Look Out, Firefox 3 — IE8 Is Back On Top For Now 662
CWmike writes "Internet Explorer 8 has shipped in its final version and is ready to take on its rivals. Preston Gralla reviewed it and says the latest version of Microsoft's browser leapfrogs its closest competition, Firefox 3, for basic browsing and productivity features — it has better tab handling, a niftier search bar, a more useful address bar, and new tools that deliver information directly from other Web pages and services. IE8 has also been tweaked for security and includes a so-called 'porn mode,' new anti-malware protection, and better ways to protect your privacy. The most noticeable new features? Accelerators and Web Slices. Think of an Accelerator as a mini-mashup that delivers information from another Web site directly to your current browser page. Web Slices deliver changing information from a Web page you're not actively visiting directly to IE8. There's one big problem for many, though. No add-ins, and there doesn't appear to be such an ecosystem on the horizon. So if you're a fan of add-ins and customizing the browser itself, writes Gralla, Firefox is superior. But for the actual browsing experience, IE8 has the upper hand — for now."
Best attribute (Score:5, Funny)
Add-ins (Score:5, Funny)
[IE8 has] no add-ins, and there doesn't appear to be such an ecosystem on the horizon.
Never fear; I'm sure there will be plenty soon enough, and they will most likely install themselves! Check here [us-cert.gov] to find out about new ones as they get released.
The speed of IE 8 let me get first post! (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, thanks to the new javascript a-
Well, crap.
Porn Mode? (Score:5, Funny)
Will it prevent Sticky Keys from activating?
A quick Google search (Score:5, Funny)
2. On the second search result, read the first line of the description.
3.
4. (Don't) profit!
Re:Add-ins (Score:5, Funny)
Such convenience! Verily, IE is superior to Firefox. :P
All alone (Score:5, Funny)
You know that kid who rushes to the top of the hill, just knowing that he's finally going to win King of the Hill for the first time ever? Then when he gets to the top of the hill, he's elated when he realizes he's at the top... only to realize a few moments later that all the other kids ran up a different hill?
That's Microsoft.
Oh great (Score:5, Funny)
Niftier search bar? What, did they include Clippy?
a more useful address bar,
How much more useful can one make an address bar? It's sole purpose is to provide a place to type in a web address. If by useful, do they mean that horrid Awesome Bar?
and new tools that deliver information directly from other Web pages and services.
Oh joy. Nothing like having your connection come to a crawl as some Flash advertisement tries to load in another page as it it's "delivered" to your system.
Ya know, there's something to be said for simplicity. But then, we are talking about developers who don't know the meaning of simplicity.
Re:new and innovative security issue (Score:1, Funny)
Oh come on. Microsoft have made IE8 more secure. There's nothing to worry about: I'm sure they've really managed it this time!
It's still MSIE ... (Score:5, Funny)
First, a joke circa 1983: a hardware guy and a software guy (remember, this was 1983) take an HP Unix system to the roof of a 5 story building. They connect a long extension cord, boot it up, and throw it off the roof. There is a resounding crash and they rush down to see the results. "Wow!" shouts the hardware guy, "it's still running!" The software guy shrugs and says, "Yeah, but it's still running HP-UX."
What's my point? It may be better than previous MSIE attempts, but it is still Microsoft, it's still IE, and it still only runs on Windows. As a web designer the rule is still: make it look right in Firefox, then unbreak it in MSIE{6,7,8}.
Re:Firefox will continue to be superior (Score:5, Funny)
I heard about this great plugin that makes Firefox even faster. It's called "NoHTML." Apparently it breaks some websites tho...
Re:Reloading a tab at the point that it crashed... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Best attribute (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Best attribute (Score:3, Funny)
Besides having to get up. Go to the store find the box. Pay a fair chunk of money. Go back and install it on your PC. Vs. Downloading it in 30 seconds for free. I don't know I think we actually have improved the process a bit.
Re:Add-ins (Score:5, Funny)
Bah. IE's add-ins are literally killer-apps!
Try to beat that. ^^
Features, Shmeatures. (Score:4, Funny)
I'm not going to run windows just for "the best web browser." They want to resurrect the Mac IE port, I'm all for that - IE 5 for the Mac was the best browser on the platform until Mozilla came along.
It doesn't matter how "good" IE8 is - it's windows only, and Windows + Internet == Screaming Assrape. While I run windows at home and at work for non-Mac apps, I don't connect to the internet with my windows machines. I don't use samba (I use an SCP client which is slower but imo less of an asspain than windows networking), I don't download anything, and I damn sure don't install anything that didn't come from a vendor disk.
End result : exponentially fewer security problems than friends who run XP on their wintendos.
IE8 could give me winning lottery numbers and blow jobs... but I'm not running a web browser on Windows, ever. It's like having sex without a condom at an STD conference.
Re:Add-ins (Score:5, Funny)
Re:WIN!!!!!! WIN! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Best attribute (Score:3, Funny)
Real men download ubuntu over bittorrent using only telnet and doing the checksums in their head.
Re:Best attribute (Score:3, Funny)
The people that will be moving to IE8 will be those people that have been subjected to the previous IE Browser incarnations.
FTFY
Re:Best attribute (Score:4, Funny)
Telnet?
I handle all of my torrent traffic using netcat - It runs in one of the terminals on my rightmost monitor that I control using the keyboard allocated for my right hand. Isn't that how everyone does it?
Re:Best attribute (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Cake (Score:1, Funny)
This was a triumph. I'm making a note here, HUGE SUCCESS. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Microsoft IE. We do what we must, because we can. For the good of all of us, except for those who are dead.
etc, etc...
Re:Porn Mode? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Fluff (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, what's the point of "better tab handling" and a "niftier search bar" if the results look like crap because it can't render everything properly?
Be fair.. it renders everything perfectly....... Everything written for IE8 that is.
Re:Security? (Score:5, Funny)
an entire bowel of free after dinner mints
What a terrible image!
My browser is always in porn mode! (Score:3, Funny)
This is nothing new (atleast for me).
Re:A quick Google search (Score:5, Funny)
How could they be reading it in the future? IE8 indicates the end of the Internet, duh.
Re:Best attribute (Score:3, Funny)
Telnet? Real men would use SSH instead of telnet,
Real men telnet to port 22 and do all of the key exchange and encrypt/decrypt in their head.
Re:Fault! (Score:5, Funny)
1. "Detect MS Enemy"
2. "IfEnemy ScrewUpSiteLoad"
Examples:
A. Slashdot, the leading forum for Linux promotion
B. Google Gears Installed = IE8 hoses pages.
Wheee!
Re:Features, Shmeatures. (Score:4, Funny)
Psssst! You're doing it wrong.
Re:Best attribute (Score:3, Funny)
Interesting. Ten years ago if you wanted geek cred you did something few others had done (at least that you knew of) and you didn't sweat the pretty. How things have changed.
Oh yes - get off my lawn.
Re:Reloading a tab at the point that it crashed... (Score:3, Funny)
Cool as that seems in theory, doesn't automatically reloading the exact state that the tab was in when it crashed mean that it will probably just crash again as soon as you reload it?
It does, which is why IE8 being slower than other browsers is a feature - on reload, you have enough time to close the tab that's going to crash before it loads - unlike Chrome, where it loads so fast that it crashes straight away ~