For the last few years, Microsoft has tried to separate the modern version of Internet Explorer from its legacy: a relatively slow, insecure browser saddled with proprietary features. Now Mark Hachman reports at PC World that as recently as a few weeks ago, members of the Internet Explorer development team debated renaming the browser, presumably in an effort to eliminate any distaste from the software's earliest days. According to one member of the Explorer Develop Group during an AMA on Reddit: "It's been suggested internally; I remember a particularly long email thread where numerous people were passionately debating it. Plenty of ideas get kicked around about how we can separate ourselves from negative perceptions that no longer reflect our product today," wrote Jonathon Sampson. "The discussion I recall seeing was a very recent one (just a few weeks ago). Who knows what the future holds :)"
(Score: 3) by SpockLogic on Monday August 18 2014, @09:54PM
Call it Netscape New ...
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 18 2014, @10:07PM
Call it chlamydia 'casue no one wants that either.
(Score: 4, Funny) by M. Baranczak on Tuesday August 19 2014, @03:51AM
Call it "Airwolf" because "Firefox" is taken.
(Score: 3, Funny) by tempest on Tuesday August 19 2014, @01:10PM
If Chrome changes to Blue Thunder, I think we could get a trilogy of movies out of the next browser wars.
(Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Tuesday August 19 2014, @06:31PM
And if Exchange is renamed to Manimal, we'd have enough material to start a full-blown religion.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Tuesday August 19 2014, @08:06AM
Explorer of the Internet
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 18 2014, @10:03PM
When it comes to a browser, if it's not open source, I won't even consider using it--even if it's technically superior in features and performance. I'd rather use the slower Firefox browser because I know Mozilla can't intentionally hide anything malicious in there. I wish Chrome was open source and divorced from Google but we'll never get that.
IE is pretty fast too, modern versions on modern hardware. But the lack of add-ons is a dealbreaker, and would be even if it was open source. There's no decent ad-blocker, for one. You need competent developers for an add-on community to form, and competent developers will never use a Microsoft browser.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday August 18 2014, @10:08PM
The only thing Chrome seems to have an edge in is speed and one-thread-per-tab. Perhaps there's another browser having this?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Monday August 18 2014, @10:45PM
Chromium?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 19 2014, @12:33AM
It seems you've never heard of the Underhanded C Contest. [xcott.com] Its a contest demonstrating how easy it is to intentionally hide malicious stuff in innocent-looking code, and the best part is that the executions typically come with plausible deniability - "Oh, I missed an equals sign there? Silly me, I must have been tired."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Subsentient on Tuesday August 19 2014, @03:15AM
Modern compilers draw warnings at stuff like the assignment/equality trick. They demand parenthesis. If anyone insists on including parenthesis for equality, be suspicious.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2) by geb on Tuesday August 19 2014, @10:11AM
Previous winners of the Underhanded C contest have been far, far sneakier than that. It certainly doesn't stop at a single trick. Some of the contest entries have been so subtle that it takes several minutes just to see that there is a problem, even in a two line sample, having been told in advance that something is awry.
Being suspicious isn't enough.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jasassin on Tuesday August 19 2014, @11:30AM
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SE_Linux [wikipedia.org]
In mainline kernel since 2003. Created by the US Department of Defense, from original concepts and code of guess who... the US National Security Agency. I checked my CyanogenMod and yes its cooked in. If what you say about hiding doors is that easy, Linux is fucked too. Yes? No?
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 4, Insightful) by geb on Tuesday August 19 2014, @12:23PM
It's difficult to say.
The examples from the underhanded C contest were the work of individuals given a few months and a strictly defined single task to work on. They came up with backdoors that were well hidden, but not perfectly immune to discovery, and most of them would have been found if they were in active use. The winning entries tend to be ones where the author could say "Oh, whoops. Honest mistake." if they were blamed.
