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Attack of the Bugs

Microsoft's "get the facts" campaign for IE8 smells funny

Thursday, 18. June 2009, 14:38:20

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Microsoft's new Get the facts has a strange smell to it. It's almost like it smells... old and stale.

Wait, I think I know why!

It's the smell of old and stale lies. It smells like their old "get the facts" campaign against Linux. I'm sure people remember the campaign they used to run where they would lie to people's faces and pay researchers to produce reports that were dishonest and biased towards Microsoft.

They are doing it again, only this time it's lies and half-truths about other browsers.

I saw their browser comparison page earlier, and they have since corrected their claim about standards to specifically mention CSS 2.1. And leaving out all the things IE8 doesn't do, they win themselves an undeserved checkmark.

The security claim is equally flawed, as it is based on a report from NSS Labs which was less than impressive, and apparently heavily manipulated.

I'm sure I could go on.

But if anyone wants to "get the facts" on browsers, they should stay well clear of Microsoft.

Update: Windows Internet Explorer 8: Get the facts STRAIGHT

Opera Unite Web server benchmarkWindows Internet Explorer 8: Get the facts STRAIGHT

Comments

Tenno Seremel 18. June 2009, 16:16

They should license some other engine rather than making their own %) It'll be both cheaper and effective…

Brian Huisman 18. June 2009, 16:52

Microsoft: Offering you the best features from ten years ago, today!

Charles Schloss 18. June 2009, 17:26

Microsoft

What ever happened to this: http://web.archive.org/web/19980120111509/www.microsoft.com/mscorp/

"with a strong commitment to Internet- related technologies that expand the power and reach of the PC and its users"

Originally posted by GreyWyvern:

Microsoft: Offering you the best features from ten years ago, today!

And will never evolve our software :wink:

Originally posted by Haruka aka Seremel:

They should license some other engine rather than making their own %) It'll be both cheaper and effective…


If what is written here is right then they did not make it they just bought it

Windows Internet Explorer 8: Get the facts STRAIGHT is really funny

Tenno Seremel 18. June 2009, 18:41

I know, I mean supporting IE still costs some money to them anyway.

Charles Schloss 18. June 2009, 21:47

Not to sure if it costs them much as IE code is used inside of Windows, the help menu needs IE to work, and so do a lot of apps written for Windows

Tenno Seremel 19. June 2009, 08:10

if you are using something everywhere it does not mean it's not costing you anything. Help system theoretically could work with other rendering engine. Or they can use old one for a time but disable access to the Internet from it.

As for “a lot of apps written for Windows” — if they are not made by Microsoft it doesn't really matter. Well, it does for them monopoly-wise, but it's a bit of a different problem.

AgentCROCODILE 26. June 2009, 14:09

They are not lying. They assume that their product is nonexistent and is not even touching your system.

I got rid of Internet Explorer 2.0 from Windows NT

Babyli 7. August 2009, 21:35

This is a Big Shit!

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