Handbags at dawn?
Web browser rivals Mozilla and Microsoft appear to be locked in a war of words and Mozilla has hit out at Microsoft's Internet Explorer, telling everyone that the software giant's latest release, IE9 is not ‘a modern browser'. Ouch.
Last week Microsoft apparently suggested in a blog post that IE9 provides better HTML5 support than its rivals' offerings, which annoyed Mozilla, whose techie evangelist, Paul Rouget yesterday hit back at Microsoft's claims in his own online rant.
He asked:"Is IE9 a modern browser? NO".
"IE9 is definitely better than IE8 and a step in the right direction, but I don't believe it to be a truly modern browser...IE9: More modern, but not really modern," he added.
Rouget wrote: "Microsoft is bragging a lot about HTML5. They are also suggesting that their HTML5 support is exceptionally good compared to other vendors," and then set about detailing why, with complex graphics and references to standards tests including caniuse.com and html5tests.com to back up his claim.
He went on to list a whole bunch of standards that Microsoft's IE9 does not support, including: HTML5 forms, JavaScript Script Mode and Web Workers, to name a few.
According to The Register, Microsoft resisted the urge to swipe back and responded to Rouget's claims by saying the IE's approach to HTML5 is designed to fit with real-world practices.
"We spent much time researching and looking at what developers are building today and what they want to build tomorrow to define what we build in Internet Explorer 9 today," it reportedly said.
"We used that research to inform our view of HTML5 and the pieces that matter most to designers and developers in building these next set of experiences on the Web. In terms of HTML5 defined, it remains a combination of what developers will want to do and the definitions set forth by the W3C as the ultimate authority in defining standards for the Web," Microsoft apparently added.
