So, it appears that installing Netscape 8.0, cousin of Mozilla Firefox, can disrupt the functionality of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer on some web pages. Microsoft has issued a press release and general widespread call with a solution: uninstall Netscape.

Here’s a better solution: throw Internet Explorer into the Recycle bin, where it belongs.

The sorry excuse for a browser is chock full of security holes, has not been substantially improved in six years (an eternity in software time), and is just plain crappy in general. You shouldn’t be using it. When experts bail and businesses urge their employees to chuck a major Microsoft component, you know there’s an excellent reason for it.

Not to mention that, back a decade ago when Netscape was the king of the hill, part of Microsoft’s strategy to crush Netscape included revisions to Windows and Explorer that partially disabled Netscape. Microsoft also avoided popular web standards in favor of their own version of web page coding so as to force web page designers to create their sites for Explorer specifically, shutting out other browsers–in effect, disabling Netscape by changing the world wide web itself. Microsoft has, several times, and intentionally, used its muscle to make Netscape not work as well as it should, discouraging people from using the competing browser.

So, talk about the stove calling the kettle black.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: chuck Explorer, start using Firefox, Mozilla or Netscape. THey are more secure and have far superior features. If you use Explorer, then you should be aware of the fact that the reason you use it is not because it is good–the reason you use it is because it was there when you bought the computer.

What if, when you first got your driver license, you could have taken your father’s decrepit Dodge Dart, or had your parents buy you a new BMW? Would you have taken the Dart simply because it was there in your driveway? That’s how unintelligent it is to use Explorer when far superior browsers are just a few clicks away.