Arrogant dragon will have cause to repent
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Microsoft launches Internet Explorer 10 preview
SOFTWARE FLOGGER Microsoft has revealed the first preview of its Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) web browser, which boasts the CSS3 features gradients, multi-column, flexible box and grid layouts as well as full hardware acceleration.
Internet Explorer 9 is barely out, but Microsoft is keen to steal back lost market share from rivals Mozilla and Google by keeping up the pace of its web browser development. Microsoft is only three weeks into IE10 development, but already it wants to involve developers in the process.
Dean Hachamovitch, corporate VP of Internet Explorer, gave a preview of what people can expect from IE10.
The addition of support for CSS3 gradient backgrounds means that standard markup can be used to achieve backgrounds of gradiating colour that traditionally required the loading of pre-designed images.
CSS3 mutli-column layout was demonstrated by showing how it properly displays information over multiple columns without cutting part off and putting it into a different column, as most web browsers currently do.
The most impressive feature is full hardware acceleration, which Microsoft demoed with an HTML5 display of several hundred fish swimming in a bowl. When compared to the same demo on Chrome, IE10 was considerably faster and smoother.
We tested the fishbowl demo in Chrome and got 3FPS, compared to 60FPS in the IE10 preview. However, the HTML5 water effect did not display correctly in IE10, whereas Chrome had no issues with it.
Microsoft might be lagging behind its rivals in the web browser race, but the features it has added to IE9 and will be adding to IE10 suggest that it is serious about recouping its losses and making Internet Explorer a viable web browser once again. µ
Tags: Microsoft
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"The addition of support for CSS3 gradient backgrounds means that standard markup can be used to achieve backgrounds of gradiating colour that traditionally required the loading of pre-designed images."
Obviously that's important, but is it compatible with the <blink tag? :-)
Hideous!
"making Internet Explorer a viable web browser once again."
Really? IE has not been 'viable'? I have been using it almost exclusively. I'm sure Firefox + Chrome have their adherents but I found IE8 and now IE9 to be rather rock solid on Windows 7, looking forward to improvements but never felt I was missing anything.
I was impressed by IE9's new looks. It pretty much copied every new paradigm and concept from Chrome and Firefox, which isn't the typical M$ modus operandi at all. Which means that M$ is serious about recovering consumer's trust.
I'm hoping that M$ learn about simplicity and that softwares don't need to be bloated and flashing like Vegas to be impressive and useful. And maybe they transfer this knowledge to Office and even Windows itself, because this is what people will keep using for the long term.