and say 'use our browser and nobody gets hurt.' That's just wrong!
- kg4gyt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9User agent switcher will do it.
- trieste, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11People have slammed Apple for that, still slam Apple, will continue to slam Apple.
Back to the article.
Has anybody found that this works in Firefox i.e not directed to microsoft.com but showing the menu on the right? - DrIce926, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9And this is why it's important for all of us to keep doing our job promoting Firefox, and more importantly, all browsers that have more forward-thinking compatibility. Switch to IE only when you really need to.
I'd be surprised if the new IE7 is any different in terms of proper code implementation, though I haven't tried it yet. - pornel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8In Opera 9 you can use "Edit site preferences" and choose Network -> "Mask as Internet Explorer". Works like charm (and you get dhtml/ajaxish effects).
- Nightspark, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9If they haven't confirmed compatibility with other browsers, then they should put up a little notice saying so. They shouldn't deny entry, as most of it will work fine in other browsers anyway.
- deadlychicken, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9[EDIT] bigtomrodney beat me to it.
No, it doesn't. It redirects to the regular microsoft.com. No fancy features. If you fire up IE, you'll see the difference. - Nightspark, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8"There is a reason why you don't uninstall IE."
Because you can't. IE6 on Windows cannot be uninstalled. - jrizzo, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12This is what the IETab Firefox extension is for.
- TubaTechno, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11@nilobject
So w3school.com (which i use alot) counts as all of the Internet because they have stats based on their usage only?
"The statistics above are extracted from W3Schools' log-files"
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051103-5525.html
http://blogsforfirefox.blogspot.com/2006/06/pcworldcom-getting-more-firefox.html
http://www.onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox36.html - romeyinfc, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10I bet that Microsoft hopes that someone doesn't tell the European Union about this...
- alx1507, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Open Safari>Debug>user agent> Windows MSIE 6.0
You might have to unlock the Debug menu, its hidden by default.
Works for me (although the right nav bar doesn't work?) - screwzluse, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8I'm not condoning Microsoft's attempts to not allow some other browsers to view it's website but to be honest, If I was in their shoes, I'd do the same thing. When you want people to keep using Microsoft Internet Explorer (or to switch), why would you allow other browsers to use your site? Mod me down if you'd like, but that's business right there.
- hotpepper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"Lots of AJAX"
Am I missing something? Where's the AJAX? - drghastly, on 10/12/2007, -10/+16Or it could be that it is just a preview and not ready for production yet?
Crazy I know! - gahzinia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Viewing the source for the page, it has included
http://stc.msn.com/br/mscom/gbl/js/1/MSCOM_redirect.js
In that page is:
function BrowserRedirect()
{if(!g_IERedirectUrl||g_IERedirectUrl=="")
{g_IERedirectUrl="http://www.microsoft.com/info/preview/default.mspx"}
if(IE6IE7SupportCheck()){window.location.href=g_IERedirectUrl;}}
function RootBrowserRedirect()
{if(!g_RootRedirectUrl||g_RootRedirectUrl=="")
{g_RootRedirectUrl="http://preview.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx";}
window.location.href=g_RootRedirectUrl;}
function IE6IE7SupportCheck()
{
var ie6,ie7;var nu='';
var objBrwsr=navigator;
var nua=objBrwsr.userAgent;
var op=(nua.indexOf('Opera')!=-1);
var ie=((nua.indexOf('MSIE')!=-1)&&!op);
var str_pos=nua.indexOf('MSIE');
var nu=nua.substr((str_pos+5),3);
ie6=(ie&&(nu.substring(0,1)==6));
ie7=(ie&&(nu.substring(0,1)==7));
return(!ie6&&!ie7);
}
Why even bother with that... - apotropaic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I could care less about wether or not I can go to microsoft.com in the futre with firefox. I have it blocked from google searches and other places so I don't care. Here is my problem with the new site:
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fpreview.microsoft.com%2Fen%2Fus%2Fdefault.aspx
They could care less about meeting standards and writting code properly as long as it looks ok on their computers in redmond then they are ok with it. - hchaudh1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@TubaTechno
From your comments, I highly doubt you have touched a single line of code in your life. - geronimo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@trieste
When I change my useragent to IE, it renders fine in firefox. It's a preview, I'm sure they QA'ed it with IE for the time being so every other user agent will get a redirect until the new homepage passes QA for other browsers. MS is a big monolithic coporation, they won't just throw out a new homepage without extensive testing and controls. But you can say it's interesting how they chose to QA it with IE first.
I'm positive that when this new homepage is live they won't restrict microsoft.com to only IE browsers. That would be kinda stupid but you never know. - se1zure, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I would rather see a 404 page any day, then have to look at microsoft's ***** website.
- bugninja, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10"Because they dont care. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of people who use FF use it because they think IE is a POS browser and that those kinds of people generally have an inherent distrust towards microsoft products."
I don't really agree. I use Firefox, but I don't distrust MS, and I like many of thier products. Websites are one way that MS can deliver content that "should" work in any browser. And if it doesn't, they can say, "that's your problem" or your browser's problem, and they better fix the browser so you can view everything that their website is capable of doing - rather, what any website is capable of doing. In the meantime, you have to open IE to use their website and they get people using their browser more often.
It seems to me like it's a way to avoid anti-trust cases while still requiring use of their products. As long as they stay complient to standards, all browsers should be able to suppor their website, and if they don't that's not their problem.
Don't hate me, I just think this is the truth, you don't have to. - uownedge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I'm not talking about market share. I'm talking about writing industry standard code. I'm not talking about "doing what the open source community is doing" or "do it because I use Firefox". I'm talking about "do it because it's right". And who said that it takes so much longer to write compliant code that works in all browsers? In most cases, it's easier because you're not spending time using workarounds, particularly when it comes to a site as complex as Microsoft.com.
As it happens, I am in fact a "website administrator" if that's what the kids are calling it these days. I know all about market share, and I really don't want to hear it. That's not what this is about. This is about doing what's right versus shoving a crappy product down consumer's throats.
If IE was built to render industry standard code properly (I'll admit, FF and Opera aren't perfect either), and it was made to be safer (IE 7 reinforced? That's grade A bologna. They've made improvements, but they have a long way to go.)
Come on now. It's obvious that this is MS just trying to force IE. Regardless of current market share, the other browsers are STILL gaining. You need to look at the future (maybe do some research? ;) ), and think about what this is going to do for Microsoft in the long run.
On one hand, I can see where they are coming from, wanting to get people to come back to IE, but this is far from the right approach. - Dawnspire, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10What about all the websites that dont allow me to view it with IE, just giving me a spam page to getfirefox.com?
I dont care if you website looks like crap on my browser, at least let me LOOK at it after the spam. I know what firefox is, and I'm not using it...big deal! - lhenkel, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10I realize this will be modded down, but as a Web developer most of these comments annoy me.
For the love of Jehovah, it's a *preview* site. So, no there's probably not the same load balancing server farm as microsoft.com. Second, beta sites I design almost never work in Firefox until the end (I use Firefox, but customers don't care).
BTW, if you fake the user agent, it loads correctly, but Ajax code doesn't work. It's a fixable error, though.
I can't believe I'm defending Microsoft. I need a shower now. - Hypersapien, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Umm.. I'm looking at it in Firefox right now and it works fine.
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