Cream always rises
Shit always sinks.
Google's Chrome took the crown as the world's most-used web browser last Sunday, March 18th. But as the world suited up to go back to work on Monday, Internet Explorer re-gained the lead. So says online service StatCounter, although the service also urges us all to take its data with a grain of salt. That's because while it …
Let's not forget that Chrome isn't perfect. While it has definitely improved the web immensely, it's now the buggiest modern browser I know save the last time I looked at Opera.
Chrome is my main browser, but it's not hard for me to see when I do testing that IE9's graphics performance is far higher, I just prefer Chrome's appearance.
Jagged edges on rotated elements, rendering flaws that have crept in on fixed position stuff when GPU acceleration started and a pile of unfixed web kit bugs I still have to write fixes for means that Chrome may be a lot better than IE8 and it is, but it's no absolute knight in shining armour.
Bring on IE10 Microsoft, the world needs to be kept on it's toes.
"Let's not forget that Chrome isn't perfect. While it has definitely improved the web immensely, it's now the buggiest modern browser I know save the last time I looked at Opera."
With you on this. They tried so hard to replace IE6, and they're replacing it with an all new set of bugs. I build for Gecko, then cross-browser test, and these days Chrome gives me as many issues as IE does (though in fairness I anticipate the IE ones).
But you point that out to people and they just reply "yeah, but it's fast." So friggin what? Chrome renders pages 0.0002 seconds faster? What is that worth if it doesn't render them properly?
I agree with you here. I use IE as my main browser as I work with a lot of MS products like remote web work place & SharePoint and none of the other browsers support them fully. But I do see a big difference between Chrome and IE in terms of graphics and I am using windows 8 at the moment and I have to say IE 10 beast everything out there so far. The pages look amazing on my laptop even better than IE9 and I have yet to find a web page that dose not work with it.
From speaking to people who use Chrome I have asked them why they use it and around 40% of the people I have asked have said what's chrome I use Google for my browser and the reason why they have chrome as there default brewers is because if you use Google as your main search page you get a big banner on the page saying install chrome and most people who use a pc day today just click things because they say click them and this is the reason why they use chrome as there browser and not because they like it over IE.
But I am also a believe one product is not right for everyone. I don't like google as my main search I used Dogpile up until bing came out and I now find Bing better for what I search for and its the same with IE it works with every page I use where the others don't but not everyone needs access to what I need that is why we have choice.
"I use IE as my main browser as I work with a lot of MS products like remote web work place & SharePoint and MS won't release versions that properly support web standards, so none of the other browsers work."
While realizing the net effect is the same for you and your customer, assigning fault properly is critical to getting it fixed.
"While it has definitely improved the web immensely, it's now the buggiest modern browser I know save the last time I looked at Opera."
Let me guess: Opera 10.5? That one was definitely a mistake -- the only version of Opera I've had issues with in the last decade.
Foxit reader, who were a great bit of software but then decided to change your homepage and search engine(and possibly install a toolbar) to their preference WITHOUT an option to the user.
Yes, they apologised, but then did it again in the next version.
Did not install it again after that.
If the current trend continues (which it probably won't), Chrome will pass 50% market share in two years, and IE will be dead and forgotten in five.
Safari usage shows a similar jaggedness, which suggests a 'use PCs at work but Macs at home' demographic. The Firefox line has become relatively smooth, though; anyone have an interpretation of what that means?
>>The Firefox line has become relatively smooth, though; anyone have an interpretation of what that means?
I only know what it means from my usage, so it would only be an explanation if I'm typical.
I made a Firefox over IE decision years ago and nothing that has happened since has caused me to change it. Firefox is now supported for pretty much everything I do, apart from the odd rogue app at work, so I use it for everything.
Mozilla have done their level best to get rid of me, with intrusive updates and interface changes, and I'm now using 3.6 at work and whatever the latest one is at home. I did look at Chrome briefly, but the time it would take to get it working the way I want just seems too much, compared with the odd tweak every now and then to get round the annoyances in Firefox.
So I guess Firefox has flatlined because of inertia on the part of long term users, but doesn't have what it takes to tempt new converts, so Chrome is growing at the expense of IE.
