I actually got to see the big 'e' in person, which has been turned face-down and the big foam Mozilla standing atop it. The Netscape folks also managed to spray paint "Netscape Now" on the side of the 'e' facing the corner of Ellis and Middlefield Rd, where Netscape's corporate offices are located in Mountain View. I actually got a couple of pictures of this and once I get them developed, you bet I'll have a scan of that puppy on my site. ;-)
Now, onto the real issue at hand, why I won't install Internet Explorer at home...
First of all, let's talk about the sheer size of Internet Explorer. 13 megs for just the browser. For all the components, which includes an email client, web page editor, collaboration software, and chat client, it's a 25 megabyte download. After you download and install it, you're talking a full 55 megabytes. To contrast, the browser-only version of Netscape Navigator 4.03 is a mere 8 megabytes. Netscape Communicator Pro is about a 16 megabyte download and about 29 megabytes fully installed on my hard disk. I can't spare the time to download it, let alone the space to install it. At least Microsoft has a secure website on which you can get it on CD for a nominal fee.
Second of all, the full version of Internet Explorer completely redoes your Windows 95 user interface. In other words, it's not just a web browser. I haven't actually tried the "True Web Integration," as it is dubbed my Microsoft. My main fear is that I won't be able to turn it off. I'm at least used to Windows 95 as it is now, but I don't want to have to re-learn to use my computer.
Third, the technologies implemented in Internet Explorer, particularly ActiveX and the new Channel Definition Format (or CDF), needle my security risk meter. ActiveX is a technology much like Java whereby small programs become imbedded seamlessly into a web page, but ActiveX controls essentially have complete access to your operating system because it basically execute OS-native code. Java does not contain machine-specific code and runs in a reasonably safe "sandbox" that severely limits direct access to the operating system. Channel Definition Format has a particularly disturbing feature whereby the channel provider can request that information about accesses to their content be uploaded to them via an HTTP PUT. Aside from the obvious issues with giving channel providers information about your viewing habits without your knowledge or consent, a malicious programmer could possibly use CDF to get additional information off your computer without your knowledge. It's also possible to write an ActiveX applet to use CDF to upload information about your computer and/or pull interesting files on your system, all while getting around your corporate firewall. Of course, nobody has actually done anything like this yet, but give it time.
The fourth reason I won't install it is that I've heard several reports that once you install Internet Explorer 4.0 on Windows 95 or NT, un-installing the product is next to impossible. I can uninstall Netscape Communicator quite easily and without damaging my system. This is reportedly not the case with Internet Explorer 4.0 because it also removes some important system files, making the system unusuable without re-installing Windows 95.
My browser of choice is Netscape and probably will remain that way for the foreseeable future. It interoperates with just about everything, runs on any platform I'll probably ever use, and does not require the latest version of Windows. Microsoft, on the other hand, pays "lip service" to being cross-platform. Microsoft optimizes Internet Explorer for certain operating systems, namely Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. The released Mac version of Internet Explorer 4.0 was announced at the 1998 MacWorld Conference in San Francisco, CA. They currently have a preview version for for Sun Solaris and Windows 3.1. The Netscape browser runs on the Mac and just about any flavour of Unix out there, including Linux. That may not be important to you, but when I decide to change computing environments, I feel safe in knowing that my choice in Internet browsers will run in my new environment and it will not be drastically different than it is in Windows.
Internet Explorer, and just about everything else Microsoft, basically ties you into Microsoft products, namely whatever happens to be the current version of Windows. Let's see... Microsoft puts out a new OS every couple of years or so, most of the new products will only run on the new operating system, and every time a new operating system comes out, we basically have to throw everything away and repurchase stuff we've already bought. And Microsoft has the audacity to prime everyone for the next release already. Microsoft is asking corporate America to deploy NT 4.0 only to rip it all out in a year or two when NT 5.0 comes out -- and they're doing it with a straight face. You might think it costs you a lot of time and money upgrading your one computer at home to a new operating system. Imagine a large company having to do it to thousands upon thousands of systems. Most of Corporate America just won't do it because there's no guarantee the time, effort, and money will be well spent.
My point is, Microsoft's browser opens my computer up to unknown risks and ties me into Microsoft's product line. And PhoneBoy don't play that game.