I usually avoid IT issues, but when it comes to comparisons of IE and Firefox I am outspoken.

After wiping out Netscape, Microsoft got lazy and avoided any significant improvements to IE – a typical MS pattern – making life for all of us miserable. Here’s how the pattern works: Wipe out your competition by offering for free what they offered for a price, and bundle it into the Windows operating system and claim it’s an indispensable part of the overall OS that can’t be left out. Then, after your competitor falls on his sword, Microsoft forgets all about it, jumping to improve the product only after the imminent threat of competition looms over them.

And what a threat Firefox turned out to be! Its elegance and simplicity make IE look downright medieval. The joys of tabbed browsing literally transform your online experience, especially if you are a blogger – you can easily hop from story to story to grap copy, with all tabs visible in a single window. Only now, years after Firefox changed the way the world works, is Microsoft playing copycat and adding tabbed browsing to IE.

All Microsoft seems able to do is try, rather feebly, to catch up with Firefox. Walt Mossberg, the most important IT reporter in the country (only because no one else comes close when it comes to influencing the public’s buying choices) had this to say.

I have been testing IE 7, and I agree with Microsoft that it’s much improved. If you are a confirmed IE user, upgrading to this new version makes perfect sense, because it is likely to be more secure and its new features make Web browsing better. But if you are already using Firefox, IE’s main competitor, I see nothing in IE 7 that should make you switch. It’s mostly a catch-up release, adding to IE some features long present in Firefox and other browsers. The one big feature in IE 7 that wasn’t already in Firefox, a built-in detector that warns against fraudulent Web sites, is being added to Firefox in version 2.0.

The new Internet Explorer, which is free, runs only on the latest revision of Windows XP and the forthcoming Windows Vista operating system, while Firefox offers nearly identical versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux computers. IE 7 will be offered automatically to Windows XP users — gradually over the next few months — via the Windows update program. Microsoft will also make it available for manual download….

But the most important new security feature in IE 7 — something called Protected Mode, which stops Web sites from changing your computer’s important files or settings — will work only in the new Vista version of Windows, due next year, not in Windows XP.

Ironically, the improved security in the new version may erode IE’s greatest strength: its broad compatibility with Web sites. Some sites may not work properly in IE 7 because techniques they used are blocked by the new security features.

In addition to matching IE 7’s antiphishing warning feature, Firefox 2.0 will feature a spell checker, a system for suggesting popular search terms, and a way to resume where you left off after a crash, among other things.

The new Internet Explorer is a solid upgrade, but it’s disappointing that after five years, the best Microsoft could do was to mostly catch up to smaller competitors.

Disappointing, but not at all surprising. In fact, it was depressingly predictable. I cringe when I go to Internet cafes in Asia, where there is no choice but to use IE. And since most of the computers in these Internet cafes are antiques, I doubt we’ll be seeing many of them upgrading to the new version of IE anytime soon. What a trail of misery, pain and mediocrity Microsoft has left in its wake, making life unnecessarily miserable for so many of its customers.

Update: If it was unclear to anyone, I don’t like Microsoft.

UPDATE 2: My company just issued this global email:

IE 7 compatibility issues with [company name] systems
Date/Time: October 19, 2006 / 1:30 PM (EDT)

Notice: Microsoft has just released a new version of their web browser called Internet Explorer version 7. This new version is currently not compatible with all of our applications, including eRoom’s and Time Entry. If you connect to the company systems from a home computer we advise you to not upgrade to this version at this time. I.T. will notify the company when applications become compatible.

Luckily we finally became Firefox-compatible earlier this year. This tells me that once again even more customers will be cursing Microsoft in the days ahead.