I know. I’m aware. You don’t have to point it out. Expecting anything from the Quebec Government Gouvernement du Québec is unreasonable. However, I still had a chuckle when I went online to update my address after a move.
For those keeping score, Netscape’s last release was just under two years ago, and hasn’t been supported since March of 2008. AOL, the company that bought Netscape in 1998, still hosts a Netscape Archive where they politely tell you that you should be using something else by now.
As for Internet Explorer, what can I say. The whole world is coming together to stop it, especially older versions blamed for stifling web innovation. More and more sites, like YouTube, are dropping support for IE6 altogether.
I strongly recommend you use either Safari, FireFox, or Chrome – all of these options are blazing fast, generally safer, and much less bloated than Internet Explorer. Chrome, Google’s venture in the browser wars, is still not available for Mac OS X, but according to this report out today, is nine times faster than the latest edition of Internet Explorer on Windows.
So in the face of all this proof that Netscape doesn’t even exist and that Internet Explorer just plain sucks, why is the government’s website optimized for them? I’ll leave that question for you to answer.
Elias Makos 
3 replies on “Quebec government trapped in an alternate universe where Netscape and Internet Explorer are still viable”
I agree on IE basically sucking now, but what are you supposed to do as a website if the majority – vast majority – of people still use it?
If I’m a website, I code for open internet standards, not a specific browser. While the latest of version of Internet Explorer – IE8 – is a dog compared to all of its competition, at least it doesn’t keep the internet from developing as did previous versions. It’s just slow and vulnerable. Problem is a lot of companies are stuck on older versions becasue IT departments are resistant to change.
Thankfully, Internet Explorer is dying! It had 92% of the browsing market in 2004. Now it’s at 67% and dropping. Less than half of all web users will be using IE in a few years.
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