I don't think you can take that experience and directly scale it up to the level of the linux kernel. More places to hide, but more people looking. Far more talent going into both backdooring and securing, at genius level on both sides. Very high stakes. If even a single flaw is found, an NSA contributor can't fall back on claiming to be a hobbyist making a n00b error.
Heartbleed stands out as a better example for comparison. It might have been a genuine error. It might have just been plausibly deniable. We can't know.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Monday August 18 2014, @10:05PM
Or Chropera!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Pseudonymous Coward on Monday August 18 2014, @10:57PM
Why don't you just call it "Cholera" while you're at it?
(Score: 2) by bugamn on Monday August 18 2014, @11:56PM
Let's go with the more recent trends. Call it Ebola!
(Score: 4, Funny) by kaszz on Tuesday August 19 2014, @01:13AM
Trendy and fashion sensitive browser.. :P
Infectious Ebola also called IE ..!!
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Tuesday August 19 2014, @08:27PM
At least they could continue using the stylized E logo then.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Monday August 18 2014, @11:53PM
Copro d'opera?
A shit by any other name would stink as bad.
(authorship unknown, assumed William Gatespeare)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday August 18 2014, @10:06PM
Internet Explorer for exploits will always be tainted as long as Microsoft is making the decisions. It's fucked if you so will.
Only if they divorce the mother company, fire any staff that got to much indoctrination and does a heavy refactoring of the code. Will they have any serious shoot at gaining any trust. Otoh, any US corporation currently will have an issue of being trustworthy due to the letter-from-the-men-in-black risks posed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 18 2014, @11:41PM
They renamed "Patch Tuesday" and held the first "Update Tuesday" last week. Look how well that worked out for them.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday August 19 2014, @01:15AM
They better update the name to "Wrecking Tuesday" ;)
(also known as wreckday - BYOD to get any useful work done day..)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 19 2014, @01:25AM
I've seen that there are ways to run some versions e.g. under WINE.
Are any of those currently supported versions of IE?
I know that the Windoze Registry only allows 1 version to be installed at a time under Windoze.
Does anyone run IE without a M$ OS?
Are any web developers using that to check the viewability of W3C-compliant code with the least-compliant browser?
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday August 18 2014, @10:08PM
"The browser formerly know as 'IE'"
"Not-blue Screen of Death"
"Farefox"
But until Microsoft can produce a browser that can stand alone from the operating system (do they dare? Has the statute of limitations expired?), we will just have to keep calling it :
"Windows"
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday August 18 2014, @10:28PM
DINIE (I'll let you work it out ;) )
Or DISIE where the 'S' is for 'still'
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday August 18 2014, @10:30PM
Actually SISIE works even better.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday August 18 2014, @11:26PM
Invasive Expl0it
Sounds like a disease that must be put under strict CDC control. :P
OR..
Imbreeded Excrements from Microsoft MBA team.
(I'm not nice to Microsoft, no, but their favors are just returned)
(Score: 3) by Dunbal on Monday August 18 2014, @10:24PM
NSA backdoor
NSA frontdoor
Microsoft Bugsharer
Microsoft Pwnage
Internet Vulnerator
Internet Adventurer
(Score: 3, Insightful) by el_oscuro on Monday August 18 2014, @10:27PM
... Or the old classic:
Internet Exploder
SoylentNews is Bacon! [nueskes.com]
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Monday August 18 2014, @10:44PM
Windows Explorer (Oh wait, that's what they already did!)
BloatMax
Microshaft Idiot Exploiter (Though that name is a bit 1998)
Microsoft Internet eXPerience
Microsoft Internet 95_98_XP_7_Totally_not_an_association_fallacy
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 18 2014, @10:56PM
first there was Bob
then came Zune
and now we have Surface
Bob Zuned out on the Surface of the sand and gently wept.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by evilviper on Monday August 18 2014, @11:40PM
Actually, "Internet Explorer" is just about the perfect name. FOSS developers fail so miserably at naming, and should take a lesson from this.
