If you use AOL, Microsoft Internet Explorer or MSN, please consider switching to Firefox or Opera. I don’t hate Microsoft, they are how I make part of my income as a programmer, but they have been actively ignoring their web browser, Internet Explorer for over two years. Other than fixing (some) security holes they have said that a new version of Internet Explorer is being postponed until the release of Windows Longhorn (the next version of the Windows Operating System). This means that as new technologies come out, you’re hosed. You can do nothing about this except move to another browser as Microsoft management has basically ignored their responsibility to standards.

I read an article recently about how management at Microsoft was feeling a real pinch because so many people (and Microsoft applications) were not standards compliant, and to convert their engine to render things in a standards compliant way would break things. I see several things wrong with that logic:
1) What did Microsoft do when they prepared for Windows XP Service Pack 2? The posted this announcement stating that web developers may have to change their code for the web pages and applications to work with Internet Explorer after this service pack (due to fixing a plethora of security holes and adding a popup blocker).
2) Web Developers are used to having to change things when a new site comes out.
3) If you’ve been developing your site to work with any other browsers (like any good developer should) then this probably won’t break anything, but instead will make development faster AND easier.
4) Microsoft has a big role in the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), why be involved in setting standards if you don’t actively promote them and instead actively ignore them?

So, in short, if you’re my reader and you want to make my life just a little easier consider using Mozilla or Opera – they’re actively developed so that when you need a fix or a technology update – you’ll get one relatively soon.