Guindalf

Partial geeks are the worst. When I started offering my services, I had four different hourly rates, listed from low to high...

1. in-house repair
2. On-site repair
3. If you'd tried to fix it yourself
4. If it was an HP or Compaq

dj6372

I class myself as a successful partial geek!Surely you should have
5. Packard Bell (remember them?) and that was run a mile!!

Guindalf

As a journalist who had to review those back in the day, I left them out because they never lasted that long! I certainly wouldn't put a price on repairing them as it was just not possible.

sir_eccles

They did give us Chrome as a backup/work around but they don't support it.

I won't name the particular British government agency I used to work for but they did have a database holding all of their data written in COBOL accessible only through a terminal emulator. Problem was, the company providing the terminal emulator ceased to be. They had to scramble to find a replacement. To the best of my knowledge it still forms the backend to their shiny new electronic document management system that came in just before I left. How I don't know but it probably involved duct tape and fairy dust.

scrubbedexpat099

Why do you need to support Chrome?

sir_eccles

It means if something goes wrong with viewing one of our apps in Chrome because the app was written to work with IE8, they won't try to fix it. Or if they reboot the servers and you log on to find all your bookmarks disappeared then tough.

scrubbedexpat099

Big plus of Chrome is its transportability, all linked to your log in.

I had one die, bought a new computer, logged on again and all was there.

username.exe

Microsoft have a lot to answer to regarding various versions of IE, not least IE6 which was an absolute nightmare to develop for.

Steerpike

You asked the same question in another post and I answered there. IE is the default browser delivered as part of windows, and is adopted as the standard in a lot of corporations. It supports 'ActiveX' which provided (when it first came out) a platform to develop much-needed functionality, not supported by other browsers (finally being replaced by javascript, html 5, etc but had a long run). So if a company developed a 'browser app' and used 'active-x' to implement some much-needed functionality, they can't just start using another browser. Firefox and Chrome don't natively support ActiveX (although you can add this functionality).

I personally have to work on dozens of computers and the only common browser I can be sure to find is IE. I choose to use Firefox at home when I can but probably spend 50% of my time in IE still.

scrubbedexpat099

I have IE on my work computer but I have not had to use it for many years.

IE has a tiny percentage of the market and I can not remember the last time I came across ActiveX.

Steerpike

Could you please provide some backing for this statement?

See this site: https://www.netmarketshare.com/brows...=2&qpcustomd=0

Shows IE as having the single largest share. Note, the default 'focus' (or filter) for this page is 'desktop browser' - that is, browsers on a desktop computer with keyboard, mouse, etc. If you change the filter to mobile/tablet (smartphone), Chrome is the leader. Obviously IE doesn't even have a presence in the non-desktop world, and 'everyone' has a tablet/smartphone these days.

But nonetheless, if you are talking classic desktop computers, where most 'business' use still occurs, IE is still the leading browser.

Just because you personally don't use it doesn't mean it's not popular. And just because no one likes it, don't assume that translates to no usage.

scrubbedexpat099

I mainly use a Laptop, which does not seem to be one of the options.

Even for Desktop it is just a quarter, Chrome seems to be split between the various versions.

dj6372

Even my crappy Tesco hudl formats correctly!

Cheap crap work PC!

Steerpike

"Desktop" in this context includes laptops. The concept is, a computer with a keyboard, mouse, and running either windows or Mac OSX. What it excludes is 'mobile' devices, which includes iPhones, iPads, Android phones, Android tablets.

Yes, even for 'Desktop' the share for IE is 'only' 25%; but that's just IE 11; if you include IE 11, 10, 9, 8, it gets closer to 45%. Compare that to Chrome, which adds up (all versions) to about 27%. So 45% is not exactly consistent with "IE has a tiny percentage of the market".

username.exe

For years my parents have been convinced that the only way to access the internet is to click on the 'big blue e'.

They are not alone.