If I was a clueless user and wanted to browse the INTERNET, what would I first think to use? "Mozilla," "Firefox," "Opera," or something else that has "Internet" right in the name?
"Photoshop" versus "GIMP" is just one more example. "Winamp" isn't perfect, but pretty good, compared with "XMMS" or "Audacious", and "iTunes" and "Windows Media Center" both hit it out of the park.
Forget the clueless users, even, and look at how you find software... How many times have you discovered that there was some application for task-X that you didn't know about, despite it being in the yum/dpkg list of your system?
When looking for an IRC client, I'm hardly going to expect "BitchX" is what I want. When looking for a new file manager, "Nautilus", "Konq" and "Dolphin" doesn't mean a damn thing to me... etc.
Sure, you could go for multi-million dollar ad campaigns to get your product's name out there (Firefox), or you could just damn-well name it properly in the first place, so someone looking for it, will find it...
A name should be descriptive, not obscure. Copyright-ability is not of any particular value.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 19 2014, @01:37AM
It's only "perfect" if you don't acknowledge that there was another "Explorer" before that one (and that that app still exists).
...and that humans tend to shorten the names of everything.
...then there are the folks that call it "IE". Huh? Obvious?
FOSS developers fail so miserably at naming[...]"Photoshop" versus "GIMP"
Graphical Image Manipulation Package. So cryptic. /sarc
See "shorten the names", above.
See "IE", above.
"Winamp"
Are you kidding? That's supposed to be obvious?
mplayer beats that.
A name I like is ogle.
Audio players are an even easier category: songbird, mpg123, atunes.
Copyright-ability is not of any particular value
Google-ability, however, is.
Windows? Word? Office? Money? .NET? WTF? See "shorten the names", above.
When Windoze gets a package manager, maybe finding Windoze-compatible apps will be easy.
Until then, FOSS OSes win at finding new software.
...and it's so freaking difficult to go to the forum for your distro and ask
"What do you guys use for ________?".
-- gewg_
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Tuesday August 19 2014, @03:09AM
Oh come on, nobody is that clueless anymore. Go ask your grandmother. Even SHE knows the name of more than one browser. She also has learned the difference between a name and a function, she can buy a Ford or a Honda, and is not limited to buying a something with the word "car" in its name SmartCar.
I'm always astounded how many people come posting how everyone in the world is dumber then hell, while always excluding themselves from that group.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Tuesday August 19 2014, @06:03AM
If you'd read HALFWAY through my post, you'd see I didn't exclude myself at all.
If you can't be bothered to read HALFWAY through a comment, you have nothing to offer in response, and I'm sure not going to be bothered to read anything you have to say.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Tuesday August 19 2014, @03:08PM
You should speak to my mother-in-law. She will change your mind. You'd understand what I mean after a few minutes, but it's most frustrating when you work with her one-on-one for several hours, write everything down for her, and within two weeks she still has trouble surfing on the Internet.
In short, those people still exist. And more on topic, evilviper was right on target. I'd love to find more programs in Linux Mint, but most names suck and I can't find jack. I've had to find most of my programs through random surfing on the Internet, Soylent News, and (before SN) Slashdot.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Adamsjas on Tuesday August 19 2014, @03:12AM
"A name should be descriptive, not obscure. "
Says they guy posting as Evilviper.
(Score: 1) by evilviper on Tuesday August 19 2014, @06:08AM
Picked it on a whim 20 years ago, and it just wasn't practical to start over. It works as well as any, so I'm hardly motivated.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday August 19 2014, @02:02PM
soooo, you're saying you're neither evil or viper then? Just want to confirm things.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1) by Refugee from beyond on Tuesday August 19 2014, @07:04AM
So, what do you do when you have more than 1 browser? Hundred different programs named "Internet Explorers" isn't going to help people.
