If you have even a cursory understanding of web browsers, you probably understand that Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) is one of the worst.

Compared to similar programs it's clunky, slow, and doesn't really work well with most websites (even though it's the second most used browser program in the world).

Anyone with any computer skills will tell you to ditch it -- and now the German government is telling people to do the same.

It all goes back to a security flaw in the latest version of IE that was discovered over the weekend. According to experts, the error allows hackers to infect computers using the program to surf the web with bug that can take over the machine. All it takes is visiting the wrong website.

Microsoft is on the case and has released a temporary fix that users can download and install while they wait for the hole to be patched in the latest update of Internet Explorer, which should take about a week, but Germany's Federal Office for Information Security has released a public announcement advising people to use any of the other available browser programs like Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Opera.

Shh! Did you hear that noise? We're pretty sure every nerd in the world just released a collective international snort of contempt at having been told not to use IE.

As if! 

Video: Internet Explorer Commercial