
Microsoft Makes Fun of Older IE versions To Promote IE9 - twapi
http://browserfame.com/543/microsoft-makes-fun-of-internet-explorer-older-versions
======
koeselitz
The funny thing about this commercial, marketing-wise, is that it _isn't_
making fun of older IE versions. It's making fun of us geeks who _hated_ older
IE versions.

The primary message is: "you geeks who hated us, give us a chance!" But I get
the feeling the subtext is more important: "normal non-geeky people have
always preferred IE, and now all you normal non-geeky people have an excuse to
ignore all those silly geeks who tell you to uninstall it."

Edit: one other thing -

This commercial has the anti-IE guy trying to "uninstall" older versions of
IE. It looks like he's dragging the icon to the trash bin. That bit was
interesting primarily because, as I recall, you _couldn't_ uninstall IE before
Windows 7, particularly not by doing anything as simple as dragging it to the
trash bin. I guess he's just doing what a lot of us have done: trying to make
sure an unsuspecting family member doesn't just have the icon there to
reflexively click on.

~~~
thaumaturgy
We're doing that geeky thing now where we're delving too deep into minutiae,
but:

> _as I recall, you couldn't uninstall IE before Windows 7, particularly not
> by doing anything as simple as dragging it to the trash bin._

Sorta, kinda. In XP, you could "uninstall" IE by going to the "Windows
features" part of Add/Remove Programs. This would make IE no longer the
default browser on the user's system, and make it slightly harder to access,
but it was still there.

Dragging the desktop icon to the recycle bin would trigger some warning I
don't clearly recall, but would still leave IE as the default web browser on
the user's system, available at the top of the Start menu.

~~~
politician
The best way to remove IE on older machines was to re-purpose the icon to open
Firefox or Chrome.

~~~
daemon13
The best way to remove IE is to install Linux :-)

------
chrisacky
I know that the article says this is a comedy website, but are they also
trying to be "funny" on their testimonials page. (Capitalisation is direct
copy/paste, I'm not shouting! )

> "IE9 OFFERS FUNCTIONALITY THAT'S NOT AVAILABLE IN ANY OTHER BROWSER."

Like, lack of developer tools and the requirement to buy a new operating
system?

> "IE9 is one of PCWorlds best products"

That reminds me why I haven't shopped at PCWorld ever.

> "INTERNET EXPLORER 9 TAKES THE BROWSER SECURITY CROWN."

Just no. This one won't even hard to disrepute.

> Chrome sucks, freezes on FB, back on IE and it seems to be great! #Chrome
> #FB #IE9

This is in the testimonials page by some randomer with 5 followers.
<https://twitter.com/#!/NimanthiR>

________* \-------- Edit Update ----------

Yeah, everything on their testimonials page is totally a bag of lies. I
actually thought whoever made the site was trying to be serious, but then I
saw they quoted Engadget.

> "The new IE is way better than Chrome, especially in terms of safety. You
> are only fooling yourself to stay loyal to one browser"

Engadget have _never_ said this. The article they link to for this testimonial
is actually,

[http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/06/microsoft-expands-
interne...](http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/06/microsoft-expands-internet-
explorer-push-with-new-tv-ad/)

~~~
JeremyBanks
Dig through the comments to that post and you'll find the quote on page four:
[http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/06/microsoft-expands-
interne...](http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/06/microsoft-expands-internet-
explorer-push-with-new-tv-ad/#comment-457796466)

That's one damn misleading citation from Microsoft. Almost makes you think
they couldn't find a decent one...

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nextparadigms
They should be making fun of IE9, too. It's about 2 years behind in HTML5
specs adoption, maybe more.

~~~
vibrunazo
And here's the evidence, if anyone's interested.

<http://html5test.com/results.html>

~~~
barista
aren't a bunch of those unsupported features in draft mode?

~~~
angersock
shhhhhh don't try to break the narrative of microsoft writing terrible
software

~~~
CurtHagenlocher
It's not that Microsoft writes terrible software, it's that they deliberately
cripple things like HTML5 which threaten to establish a new non-proprietary
non-Windows platform as the standard to which all software will be written.

Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft. Also, ;)

~~~
yuhong
Huh? MS is now betting on HTML5 for Metro.

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kadjar
[http://www.caniuse.com/#compare=y&b1=ie+9&b2=chrome+...](http://www.caniuse.com/#compare=y&b1=ie+9&b2=chrome+19)

No thanks.

------
politician
The reason developers hate working with IE isn't because they're teenage nerds
with OCD. Why are they trying to ostracize the very people who are responsible
for converting the home market to other browsers? It's not like soccer moms
and CIOs are the audience for this video. And why focus on selling IE9/Windows
7 when IE10/Windows 8 is around the corner?

------
Piskvorrr
Well, I'd love to do that (upgrade to IE9 and get the magical wonderful
experience that no other browser offers). Let's try...oh wait, you mean I need
to buy a new version of Windows? Hmm, uh, well, okay then...oh wait, you mean
I'd also need to buy a new computer to go with it? Well screw that, I'm
staying right here with Opera, Chrome, and FF. Buying a new computer just to
pin Pandora seems _the tiniest little bit_ of an overkill - no other browser
offers that, indeed.

~~~
coderdude
Yep, you'll have to upgrade your 12-year-old operating system. Positively
absurd isn't it?

