Let's continue the browser talk for a while. Let's move from the pinnacle of browsing, all the way down to the very drainage pit: Internet Explorer 6. To me, Internet Explorer 6 is that annoying zombie that just won't die that chops off 80 of your health in a grueling midnight Left 4 Dead expert session. Microsoft may not say so outright, but they seem to be implying they agree with me.

The fact that IE6 is in widespread usage reflects that, developer frustrations aside, for many users, it was/is a very good browser. Developing for Netscape 4.79 would be infinitely harder; it is not done today because IE6 is, well, better, so it survived much longer.

It has survived to this day because stupid people keep on using it. My father used it for years and years. He said no point to change because it has worked in the past, too. I promoted Firefox to him. I made my own website that blocked all IEs and threw a link at him. He chose to install Firefox (after asking if it has viruses), visited my website, and went back to IE.

He did not even want to install a Firefox to my granny's new computer. "Because your grandmother has used IE6 before." The machine had IE7 come with updates. He claimed it's much more IE6-alike than Firefox is. Pretty much proves how much the name of the product means instead of the product.

Luckily, the IE7 was all crap on that machine. It crashed when it needed to load a certain plugin. I told him I won't fix it, because it's Internet Explorer. So he installed a Firefox for my granny. She never complained. She had so little experience of computers she didn't have any ties to any browser. It's all just pressing back and forward buttons and clicking links. She had previously switched to Thunderbird (the mail app) because I broke up Outlook Express. No complaints there either.

I recently visited my dad's place and found out he has switched to Firefox at least on his second PC. Progress comes slow but steadily.