Imagine this as David Blaine’s next trick He stops a person on the street, stares into the stranger’s eyes and says — “Your web browser is . . . Internet Explorer!” Instead of being amazed, you’d probably burst out laughing. After all, with well over 90% of the market share, almost everyone uses Internet Explorer. Were Blaine to attempt such a ‘trick’, he’d be considered an idiot. But the real idiot may be person who’s still using Internet Explorer.

Let me explain. Back in the mid-1990s there was a choice of web browsers. Then Bill Gates came along, decided that Microsoft needed to take over this Internet thing, and released Internet Explorer. Initially, it was a joke — one of the worst web browsers ever. But Microsoft persisted, and in the end, they produced an excellent product, one which was superior in many ways to their rivals, such as Netscape. And they gave it away for free. And bundled it into the Windows operating system. By 2001, the browser wars were finished and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was everywhere.
And then Microsoft stopped developing it. There has been the occasional odd patch, but basically the software is the same as it was back when Bill Clinton was in the White House (seems like a long time ago, right?) What’s the problem, you might ask? If it works, don’t fix it. But that’s the point: it doesn’t work. Microsoft Internet Explorer is so full of security loopholes that the US Department of Homeland Security now recommends against its use. And according to recent surveys, use of alternative web browsers (notably Mozilla and Opera) has been steadily increasing.
Last month, the Web Standards Project, a group of web professionals who had consistently maintained neutrality in the competition between Microsoft and its rivals, finally took sides. It has launched an online campaign called “Browse Happy” where it lays out the case against using Microsoft Internet Explorer and promotes a handful of alternatives. (See http://browsehappy.com ).
Should trade union members care? Of course they should. Our computers, both in our union offices and in our homes, are vulnerable to viruses, spy-ware, pop-ups and all the other annoyances that come with Microsoft’s browser. We need to be exploring the alternatives to bad software, starting with our web browsers.