How often do you upgrade I.E & N.N?

[Patrick]

Hi

I am in the process of learning javascript and was wondering how often
the web professionals update I.E & N.N?
I mean do you religiously wait for the next upgrade and download it
ASAP when available or do you upgrade only between main version and
don't worry about minor updates?
I currently have I.E 6.0.2600 & N.N 6.2.3
Latest I.E. is 6.0 (SP1)
Latest N.N. is 7.1
I guess N.N. is a must upgrade for me.

Thanks a lot

Patrick
(Please answer here or email (e-mail address removed).)

 

[Lasse Reichstein Nielsen]

I am in the process of learning javascript and was wondering how often
the web professionals update I.E & N.N?

I am not a professional, but I ususally update at every chance I get.
The updates are mostly security patches anyway, so there is good reason
to update.

I have Opera 4.01, 5.?, 6.06, 7.11 and 7.20(beta) installed, but use
7.20(beta) as my main browser.

For Mozilla (I don't use Netscape 6/7, it's too bloated) the important
part is the Gecko rendering engine. I am using the current version of
Mozilla Firebird (0.6).

For IE there are only bugfixes, as Microsoft won't make any new
versions of IE. You can only have one version of IE installed
on most computers, so I only have IE6 (6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2....).
I use MyIE2 as a frontend to the IE rendering engine.

For Netscape 4, The most recent version is 4.80. Out of curiosity, I
currently have Netscape versions 4.80, 4.08, 3.04 and 2.02 installed.
There is no relation between Netscape 4.x (and earlier) and Netscape
6.x/7.x, they are completely unrelated browsers.

I mean do you religiously wait for the next upgrade and download it
ASAP when available or do you upgrade only between main version and
don't worry about minor updates?

Every chance. I don't look every day for a new upgrade, but usually
download it as soon as I hear about it. I ignore Netscape Navigator
versions, since they mean nothing compared to the Mozilla builds they
are based on. The current stable Mozilla version is 1.4, the same
"main version" as always. Netscape 7.1 is very recent as based on the
Mozilla 1.4 build.

I currently have I.E 6.0.2600 & N.N 6.2.3

Netscape 6 is based on a pre-final Mozilla version (was it 0.98?), and
should be upgraded to a newer Mozilla derived browser as soon as
possible. It really isn't very good.

Latest N.N. is 7.1
I guess N.N. is a must upgrade for me.

I would say so. Personally, I would upgrade to Mozilla Firebird, but
there are plenty of Gecko based browsers to pick from.

/L

 

[Arve Bersvendsen]

Lasse Reichstein Nielsen wrote in

For Mozilla (I don't use Netscape 6/7, it's too bloated) the
important part is the Gecko rendering engine. I am using the
current version of Mozilla Firebird (0.6).

Since we're in a Javascript group: In the past, without being able to
pinpoint any particulars right now, I've noted some differences in JS
behavior between the Firebird releases and the full Mozilla app, so I
keep both installed.

 

[Daniel]

For IE there are only bugfixes, as Microsoft won't make any new
versions of IE. You can only have one version of IE installed
on most computers, so I only have IE6 (6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2....).
I use MyIE2 as a frontend to the IE rendering engine.

Just to clear this up so people don't get the idea that there's never gonna
be another IE release, the statement from Microsoft is that they won't make
any new version of IE available as an upgrade/download, but only part of a
new Windows version as they're working on deeper integration of the two.

 

[Prodoc]

Hi

I am in the process of learning javascript and was wondering how often
the web professionals update I.E & N.N?
I mean do you religiously wait for the next upgrade and download it
ASAP when available or do you upgrade only between main version and
don't worry about minor updates?

I updated Mozilla on a regular basis but I desided to stick with 1.4x
and install 1.5x as well. This because they are going to make some more
"argressive" changes in the next releases.
Also I got Opera 6.x installed and I'm updating Opera 7.x on a regular
basis again.
As for IE I've got 5.5 installed. Because it's not possible to install
multiple version of IE I keep this version because I can test IE 6.x on
a different system in the house and IE 5.0 at uni. I do install the
regular security updates though.

 

[Dr John Stockton]

JRS: In article <[email protected]>, seen

I am in the process of learning javascript and was wondering how often
the web professionals update I.E & N.N?

If, as an author, you continuously all update your browsers, then you
run a grave risk of writing code that only those with the same upgrade
policy can use.

That can be satisfactory in an Intranet, if all software is updated
simultaneously; it is not wise for an Internet author to do it.

An Internet author needs to use the oldest browser(s) that his intended
readership might reasonably have.

Code written for older systems will, almost always, work on newer
systems; that is an important consideration in the design of newer
browsers. But older browsers have generally been written with a
considerable disregard for compatibility with their non-immediate
successors.

I have heard, I think, that hand-held systems are not as feature-rich as
the latest desktop systems; an author should not wish to cut himself off
from those who browse in the train / at the bus-stop / in the park.

It depends, too, on the intended market; a site advertising the latest
high-tech gizmos may consider that potential customers will, by their
nature, already have the latest browsers. But a computer hardware
supplier should bear in mind that his potential customers are more than
usually likely to have only older systems.

 

[Douglas Crockford]

Code written for older systems will, almost always, work on newer

systems; that is an important consideration in the design of newer
browsers.

I wish that were true more often. Mozilla.org, for example, has an extremely bad
record for breaking working pages from one release to the next. I prefer IE now
because Microsoft seems to have stopped fiddling with it. We have to live with
the exisiting bugs, but as you pointed out, we have to anyway. The silver lining
is that they are not, for the moment, delivering new bugs. The day IE7 is
released will be a very dark day.

 

[Grant Wagner]

The day IE7 is
released will be a very dark day.

I'm dreading that day as well. With Microsoft's apparent intentions to only release
new browsers with new operating systems (no more stand-alone installs), you will end
up with situations where even in highly controlled Intranet environments, you have
some people running Windows 2005 (or whatever they call it) and IE7 and some people
running Windows 2000/XP with IE6.

There will be no way to even "standardize" on a version of Internet Explorer across
entire companies (short of upgrading everyone to the new operating system at the
same time).

I'm still hopeful that the bad press Microsoft has gotten because of the
announcement will prompt them to, at the very least, make the version of IE in the
next operating system available to users of Windows 2000 and XP. Recent backpeddling
on their part seems to indicate this may be the case.

--
| Grant Wagner <[email protected]>

* Client-side Javascript and Netscape 4 DOM Reference available at:
*
http://devedge.netscape.com/library/manuals/2000/javascript/1.3/reference/frames.html

* Internet Explorer DOM Reference available at:
*
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dhtml/reference/dhtml_reference_entry.asp
* Netscape 6/7 DOM Reference available at:
* http://www.mozilla.org/docs/dom/domref/
* Tips for upgrading JavaScript for Netscape 6/7 and Mozilla
* http://www.mozilla.org/docs/web-developer/upgrade_2.html

 

[Lasse Reichstein Nielsen]

There will be no way to even "standardize" on a version of Internet
Explorer across entire companies (short of upgrading everyone to the
new operating system at the same time).

A conincidence? I think NOT!

I'm still hopeful that the bad press Microsoft has gotten because of
the announcement will prompt them to, at the very least, make the
version of IE in the next operating system available to users of
Windows 2000 and XP. Recent backpeddling on their part seems to
indicate this may be the case.

I actually hope that they don't, and that more people will go to other
browsers. But thean again, that would require people to act rationally
and not follow the tune of the piper like scared rats.

/L