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Internet Explorer 9 beta
INTERNET EXPLORER (IE) has seen its market share drop dramatically in recent years to less than 50 per cent of the market, with many unhappy punters ditching it in favour of faster and more feature-rich alternatives such as Firefox and Chrome. However, with the beta release of IE9 now upon us, it's fair to ask whether Microsoft is finally back on track with the next version of its much criticised web browser.
Among the new features in IE9 are enhanced support for web standards such as HTML5 and CSS3, along with hardware accelerated graphics, which shifts some of the donkey work to the GPU.
Microsoft has previously released several Technical Previews of IE9, but the beta is the first version to showcase its new minimalist user interface, which is designed to be as unobtrusive as possible. Just a few controls are visible at the top of the browser window, including forward and back buttons and the web address bar, which also now combines the functionality of the search box from IE8. To the right is a Home button, while a star icon indicates Favourites and a gear wheel accesses the menus for other browser settings.
This minimalist design does provide a larger area for displaying web content, but it could confuse some users until they work out how to find all the functions that used to be available from drop-down menus in IE8 and earlier versions of the browser. In tests, we found the IE9 beta stable and responsive, and we had few problems accessing websites, although some web-based applications required us to hit the compatibility button, introduced in IE8, before they would display properly.
One of the more interesting new features in IE9 is the way it makes better use of modern PC hardware. As well as having a new Javascript engine that can take advantage of multi-core processors to share the processing load, IE9 uses Microsoft's DirectX APIs to accelerate graphics and sound. Microsoft provides a demonstration of the performance boost this can give with an animated fish tank, accessible from its IE Test Drive website.
On our test PC, IE9 was able to keep up a decent rate of 60 frames per second when animating 100 on-screen fish, whereas Firefox could only manage a relatively sluggish seven to 10 frames per second with the same scene. However, users should not get the impression that IE9 is suddenly leading the way in browser innovation. Some new features of this beta, such as the ability to 'tear off' a tab as a separate browser window, are already supported in the latest version of Firefox.
The HTML5 demos on Microsoft's webpage also appear to work equally well with Firefox, while we found that some CSS3 effects, such as applying shadows behind text, are already implemented in release versions of Firefox but not supported in the IE9 beta. Nevertheless, Microsoft has greatly improved its compliance with web standards. Under the Acid3 test from the Web Standards Project, IE9 scores an impressive 95 out of 100, just beating Firefox 3.6 which scores 94.
Other new features of IE9 include the ability to pin a web site to the taskbar in Windows 7, which provides a shortcut from which users can open favourite websites directly. Websites that are pinned this way can add jump lists - pop-up menus introduced in Windows 7 - to access webpages or features. This even extends to play and pause controls for embedded media objects inside pinned web sites. Microsoft also provides a demonstration of this on its IE Test Drive webpage.
More welcome are the security improvements added to Microsoft's Smartscreen Filter technology. In the IE9 beta, this extends to protect against malware in adverts on webpages, and offers more relevant warnings about downloads. The latter feature, download reputation, checks unsigned executables against a database to see if the file has been downloaded often before. If not, it issues a stronger warning against downloading and running the file.
Overall, we found that IE9 beta looks good, and the final release should be a worthy rival for Firefox and Chrome when it ships, although there is as yet no news on when this might be.
Some recent news stories have indicated that the release version of IE9 will only run on Windows 7 with SP1 installed, but Microsoft has moved to clarify the situation. IE9 will require some operating system components that are in SP1, but these will be downloaded automatically if a user installs IE9 on a machine with the current Windows 7 release code. However, IE9 will not run on any version of Windows XP, only Windows Vista or Windows 7. µ
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@Valdaquende You hit the nail on the head brother. I went into my local Ford dealership yesterday looking to buy an Edsel. Dang, all they had was 2010 year models! Not a new Edsel to be found. How they can close out old models and shove newer stuff down my throat is just beyond me. Must be some sort of conspiracy since I can't find a good, quality typewriter or a wind-up wrist watch. This is just not fair. How dare they change their product lines without consulting me!
And apparently they've been doing this for decades behind my back.
Having tried to find and download IE8 for a client, in order to use some tools that require ActiveX, I found, to my dismay, that the Windows 7 version of IE8 is no longer available for download. It appears that, if one wants an ActiveX-enabled browsing experience, you MUST download and use IE9 beta.
Apparently, Microsoft has decided that the public should simply be forced to act as beta testers for software not yet ready for release.
To illustrate how un-ready this application is, simply click on the IE9 beta download link. This will bring up a page outlining a number of known issues with the software and, in the case of Windows 7, users are advised to verify, or download and install no fewer than 4 patches and updates that address known problems with IE9 beta.
It is disturbing that MS would consider it appropriate to eliminate any previous fully-developed versions of an application in order to shoe-horn everyone into the beta software they want to peddle next.