"Mozilla have done their level best to get rid of me, with intrusive updates and interface changes"
This again? Those "interface changes" are so unbelievably easy to get rid of that I can't even remember what they look like. They came in in v4, I turned them off in about 3 seconds, and my profile has continued without them to the present day. If that stopped you upgrading for another 7 versions, how do you cope when moving between Windows versions?
You misunderstand. I'm on 3.6 at work because that's what's supported. At home I've got used to the new interface and changed the bits I couldn't get on with, so it's ok, but there was a point where I was getting seriously fed up with Firefox.
How do I cope with moving between Windows versions? I don't. I stayed on XP as long as I could. I now have Windows 7 at work and at home, and I don't like it, but that's just my preference.
Just had Firefox badgering me to update to V11.0. With a popup, in front of what I'm doing. I'm busy, go away. (They should rename it Firebadger.)
Firefox portable may be partly the reason - work users on locked down desktops can still run Firefox rather than IE without admin rights just by using the portable version of Firefox. Installing Chrome requires (I believe) admin rights. This would allow users to have Firefox at work & home more easily.
"Installing Chrome requires (I believe) admin rights."
Sure as hell doesn't. Last time I let Chrome onto the network, it would install itself into user profiles to bypass Windows Installer lockouts. It's not that its malware because installers come with it checked as default - it's malware because its installation method deliberately bypasses security restrictions through poor coding/software practices.
Not trying to stand up for Google here, but how come Windows will run exe's that are sat in the user profile folders? These are for app data, not apps themselves. If MS had any sense they'd lock this shit down right now and pop up a "restore ie as default" message when Chrome tries to load from the profile and excepts. That would be hillaire!
I'm fairly sure I have read recently (perhaps in a Win8 context) that Microsoft are indeed considering exactly this.
It wouldn't be targetted specifically against Chrome (and so wouldn't pop up anything asking about browser defaults) but some future version of their freebie AV package might default to nuking any EXEs that get written to application data folders.
"Last time I let Chrome onto the network, it would install itself into user profiles to bypass Windows Installer lockouts."
I found that odd, and annoying as hell, but it's not necessarily 100% pure evil. It could be that it's doing that to give people a choice when they otherwise wouldn't have one. Of course by doing that Google is pitting themselves squarely against BOFHs everywhere, which seems like an unwise thing to do.
You're right. It won't.
The flat line for Firefox is presumably explained by the fact that it is nobody's default browser, except for Linux distros with bog-all market share. If you are a FF user, you've probably installed it in bother places. If you stick with the default, you use a different browser in both places. (Opera's line looks flat, too, but it is so low that this might reflect the resolution of the graphic rather than the raw data.)
Chrome's rise is probably also explained by its being a piece of malware that bleeds onto machines whether you wanted it or not. At work, you may have a sys-admin willing to block malware trying to install itself without any administrative blessing (*). This is much less likely at home (hence the dichotomy) but eventually either or both of MS and AV companies will wise up and start blocking "drive-by XCOPY installs from untrusted web sites" and then Chrome's main distribution mechanism will be gone.
"Chrome's rise is probably also explained by its being a piece of malware that bleeds onto machines whether you wanted it or not."
Are you really suggesting that Chrome's success (for better or worse) is due to it being so clever it can sneak inside installers all by itself ? Or is it more likely vendors are putting it there themselves and playing the normal irritating games like not telling you what, or having defaulted 'Install Chrome' checkboxes buried away... that's bloody annoying, I agree, but I think the finger of blame might be pointed somewhere other than Chrome itself.
"eventually either or both of MS and AV companies will wise up and start blocking "drive-by XCOPY installs from untrusted web sites" and then Chrome's main distribution mechanism will be gone."
Main distribution mechanism ? Interesting.. I look forward to your stats.
You can whine about stat all you want to, but according to the security folks at my not so small government agency, Chrome is technically malware because it bypasses administrative installation restrictions. Those of us working the help desk aren't authorized to install it, but we can't stop users from installing it either, even when they don't have the proper privileges.
