Blue E’s Back!
So, the big tech news for yesterday was that Microsoft officially announced (and subsequently made available for download) the beta version of Internet Explorer 9.0.
This version promises to be the best version of IE9 yet – and signals Microsoft’s intent to re-enter the browser wars with both tabs swinging. I plan on downloading the IE9 beta this weekend, to test on my Windows 7 partition, just to see for myself what all the fuss is about. What immediately drew my attention to this release was Microsoft’s focus on minimalism in its browser interface design. It actually looks quite modern.
Despite the tongue-in-cheek jab within the comic above, I’m really happy to see MS back in the ring. Competition is a good thing. Have the IE9 beta yet? What do you think? For those of you running Windows with another browser, has the IE9 beta convinced you to switch back? Not a fan of IE in general? Which browser du jour represents your favorite (and why)?
Share your thoughts and missives below! (oh, and slap me some feedback on the ‘toon, if you can!)
-Krishna
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Tell me what you think!
PhilJo
September 16, 2010 at 3:25 amI’ll be honest I share Bob’s mistrust of MS and all their evil works and empty promises.
However initial reports sound good and if it actually complies with css3 and advances towards HTML5 compliance, then it will make web-developers’ lives easier at least.
That said I expect a future update to auto install Silverlight, refuse to have anything to do with flash and generally behave like you’d expect MS to ;)
Charles
September 16, 2010 at 9:15 amI can’t lie…I’m kinda looking forward to the new IE…but it has to be miiiighty good to unclinch Chrome’s claws from me
Kiponeil
September 16, 2010 at 10:19 amI’m actually kinda excited for IE9, not for myself, but for the millions of people who are still using IE. If they’re not going to switch to firefox or Chrome, they might as well get a better browser from MS.
docstar
September 16, 2010 at 10:30 pmI shall try it, as i currently use IE8 for hulu, but i use firefox for my everyday browsing. Main reason is the add-ons, mostly greasemonkey and scripts i use for an online game i play, otherwise i would most likely use chrome for it’s minimalist design.
Theala Sildorian
September 17, 2010 at 9:34 amI’ve been unhappy with every version of IE I’ve ever used. Clunky, ugly, slow, and twitchy was bad enough, but add in the security problems and using another browser was a no brainer.
I’ve used Safari, but right now I am using the latest version of Firefox and I’m pretty happy with it.
Reliability is a key issue beyond the security one. My students take their exams online, but Moodle online testing does not work too well with IE 8, and when it crashes the students panic. I’ve never had that issue with Safari or Firefox.
So I’m not even going to try it until plenty of other people have beta tested it extensively.
Adam
September 19, 2010 at 10:18 amI just downloaded it. To be honest it looks and works an awful lot like Chrome. Better than IE8, but there is no feature or features that make me want to switch like I did when I used Chrome for the first time.
They’ve caught up.
mike
September 23, 2010 at 2:10 pmHave been using it for a few days now. Couple crashes here and there (using it to debug some ASP.NET apps) – noticed a couple weirdness issues with Find By Select in dev tools also – and sometimes it just doesn’t load anythign whne you open it but its slick for sure. Like the direction MS is going.