Curious That IE9 Opens lIGHT of Heavens, With Golden Pillars & Warm ChestNuts Glowing For Masses That Thrieve Upon Wit of
Thomas Stewart vondrashek. How So.
IE8, Next to %page size Menu & between Protected Mode Indicator, Has Block Function. Logo Much Like Incsive Monster of Space from Outer Limits, Logo. Try Menue, Auto Block for Specific Word or names or Complete Pages. If Mike Magee Too Rich, Block That Name, Never to Be Seen On Red'r screen Again. Richer.
On IE9, Such priviledge Is NO Longer On Bottom of Page Bar Function. DRASHEK Is Free To Rule. How About That For Improvement. Ehhhhh. Arghh, Alass My Heartees', Drashek Victory Parade Is About To Start. Moore Drashek, Moore Drashek, Crowd Chants.
After Enslaving Peepers For Thousands of Years, Drashek Wins Hon Senate Seat. Drashek Forces Mass For Kill Scene.House of Lords Cheers. Enraptured , Life Goes On, Pure vondrashek in Pose. Never Has English Language Exhaulted So High, QEII States, " Thank God Drashek Is Now Universally Aclaimed In Empire on IE9.
OBEY DRASHEK.
Signed:Mysterian of Verb.
Regarding your comment about innovation and IE9 allowing users to tear off a tab into a new browser window, much like the furryfox. It should not be forgotten that Opera users have been able to do this for a very long time now.
Innovation is one thing, playing catch up is quite another altogether.
To be fair, a three-legged giraffe with epilepsy is more stable than anything from Mozilla these days.
Used to be a big FFX fan but have recently found myself shifting my allegiance bookmark by bookmark to this beta. And I never thought I'd say that, given what a steaming turd the current release version is.
I tested it against 3.5, 3.6 and 4.0. When I said it's like 3.6.10, I mean that's the browser that most closely matches it, performance wise. I actually prefer the IE9 beta to Firefox4, it's a lot more stable.
Of course, for any serious use, it's going to be chrome, or Opera still.
Have you actually tested Firebadger beta 4 against the new IE9 beta?
Before you let that thing flapping in the front of your head start spouting utter shite, why don't you actually test the products?
I'm a Fireferret/Opera geeza and have, for the last 10 years and more, despised IE in any carnation. After testing This 9 Beta release, I have to say it really is a nice browser. What’s good about it? Well, like INQ says, it off-loads tons of stuff to the GPU and Sound Processor (SPU?) through Direct X API – and no, I don’t have DX 11 only 10.1. It now passes, and this has to be one of the most amazing things ever, just as many W3C tests at Furry fox!
The best thing is to try it for yourselves... Only bummer is, work is out of the question as desktop uses XP SP3 32bit. Also, read what the others say and especially those that have actually tested it. There are some caveats, but it’s a beta and you’re still free to send in your comments to Vole to try and change it to your liking.
Never thought I would ever, ever say this, “Well done, Vole! Why the sudden change?”
Comparing IE9 Beta with FireFox 3.6 is just plain wrong. The valid comparison is IE9 vs FireFox 4 Beta, which outperforms IE9 on all fronts. Hardware acceleration in FireFox 4 Beta is not any slower than that in IE9.
IE (of any version) is what Microsoft uses to patch and upgrade its OS(s)...hard-wired into the OS itself.
Windows can still be compromised via other browsers, but at least they are only running as processes, and are not connected into the internals of the OS.
The other disappointing thing is Microsoft is touting IE9 as a "security improvement", yet is using it like DX11 as a marketing fulcrum to force people to buy its expensive Windows 7 OS (apparently not so concerned over most users, especially most CORPORATE users, who still use Windows XP).
In terms of the IE9 "download reputation" feature, this apparently only kicks in after you have visited a site and then tried to download something. Many websites have the ability to infect your PC just by visiting them (particularly if you are running IE).
Firefox and Chrome users can install the Web of Trust (WOT) add-on, that warns you against visiting a site by flagging it in Google search, and will also post a warning on the screen giving you a chance to cancel visiting a poorly-rated site before you actually load it.
Of course, an even better way to go would be to run either Chrome/Firefox/Opera under Linux and avoid the whole Microsoft Mess entirely. It sounds like more corporations (like Google), faced with the huge upgrade costs to Windows 7/Office 2010 to get "improvements" like IE9/DX11 are looking at Linux and open source (like Libre/OpenOffice) as a way of avoiding the ongoing siphoning of their IT budgets and administration costs into Microsoft's bank accounts.
I did some testing of the betas for all 4 major browsers about a month ago. Opera and chrome are just incrementals, to increase speed. Firefox (at least with 4B6) has improved too, but 9 is a vast, major improvement. It's still not great yet, but it's getting there. On Peacekeeper, for instance, IE9 scored about the same as Firefox 3.6.10
My details and findings here
http://ktetch.blogspot.com/2010/09/updated-browser-benchmarks.html#version