Oddly enough, Microsoft is promoting the beta 2 version of IE8 on various websites on the net. After seeing the ad three times I couldn’t resist clicking for ‘a faster, better, more secure experience’ and ‘a web browser designed for the enterprise’. Let’s see what the hype is all about.
Installation
When I clicked the download button, I was really expecting a 80 MB download followed by half and hour of installation and a Windows reboot cycle; I had sort of a kamikaze feeling, not knowing if my machine will boot again normally.
But instead I was amazed to be looking at a 15.9MB self-extracting archive that installed in under 2 minutes and clicking Next only three times! This is a big improvement in my opinion, although it’s still twice as large as Firefox 3 at 7.1 MB.
Another noteworthy aspect is speed: both start-up and page load time have been, in my case, noticeably faster.
Features
If you’ve been keeping up with the development you’ll know most of the improvements listed here:
- Web Slices: parts of webpages that can be stored for quick access right in the toolbar; for example the upcoming stories for Digg.
- Suggested Sites: recommend you websites based on previously visited pages.
- Accelerator: apparently this manages to integrate different sources of information into one page – making searching things faster; I’m going to look further into this.
- InPrivate Browsing Mode: Similar to Safari’s ‘Private Browsing’ feature it prevents IE from storing history, cookies or other ‘tracks’.
- Google Gears and Windows Live Writer integration.
- Opera style overview of currently open tabs.
- Highlights the domain name in the address bar and prominently featured security certificates.
Conclusion
It’s not bad at all, and so far it hasn’t crashed or caused any problems. Worth the time for any Internet Explorer users. For the rest of us, who can’t get enough of the Firefox plugins – put your mouse down and continue browsing.
And a little fun fact, 3,26% of visitors to the Tux Geek use IE8, 8% Safari and 75% Firefox. Get IE8 here.
Smudge
November 17, 2008
IE8 had definitely impressed me ever since I attended a presentation by Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager of IE. While I worry about its bulkiness, it definitely addresses a lot if issues Microsoft saw with the previous IE versions. I find it interesting how much money Microsoft has been sinking into projects like this which, in the end, are available for free.
codyjoe
November 18, 2008
ie8 is still far behind firefox, this is just more of the same. Get over it………..Microsoft is left in the dust!
Smudge
November 18, 2008
I mean… I still use Firefox, and I don't plan on changing. However, given what I have seen about IE8, I think it deserves more credit than it sometimes seems to be getting. At the very least, I'll install it and use it as a back-up browser.
Chris Morin
November 18, 2008
Techie's complain about IE, but we have to face it folks.. if you have a meter that can see what browsers people use when they visit the site.. mine stands at close to 80% still use IE
John Jones
November 18, 2008
I still gotta feeling FireFox will kick it to the curb!
Jiff
http://www.privacy.mx.tc
vance dubbery
November 18, 2008
Um how about we stop adding usless trash and get the browser to run quickly and correctly.
Rascal999
November 18, 2008
IE7 loads localhost faster than Firefox I find. And when using a proxy to get online, Firefox spams the user/password box so many times and asks for it so much, IE7 doesn't. But still, guess what browser I'm using atm…
iStig
November 18, 2008
In the suggested sites: no Reddit, Stumbleupon or any other Digg-type site? Those would seem the most obvious suggestions, not two instances of "u-tube."
James-O
November 18, 2008
Forget both of 'em – firefox is bloaty-fox and a memory hog… onwards to Opera!
capb
November 18, 2008
i like the threaded implementation in IE. I don't know if Firefox has it out of the box. in IE8 if a tab crashes, it doesn't bring down the whole browser!
Murali
November 18, 2008
IE is not free, you pay it through windows. If IE had security problems, it gets carried over to windows OS. So, Microsoft should put much money on IE as they base their OS on browser.
Shiggity
November 18, 2008
From a web designer's point of view, I have high hopes for IE 8. IE 7 was still pretty bad compared to Firefox 2 and IE 6 is just like kill me now. Let's wait and see.
valugi
November 18, 2008
one vote for Opera also from my part. Very fast browser and althought I use firefox for development and IE for testing I think Opera is the best browser for a normal internet user.
stelt
November 18, 2008
IE is the only browser not doing SVG.
And that won’t change soon, so its marketshare will keep dropping.
brad
November 19, 2008
Opera blows, it has all kinds of weird little quirks in rendering CSS and other basic web design code. Firefox is pretty good but has gotten too bulky and slow. Safari's not too bad, but also is bulky-ish. Chrome has potential and is fast and light.
SelvaGK
November 19, 2008
u forgot about the safari on windows..works on webkit
Petko
November 19, 2008
Good morning Microsoft!
It's 2008, and you've been in a coma for several years!
Then all of a sudden you remember that you have a browser which is sooo outdated.
I run a version of the Beta1, and this is what i have to say about that (will test the Beta 2 soon):
We have tabs, and tabs that run in one window, regardless of the zone (woooooow, i'm so amazed! Not!)
We have accelerators??? I have yet to find a use for them, but i have them non the less.
I have a search! It works! Unbelievable! It took them to version 8 to get a working search! This alone is worth the upgrade.
Some websites work better now.
Some websites break. (cant have it all, i guess).
It's slow as hell. Man, you click on open new tab, hell freezes over, you make some coffee, hell melts down again, and then the tab will open.
Conclusion:
It's nowhere near to what firefox is doing, but it's a step in the right direction. If you want a decent browsing experience, then definitely FF3, and give Chrome try as well.
jetrry
November 19, 2008
Opera forever
Toyyo
November 19, 2008
I would have called the feature "Private Browsing" Porn Mode… Way faster to find in the menus.
phunokhan
November 19, 2008
Screw them all, i think webkit rocks. Try Google Chrome or Konqueror (khtml)
brinebold
November 22, 2008
Actually, Opera displays just about everything correctly according to W3 standards. The problem is that nobody can write a website according to those standards or the people still using IE4-6 can't see it correctly and even IE7 has several issues. Opera wrote a real Internet browser, Firefox wrote a lighter and leaner Internet Explorer emulator with additional features.
If your code isn't standardized then IE does whatever IE does and webmasters program around it, Firefox does its best to display things the way webmasters have to assume they'll display (aka like IE), and Opera just says this is what was coded so this is what you get. That's where most of the Opera "quirks" come from, webmasters view the results of their code in IE and Firefox and if it doesn't display correctly then they have to change it until it does.
Nothing negative against Firefox implied, they wrote what was most useful to their user base: something that displays most websites the way that most webmasters tested them.
Adam
February 10, 2009
Conlusion?
WOFall
February 10, 2009
"Opera style overview of currently open tabs."
Sorry, but although i love Opera, they did not invent this. In fact, Opera doesn't even have this feature… IE7 introduced it, and Firefox 3 has integrated it!