Instantly better soylentnews: replace background on article and comment titles with #973131.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Tuesday August 19 2014, @05:36PM
You can do all kinds of variations with the words Internet, Web, etc. And "Explorer" isn't needed at all... most any other word will do just fine.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 1) by Refugee from beyond on Tuesday August 19 2014, @07:33PM
I'd like to see how fast this devolves into “[Vendor]'s browser” in the wild…
Instantly better soylentnews: replace background on article and comment titles with #973131.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Wednesday August 20 2014, @12:28AM
"browser" is a TERRIBLE name. You can "browse" ANYTHING. Only techies would associate a browser with internet/web/youtube/facebook.
"Internet" or "Web" is good, and I'm sure I could come up with more if I was so motivated.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 1) by Refugee from beyond on Wednesday August 20 2014, @07:39AM
Doesn't matter. I was talking about people who will use those browsers.
Instantly better soylentnews: replace background on article and comment titles with #973131.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday August 19 2014, @09:26PM
Well, the menu item to start Firefox in my Linux distro is "Firefox Web Browser". So where's the problem, again?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Wednesday August 20 2014, @12:26AM
That helps, but it doesn't show-up that way in a yum or dpkg/apt search, or any other way you'd look for and access it.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 18 2014, @11:42PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho-YcPI8xCM#t=41 [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 18 2014, @11:46PM
Internet AIDS
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday August 18 2014, @11:58PM
The very reason I don't fuck Microsoft. Even with a condom... (you don't know when the bitch will start to bite you).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 19 2014, @12:07AM
Ebola
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 19 2014, @12:39AM
The important thing is to change the user agent!
wait? they already have done that? I guess MSIE was a bit too tainted?
instead it says that mozilla likes geckos now....
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday August 19 2014, @01:25AM
if( useragent == Microsoft from Evilmond ) THEN Paywall "You must pay the community service tax to counter that you sponsring corporate crimes of computing" ;)
Some explorers seems vurnable to the uuencode..
begin 0666 oouch.exe
(Score: 1) by Refugee from beyond on Tuesday August 19 2014, @07:07AM
It won't help if those "perceptions" are true, though. So, why bother? Just give up.
Instantly better soylentnews: replace background on article and comment titles with #973131.
(Score: 2) by Boxzy on Tuesday August 19 2014, @09:08AM
The one they will pick is:
Metro Browser.
You know they will. It's inevitable.
Go green, Go Soylent.
(Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Tuesday August 19 2014, @11:09AM
They can't use Metro, they already lost a court case over that. Instead it'll be Modern Interface Browser, or M.I.B., like the people that show up at at your door when you use it to look up house hold chemicals and fertilizer.
"Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday August 19 2014, @09:15AM
This is just one more example of what happens when you fire all the "naysayers".
MSFT's corporate culture has been reduced to, well, a corporate culture. Over the years the aggressive competition policy has been turned inwards and the people who didn't play-ball got silenced and ejected.
Now after meticulous and careful elimination, there's no opposition left when ideas like "tiles", "we're a service company not a product company" and "let re-brand it" come to surface.
compiling...
(Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Tuesday August 19 2014, @11:15AM
Following in the footsteps of "my documents" "my music" (LOL) "my pictures", "my videos", "my pr0n", all the defaults that come with windows, just call it "my internet"
(Score: 2) by tempest on Tuesday August 19 2014, @01:21PM
"my pr0n" "my internet"
Isn't that the same thing?
(Score: 1) by jbWolf on Tuesday August 19 2014, @03:12PM
No. I would use "my internet" when Mom comes down to the basement to talk with me about something.
www.jb-wolf.com [jb-wolf.com]
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday August 19 2014, @02:36PM
Changing the name means nothing. Fire some of these PR twits and hire a better developer or two.
And while you're at it, axe the UX guys.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by halcyon1234 on Tuesday August 19 2014, @05:01PM
Because that's what I do with the hours on every quote I issue that requires making the website work with more than one version of IE.
Original Submission [thedailywtf.com]