Editted to elaborate:

It's not upgrading for the sake of upgrading. 12 years may as well be 100
years in the tech sector. Windows XP is end-of-life'd in 2014. Why on Earth
would Microsoft release a brand new browser on a dead OS? They're not going to
spend another 5 years of time and money on that dinosaur patching security
issues for something they haven't even sold in God knows how long. Expecting
them to is completely unreasonable. The fact that they've supported us XP
users for even this long shows how committed they are.

It's also not upgrading simply because the OS is old. Lots of old things still
run fine. Windows XP is not in that class of things. It will continue to have
security issues for as long as people are on the platform.

Also, if you're worried about whether you'll be able to eat tomorrow or pay
your rent then upgrading your computer and upgrading to IE9 are both very
irrelevant to your life right now.

@politician: Because Chrome and FireFox strive for platform independence while
Microsoft does not, which allows them to take advantage of Windows-only
features and APIs; Some of which may actually be quite useful (like some kind
of native DirectX rendering of pages, for example). It does come down to money
though. As I said before, they don't have a good reason to support a new
browser and its various security fixes on an operating system they're about to
stop updating forever.

~~~
thaumaturgy
Do you have a better reason why he should buy new software other than,
"because it's old"? Sounds like his current setup does everything he needs it
to do right now. I haven't seen any compelling reason why Windows 7 is better
than XP for day-to-day use. A lot of people are getting Windows 7 now only
because the computers they're running XP on are slowly dying out, and you
generally can't buy a new computer with XP.

Come to think of it, I have an entire shop full of all kinds of tools, many of
which are more than 12 years old. Should I replace my workhorse power drill?
My cylinder hone? My bench grinder? Heck, I've got a 1940's DeWalt radial arm
saw with a neat feature -- I can unbolt the motor and flip it over and turn it
into a router. Should I replace that with a new thing too?

~~~
angersock
Don't be obtuse--there is a vast difference between machine tools and
operating systems.

Here's a better reason: because it's old _and will no longer be receiving
updates, one of which is support for new versions of IE_. Good on you if you
see no compelling reason to switch to Windows 7 from XP. I see no reason to
uninstall 3.11 from my old Compaq 386, but then again I also don't bitch that
it doesn't support WebSockets.

We need to stop defending people that refuse to upgrade their operating
systems while _at the same time_ complaining about not being able to run new
applications.

~~~
Piskvorrr
Well, then how come _every other new browser runs on XP_ , with all the nifty
new features like WebSockets, if it's impossible? Hint hint, nudge nudge.

~~~
angersock
Just like git and GNU/Linux software, amirite?

The amazing thing isn't that Firefox/Chrome/Safari run so well on XP--it's
that they run at all. That they do so is more due to their status as hobby
projects (effectively) than as paid products.

EDIT: Note that I respect those other projects immensely... and that the truth
is that their goal/motivation is different from IE. Consider, for example,
that at the end of the day Chrome is a Google product, and in some way must
tie into the advertising thrust of the company. So, it makes sense to try and
make it available for as many things as possible.

------
omgsean
Redefine the competition as IE6, IE7, and IE8 and suddenly IE9 is king of the
browsers.

------
Zirro
What I wonder is, how do "normal" people actually find these sites? Microsoft
have these campaigns every now and then, highlighting the capabilities of
their new versions, but why would John Smith visit "browserfame.com"?

~~~
Piskvorrr
They tend to run offline campaigns at the same time: some time ago, at IE9
launch, there was a huge promotional campaign trying to credit HTML5 to MS -
something like "We're changing the web. Forever." (Gee thanks, but doing that
once with IE6 was quite enough) staring at you from every RL advertising space
anywhere.

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artursapek
I can't wait until they're making fun of themselves for this fucking horrible
ad. The people who hate IE, like koeselitz said, are the tech geeks who know
what's wrong with it. I can't imagine a stupid ad like this that rests its
merit on childish cat humor and will appeal to much of IE's hate-base. I don't
think Microsoft will ever be able to come across as cute and playful no matter
how hard they try at this point.

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melling
How's the silent browser update from Microsoft coming? Australia and Brazil
were lined up for January. Is it making a difference getting all XP users on
IE8 and Vista and Win7 users on IE9, and hopefully IE10 later this year.

------
landhar
In this article they also mention the GMailMan ad (to promote Office 365) I
followed the link, and found that it was very interesting as a satyre of
contextual/personalized advertising.

------
dreadsword
IE9 is the only browser among safari/chrome/firefox/ie that I can't get to
render html5 audio tags, or respect
document.createElement('audio').canPlayType tests. Ridiculous.

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mahrain
It will be very interesting to see this strategy applied to, let's say,
Windows XP, the Start menu, the WIMP paradigm etc.. when Microsoft is tired of
those!

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MattRogish
If folks have to use IE, I suppose I'd rather they're using IE9. So I guess I
reluctantly support this site?

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kristopolous
I've always loved this style of microsoft advertising. nobody else in the
industry has this kind of humor.

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zyfo
I like that they include a cute cat as a point of reference, so I can tell how
outdated IE9 is by comparing it to Peak Lolcat on Google Trends[0]. I realize
this is a bit unfair to IE9, but it's not too far off.

0: <http://www.google.com/trends/?q=lolcat>

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rheide
Still not funny.

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AlexFromBelgium
Does it run on mac/linux?

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keepitsimple
I spend more time convincing clients to switch over to FF/Chrome to view my
work hah!

------
spoiledtechie
Just tried downloading IE9 from their site.

It gave me IE8 because I am running XP. HAH.

