September 24, 1999

Dear Travis,

I read your page, BEST VIEWED WITH NETSCAPE AT 800x600, about five times this summer, and the hate mail page too. I'm writing because I think you're wrong about a lot of things, but I don't think you're dumb, and I don't think you deserve hate mail. So this isn't hate mail. It's more like a debate, like in social studies, except I get to go second, which is an advantage. I'll go through your points in order.

"It runs on everything." You're right. Navigator runs on Windows and Macs and Linux, and there's no IE for Linux. I can't argue with that. All I can say is that there IS an Internet Explorer for Macs (the iMacs in our computer lab have it), and that I only have one computer and it runs Windows 98. If I had Linux I'd probably be on your side for that one.

"BLINK works." I know you're kidding, mostly. But I really think IE not doing BLINK is a good thing. If something is important, make it bold or put it at the top. My eyes hurt just thinking about it.

"Composer comes with it." That's a real point. Netscape's editor is right there in the box. Windows 98 came with FrontPage Express, which is kind of the same idea, but I admit I didn't even know it was on our computer until July, and you said yourself you only used Composer for a week before you went to Notepad. Me too, with FrontPage Express. So I think we both agree that real webmasters use Notepad.

"Messenger does e-mail AND newsgroups in the same window." So does Outlook Express. It came with IE. I'm not saying it's better, I'm just saying it does that too.

"The source code is free." I have to admit that's cool. I wouldn't know what to do with the source code of a whole browser, but I admit it's cool that they gave it away.

"It isn't glued into Windows." I've never tried to take IE off our computer, so I can't argue about that one. I'll leave it alone.

"The N with the shooting stars." It's cool. I'll say that on my own page, and I did. I like the blue e with the ring around it. We can both be right about this one.

"MARQUEE only scrolls in IE." But that's not the marquee's fault! The marquee works fine. It works in the browser most people use. I put one on my page, and I wrote it so it still makes sense standing still in Netscape, which I think is the fair way to do it.

"Best viewed with Internet Explorer" pages with IE-only scripts. I'm with you on this one 100 percent. A page where the menu doesn't open in Netscape is a broken page. I'd be mad too.

"It comes on every new computer already." So does Solitaire. That doesn't make Solitaire bad. Also, I didn't just use what came on our computer. Ours came with IE 4 and I went and got IE 5 myself, on purpose, and tied up the phone all night. That counts as choosing.

Your uncle calls it "the blue E." Your uncle is right that it's blue.

The channels on the desktop. Nobody clicks those. You win this one. I took ours off the first week.

800x600. I agree completely. Our monitor is 15 inches and that's what it's set to. 640x480 looks like a coloring book.

Your poll. I did one too, in my homeroom. But here's the thing about yours. You had 4 people say "whatever AOL is." Those 4 people are using IE inside AOL. That's how AOL shows web pages. So really it's 13 IE and 12 Netscape on your bus, and that's before your uncle with Lynx. Also, you said the 6 IE people who use what came on the computer don't count as choosing. That's fair. But I bet some of the Netscape people on your bus are using it because somebody in their house put it there, which is also what came on the computer, just a different person put it on.

Your 9/12/99 update. I thought this was the most honest thing on your whole page. You tried IE 5, and it opened your page faster, and it showed your links table even though you left out a </td> and the </table>. Then you said IE is a bad influence because it lets you be sloppy. I don't think so. IE didn't leave out the </table>. It just showed you your page anyway. And then you found the mistake and fixed it, so it all worked out. After I read that, I tested my own page in Netscape at the library and found I'd left off a </table> too. So thanks for that. Really.

Netscape 5. When it comes out, I promise I'll try it, and I'll put what I think on my page, even if I like it.

Kirk. The man on your mail page who builds web sites for a living, and said the best thing is to make the page work everywhere and brag about that. You said you were thinking about it. I thought about it too. I think he's right. I think a good page works in both, and I think that's the real answer to the browser war, and I think you know it, because your page looks fine in IE. (Probably.)

Anyway, that's my side. You can put this on your hate mail page if you want, but it isn't hate mail, so maybe you need a new page for it.

Your opponent (but not your enemy),

Fernando
IE 5 HQ

P.S. My mom read your page over my shoulder and said you seem like a nice boy. I told her that's not the point.