So you are hesitating to download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1? Good, cause you shouldn’t.
If you are just an ordinary user that uses a web browser only to browse the internet or check your email, then move along. There are a few new features for you, of course, but none of them are really a "MUST" for you at the moment. Sure, the new security improvement worth a look, but there are just too many negatives. Besides, this is still beta 1 AND it’s meant to be released for developers, not to end users!
I’ve given it a try for a few days to browse around the web, posting in forums, and other blogger’s "routine" using a web browser.
In list forms, here are the positives and negatives of Microsoft new Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 impressions.
Positives:
- It highlights the domain name on the URL bar, making sure that you have typed the right URL and not being spoofed.
Eh? I’m sure I typed "paypal"..
- It passes ACID 2 Test (if you are really into that sort of thing)
IE 8 ACID 2 Test Result vs Firefox 2.0.0.12 - Useful new features, especially the "Activities".
- Better security
- Has a built-in developer tools to analyze the CSS, Scripts, and HTML codes of a site.
- It has an "Emulate IE7" button, so if you feel like IE8 doesn’t work very well for you, you can turn on the "IE7 emulation" mode. This is not really a postiive, but at least you can "revert" back to IE7 if you notice some rendering problems in IE8.
Negatives
- Installation takes some time in my computer.
I was stuck on this screen for quite some time
- Feels like IE7 (is it good or bad?)
- Some websites looks horrible.
- Another for websites looking horribly wrong!
- I can’t go to my Windows Live Hotmail inbox. The message displayed a "Working on your request" forever.
- The "Web Slices" feature has to be created by the site’s designer/developer to be used by IE 8.
- Highlighting a chunk of texts (especially a large one) on a web page is laggy.
- Feels sluggish at times.
- Still no themes/skinning support?
- Frequent crashes here and there. At least there’s a crash recovery system being put in place. The dev team must have known that there will be lots of crashes, lol.
You’ll see this screen. Often.
As for now, I’ll keep my Mozilla Firefox, thank you very much.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ll definitely pass any Microsoft products unless I really don’t have a bloody choice. -_-
Windows XP – I am a PC Gamer
MSN Messenger – Everyone is using it, used to use ICQ
Office – Word and Excel is … convenient
Internet Explorer – Why bother! FIREFOX FOR THE WIN! RWAR!
However, thanks for sharing with us your findings. I don’t have to guinea pig myself for that then.
Deimos Tel`Arin’s last blog post..EntreCard is down! Finally! Semi-planned outage ? Bah! Gambate! Phirate!
IE8… well, it is getting better and the fact it is finally breaking badly made websites proves that Microsoft is finally getting their act together. I won’t be downloading this just yet, I’ll wait till they get the lag worked out. in the end I hope IE8 will be a good update reason so we can get IE6 and 7 of the Internet and spend more time designing and less time messing out with hacks so it works in IE.
I couldn’t agree more. Wait, wait wait, unless you want to have to deal with lock ups and crashes.
Fool’s last blog post..D.N.A
actualli………my favourite is firefox………hahahaah=p
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I’ll stick to Firefox. Unless MS come up with an IE version so far ahead of Firefox its not funny, I won’t be going back to IE any time.
Ian’s last blog post..Goose
It’s so hard to move from Firefox. Simply because of the extensions, though.
I used to like Opera, before I met Firefox lovely extensions.
I also feel it’s hard to move from Firefox, depend heavily on Firefox extensions. I don’t like IE7 – browsing speed is too slow. After reading your findings in IE8 beta 1, no thanks, it’s not my cup of tea.
Apple’s last blog post..Scottish Bizarreness
Good Internet Explorer. Hello Firefox. I recently changed from IE to Firefox. IE is just a slow poke.
jojo’s last blog post..Breaking News : Musician Britney Spears Found Dead
Sorry I was supposed to say Goodbye Internet Explorer.
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