"The flat line for Firefox is presumably explained by the fact that it is nobody's default browser, except for Linux distros with bog-all market share."
Ummmm....its flatlined at 20-odd percent, isn't it? Kinda goes against the "only Linux hippies use it" argument.
And yeah, Chrome's installer is evil. I can't believe they haven't caught more flak for actively bypassing system restrictions in order to install it. I figured out how to block it on my Windows machines and did so immediately. My philosophy is, if you're willing to do that, then I can't trust you, so get the hell off my machines.
Android browser is just Android, no connection to Chrome at all.
Chrome for Android is coming, and is available in beta, as long as your on Android 4.0+. Rumour is that Chrome will take over as the default Android browser once out of beta, but would guess that will be in Android 5.0+ late this year.
But for the moment, most Chrome user stats like these will be desktop users, not mobile.
I find a surprising number of my "home user" clients have Chrome on their PCs, but no idea where it came from. It gets packed into so many other product installers that it should be classed as Malware. I think I even spotted it as part of a Java Update installer which would give it a huge install base.
The average home user always accepts the defaults of any installation package. So gets stuck with Chrome without knowing how to get rid of it. This is the marketing method that Google have chosen. Which is dishonest.
Safari used to be installed as default with iTunes, until Apple stopped the practice due to complaints. Yet Google are getting away with these stealth installs.
" It gets packed into so many other product installers that it should be classed as Malware."
I would class the installer as malware myself.
"Safari used to be installed as default with iTunes, until Apple stopped the practice due to complaints. Yet Google are getting away with these stealth installs."
Safari and iTunes are from the same vendor, who decided to install both items. Google, for all their sins, are NOT, in general, the people who distribute the software that is shipping Chrome. I've no particular love of Google, but I find it hard to blame them for every idiot software developer that thinks it's really clever to decide what browser their user should have.
You and I know how to change options in the installers. It is the average home user I am talking about here. The ones who have never heard of El'Reg. Especially those from a older generation. Many of these people will not change any setting "in case they break the computer". This means they assume they have to install these addons. Including the Bing, Ask, Google, Conduit bars. Every default gets left untouched in everything they install.
I suppose you do bring up one positive of Chrome - when that home user has their browser swap from IE they escape the 15 toolbars that have been installed into IE by a similar process.
So there we were, writing web apps, and some people upgraded to IE9.
Guess what. Javascript libraries (Jquery, and open source jquery tools,) that used to work, suddenly started throwing errors, because IE9 elaborated the toolkits before it elaborated the Jquery file.
What can you expect when a bunch of "Let's build dependency by putting ludicrous functionality into our product" marketing wankers, all with an IQ under 50 have a say?
Microsoft should become a technology company again, not some government vehicle to employ useless people off the back of a few brilliant techies.
Yes, you will find this as no other browser can be managed out of the box by group policy. It's not that the tech is old and us sysadmins dont want to install a new browser cos we're behind the times, it's that we have no central control over the browser security if we install something else.
Unless the Mozilla foundation or Google have written some ADMX's for their browsers, I'm not really interested.
"Yes, you will find this as no other browser can be managed out of the box by group policy"
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/chromebrowser.html
Also, while Firefox doesn't have anything similar out of the box, but there are number of packaged installs, plugins, and other resources that can accomplish this, e.g. FrontMotion (www.frontmotion.com/FireFox), firefoxADM (see e.g. http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208281905) and PolicyPak. It would be understandable if these non-Microsoft solutions were not acceptable, or desirable, especially from an ease-of-use point of view - but it certainly *is* possible to do some group policy work over LDAP (ActiveDirectory).
Yes, you will find this as no other browser can be managed out of the box by group policy. It's not that the tech is old and us sysadmins dont want to install a new browser cos we're behind the times, it's that we have no central control over the browser security if we install something else.
Unless the Mozilla foundation or Google have written some ADMX's for their browsers, I'm not really interested.
