More than useful information, this is simply me venting my confusion, and hoping someone has answers.
Why are people still using Internet Explorer?
Firefox has been around for quite awhile now, and seems to be gaining a lot of acceptance. Google has also launched their own browser (I don’t see the need, but okay), and there are, of course, the other available options (Safari, Netscape, etc.).
As I’ve watched the logs for sites I’ve managed over recent years, I’ve seen Firefox slowly gaining more users. Given the recent debacle with IE, however, I expected to see a big jump in Firefox users. But this doesn’t seem to have been the case. On one site I manage, for instance, the percentage of Firefox users has remained pretty steady around 20% throughout the past two years, including over the course of the last month.
ITWorld claims Firefox did gain users over the past month, but it seems very slight (20.78% up to 21.34%). Why didn’t everyone just jump ship? Did they not know about IE’s security flaws? Just not care?
Browser Stats (November)
Browser Stats (December)
I think it’s down to most education establishments using IE as part of their whole Microsoft setup.
Simply put, public computers don’t tend to have Firefox.
@newcurator — I think you are probably right, but the question remains why they haven’t changed. Don’t educational institutions and businesses care about computer security (and getting fewer viruses)?
My current university has Firefox on the library computers, but it is not on the stone-age computer in my office (it probably wouldn’t even run!).
IE is what many (most?) of us have when we turn on our work computer. At my state agency you have to make a special request to get any program beyond the basic Office Suite installed. Which they will do, and did for me, but it is another damn thing to do.