And so I lay it down to rest...

Being a website designer is something like being a mechanic, or a shrink. You never know just what the hell is going to come into your life next. Obviously you do try to cover all the posibilities, but sure as apples fall from trees and the sun is going to rise, somewhere out there, is a dreaded lurgie..

In the web design world, possibly the greatest lurgie is the question:"Which effing browser?".

Microsoft had the browser market sewn up with the Internet Explorer range, but, and there is always a but, the earlier versions of IE were not fully W3c standards compliant. This means that IE interpreted rules either not at all, incorrectly, or differently.

Now, just because they were the most popular browser, they did not try to convince the world that they were in fact correct. IE tried to correct their problems by releasing newer versions of Internet Explorer. For many it was too little, too late, and support for IE started waning.

Firefox is the great new flavour amongst internet browsers, and is widely supported, actively maintained and updated, as well as being faster and more stable than any of the IE browsers. Google chrome is growing nicely, and may be worth watching.

In my day to day activities as a website designer I work between the crappiest currently supported IE browser, and Firefox. What i tell my coding to display, and how it is interpreted is not always the same amongst the browsers, so I spend a lot of time checking, checking checking.

Possibly the easiest route would be to scrap IE or Firefox, but, we want to give our clients the best, so, we put in the time.

Sadly(?), this morning, I had to have IE6 put down. When I started work this morning, IE6 crashed. I tried to revive it, and after some thought decided that it was now time to get out of the past and start moving forward. I went online with my default browser, Firefox, and downloaded IE8.

I would encourage internet users to move away from IE6 now. It is old, cranky, buggy, slow, and although it can still be downloaded, won't be supported for much longer.

For dedicated Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer users, go to the Microsoft website and upgrade to IE8.

For a great experience with useability and user friendliness, with tons of extras and loads of features, get Firefox from this site

If you like slick, lean, fast browsing, get Google Chrome

TnT Unlwashed website design, photography, and writing services will no longer be supporting any IE browser supported prior to IE7. Should any of our sites have display problems please be aware that it is probably because you are using an old browser.