Its all about choice in the end. Cross platform availability and account synchronization are possibly two reasons that could explain its rise. Also the billboard advertising that has been popping up all over the place. Chrome isn't spyware as it quite clearly explains that it is going to install, whether combined in another applications package or not. If a user never reads a dialog box before clicking OK or Next then installers are hardly to blame. Frankly I actually like the segregation IE for work and Firefox/Chrome for everything else.
Firefox obviously keeps people happy but being the only browser not installed in windows by default or having the world's largest search engine promoting it means there probably aren't many people giving it consideration at the moment. There's more competiton so it would hurt them to promote FF more.
This is one websites interpretation, here's a rant I posted on the two other publications that took these numbers and gave StatCounter a hit boost:
I called ******** on someone else posting this earlier, the entire source of information is skewed, the sole source is clients of StatCounter which would make a tiny portion of the web, what about this alternative but still as large competitor called MarketShare (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&qpcustomd=0) showing 53% share to IE? Don't believe companies that take a tiny demographic and push it as a global percentage, it simply doesn't work in this area for many different reasons such as Tor not revealing browsers, most of Asia using Tor, most of Asia using pirate versions of Windows XP and IE 6 and then don't even get me started on South America. So how many South Americans and Asians do you think use StatCounter clients websites? I'd imagine the number is around the zero mark. Can you counter-argue one point I've made? I'd be very interested to hear it.
This makes me sad El Reg, very sad indeed.
> Tor not revealing browsers
Yes, it does. Unless you use a privacy-conscious proxy such as Privoxy and configure it to do this.
> most of Asia using Tor
Doubt it. Show some proof, please. Some behind the Great Firewall of China, yes, but hardly "most of Asia".
> don't even get me started on South America
What about South America?
> So how many South Americans and Asians do you think use StatCounter clients websites?
According to this list, 4shared.com is the most visited website which is a StatCounter customer. And I believe many South Americans and Asians use 4shared in a regular basis.
> Can you counter-argue one point I've made?
Yes. Done.
Are you just arguing for the sake of arguing here or did you even open that other link?
>> Tor not revealing browsers
>Yes, it does. Unless you use a privacy-conscious proxy such as Privoxy and configure it to do this.
If you're using Tor and have not configured your browser to not give away any personal information it's kind of silly no?
>> most of Asia using Tor
>Doubt it. Show some proof, please. Some behind the Great Firewall of China, yes, but hardly "most of Asia".
So now with India employing a national firewall do you not suspect, almost beyond a doubt, a large chunk of India and China, two of the largest countries in the world by population are using Tor or some form of anonymity services so the can even access any website on that top list let alone anonymously?
>> don't even get me started on South America
> What about South America?
I've been living here for almost 2 years across four countries and perform IT administration for various companies, I've yet to meet a person who would even know any website on your list of top sites let alone visit it. Heard of taringa.net? That's not on that list and it's the portal almost every South American I've met uses for most of their internet time.
4Shared et al do not feature on the radar down here.
Now, can you tell me you don't work for StatsCounter to alleviate my fears? I find it strange one would jump to the defence on a solitary stats result, especially if one was from an IT background.
I did open that link you posted, and I agree with you that only one stats service saying something is not statistically relevant, but you asked for the argument and I took the bait :)
So, let's the debate continue.
> If you're using Tor and have not configured your browser to not give away any personal information it's kind of silly no?
Yes, very silly indeed.
> So now with India employing a national firewall do you not suspect, almost beyond a doubt, a large chunk of India and China, two of the largest countries in the world by population are using Tor or some form of anonymity services so the can even access any website on that top list let alone anonymously?
I doubt the fact that the general population know about Tor and other services, and they know the risks if caught using those services. People in IT? Maybe.
> Heard of taringa.net?
Nope, and I'm a South American. Maybe that's because I speak Portuguese, not Spanish. People here use Facebook to waste their time.
> 4Shared et al do not feature on the radar down here.
That's interesting. On this side of the Tordesillas line it's very popular for downloading MP3 files, allegedly.
> Now, can you tell me you don't work for StatsCounter to alleviate my fears? I find it strange one would jump to the defence on a solitary stats result, especially if one was from an IT background.
No, I don't work for them, and today was a slow day at the lab I work.