Why Governments Should Ban Microsoft Internet Explorer

The French government has joined the German government and suggested its citizens stay away from Microsoft's Internet explorer. This is a welcome move considering the security risk Microsoft's Internet Explorer creates. Similar action may be taken against other Microsoft products as well.
 
Many IT firms are commenting on these calls and concerns of the European government. "It looks like governments in Europe might be falling over themselves to advise the public and official departments to stop using the world's most popular Internet browser until Microsoft manages to rustle up a fix for this critical security threat," said Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant, Sophos. "But switching rashly away from Internet Explorer might be a mistake. Some users may be unfamiliar with a different browser and cause support problems, and some web-based applications may not work at all if you're not using Internet Explorer."
 
This seems to be a weak argument. Firefox is one of the most popular browsers. According to recent Statcounter survey, the latest version of Firefox actually defeated the latest version of Internet Explorer in terms of popularity. Google's Chrome is holding the number 3 spot. 
 
Firefox has many popular plug-ins like X-Marks which make it easy for users to save their book marks on the server and use them from any machine and location. 'Tab windows for Firefox (introduced by Opera), which is now used by Internet Explorer as well, is one of the most used features. Most of the new features have come from Free and Open Source players like Firefox and Chrome or Opera. Microsoft, in a way, stagnated the browsers. They pulled their socks up when their competitors started taking over their market share. 
 
According to a report by Net Applications, Internet Explorer's market share has come down.  Firefox and Chrome are increasing their market share.  This is a clear indication that users are not only aware of these two browsers, but also prefer them over Internet Explorer.
 
In addition, Microsoft is accused of not following most of the CSS3 standards and specifications. Most web developers complain of spending hours in making things work for the Internet Explorer.
 
There is no basis in the claims that IE is more user friendly. That some web applications may not work if you don't use IE is not other browser's fault. It is the fault of those companies who exclusively write web applications for IE. Some of the most popular web-based applications including FaceBook and Twitter run very well on Firefox and other Free and Open Source web-browsers.
 
In addition to warning citizens to stay away from Internet Explorer, governments should also consider blocking Microsoft from bundling Windows operating systems with PCs. 
 
There are many alternatives available today, such as GNU/Linux based Ubuntu which are not only cheaper but also much safer. As compared to Microsoft's Windows and other technologies -- which sometimes follow the doctrine of 'security by obscurity' -- these Free and Open Source software believe in the principle of 'security by design'. Why should a user pay extra money or the so-called 'Microsoft Tax' to buy a PC?
 
There must also be an investigation into why major hardware players like HP force users to buy hardware with Windows pre-installed. Users must have the freedom to buy a machine with or without the operating system. Users must have the freedom to buy a machine without Windows on it. Governments must shut some windows on Microsoft and open the 'doors' for freedom and Linux.

The Linus' law holds strong here: given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.

Another interesting read:Why HP Doesn't Need Microsoft