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."
Security? (Score:5, Interesting)
Competition driven market, it works (Score:4, Interesting)
This whole market thingy seems to work.
There is competition driven innovation, and a number of large companies are fighting for the market share.
I like it... although I doubt that my Ubuntu will run IE8, so I guess I won't use IE8 too much - perhaps I'll check it in Wine ;)
Reloading a tab at the point that it crashed... (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
Re:Firefox will continue to be superior (Score:4, Interesting)
> It's bloated, has terrible memory management
Do you have data to back this up, by any chance? And we're talking about Firefox 3 or later, right?
Re:Add-ins (Score:5, Interesting)
Add-ins are the "killer app" of the browser for me. I don't think I'll ever switch from Firefox if competing browsers don't have this feature built into it. I just couldn't live without stuff like foxmarks, flagfox, customisegoogle, etc..
Yeah, IE8 can render pages faster but who really cares when pages render in a matter of seconds in any of the browsers on the market. 1 or 2 second difference means nothing to me. Add-ins mean alot to me and are the defining feature and without them it makes IE an inferior browser to Firefox.
Re:Does it adhere to standards? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Firefox will continue to be superior (Score:2, Interesting)
The funny part is that people bitch about IE plugins and love firefox plugins. Its amazing how stupid people can be, geeks love firefox extensions (js and/or XPCOM) but hate IE extensions (ActiveX) even though they are identical in every practical aspect. Its actually easier to write a malicious firefox plugin since it can be done in javascript alone.
Nope, no zealots around here.
Re:Fluff (Score:3, Interesting)
I am not a linux/firefox fanboy (Score:5, Interesting)
I am not a linux/firefox fanboy, so I am going to assess this browser fairly and try to answer a few questions brought up on this thread. Since I am probably the only user here running Windows by choice, so I consider this a duty. Furthermore, I am an Opera user, so my expectations for speed and performance are totally insane and unreasonable.
First off, what's wrong:
* I am using IE 8 to write this comment and I am already missing my integrated spel chekkar.
* All the fun browser hacks I use to test new browsers are not working still, so the standards support of this release is the same as before. Of course, you won't see too much upper level DOM and advanced CSS on the part of web people actually use.
* The tabs seem to open really slow, but I believe it is actually process isolating its tabs now. The memory use per tab is about 10-30 mb, which is around if not slightly below where Chrome is on this system.
* Acid 3: 12/100
What's right:
* The page loads are brutally fast- faster than Opera 10 in some cases. For instance, MSNBC and BBC News, two of my favorite sites pop up at crazy speed. However, Slashdot --which is specifically engineered to run poorly on every new release of IE (it's very firefox-quirky)-- comes up quite slowly. When I first saw the page load charts that Microsoft put out, my first response was that there was a good reason Opera wasn't on that chart- but IE did a fantastic job of playing to the most popular websites. Keep this in mind if you are either a facebook user or stalking your kids on facebook.
* If you only use IE to download firefox, you will be happy to know that the mozilla webpage loads faster on IE than any other browser, firefox included.
Conclusion:
The overall interface of the browser is quite nice. If you're used to using Firefox, this is actually much faster and handles its memory better and such. However, Firefox is not a particularly fast or well designed browser. The interface will feel sluggish if you're used to Opera or Chrome. As an Opera user, my idea of browsing the web involves launching through pages at break-neck speed middle-clicking links as I go along and loading about 20-30 tabs at a time. I have a feeling my computer would explode if I did that with IE 8. However, the same could be said for Firefox 3.
The article is quite correct in saying that this browser is very fast and correct for the real web which most people browse- and that's something that should be noted. It seems as though Firefox has gotten so obsessed with javascript benchmarks and other such fluff that it's let its real world performance slide to the extent that it's now being challenged by IE.
Since IE is still totally unchallenged by other browsers in terms of enterprise features like advanced group policy, this new release of IE will simply mean that browsing the web at work/school will be a lot less lame and obnoxious... but considering the state of the economy, you should be all be working very very hard right now.
If you have any questions or challenges for IE 8 and don't run windows or ie 8, let me know and I will give you the results.
Standalone version? (Score:3, Interesting)
So can anyone out there point me at a free virtual PC image that runs IE7 or IE8 so that I can do my QA work? Or to a standalone version of IE8?
Thanks in advance.
Re:Best attribute (Score:5, Interesting)
I tried the new Chrome 2 Beta which might not be what you're talking about. Definitely not ready for primetime by any means. Slow, clunky feeling, didn't load pages properly, etc. The old Chrome seems okay, except it has a problem rendering popular social networking sites.
Firefox's memory usage, test shows, is 1/2 that of Chrome or IE 8 with the same 10 tabs open. It has plugins, cooler themes, is very fast, configurable. So if by "better" you mean "faster"...Chrome 1 is pretty quick as long as you don't mind rendering issues. IE 7 I guess I need to disable completely the Phishing feature instead of just Turn it Off because the browser still waits to load pages as if it's considering whether it meets the MS standard of acceptable surfing.
Firefox works. Works well.
Re:The speed of IE 8 let me get first post! (Score:5, Interesting)
You are modded Funny, I would have modded You Insightful but decided to comment.
In a time where even Joe Avarage's webpage starts utilizing javascript frameworks such as JQuery, ExtJs, GWT, prototype and the such I have to ask who cares about html rendering speeds?
Trident, the rendering engine of IE, has been famous for it's bad Javascript performance (especially on string manipulation which is often heavily used). Does IE have better javascript performance? I ask, because the competition is successfully upping their standards in this area.
-S
Re:Best attribute (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sorry, which one of IE8 and Chrome run in Ubuntu? Or should I go pay $$$ for Windows, so that I can pay $$$ for anti-virus/spy/adware/malware, so that I can update it every other day and still be paranoid about where I click, all so that I run one of those browsers? Oh, and learn all about definitions and exploits and security bulletins?
No, thanks, for browsing the web Windows is way too much hassle and too much money. I want simple, I don't want to make a hobby out of using the computer. I'll stick with Ubuntu.
Re:Firefox will continue to be superior (Score:3, Interesting)
Do you not like the websites you visit? Don't you want them to keep running?
Actually, the websites I visit frequently have my permission to show ads, so long as they don't serve up obnoxious noise-making flyovers or something. Now that I think about it, I can't even remember how long it's been since I ran across a site with worthwhile content whose operators were also stupid enough to run obnoxious ads.
Re:Best attribute (Score:5, Interesting)
I may dislike IE8 for a lot of reasons but I would not be so quick to pin this one on IE8. The slashdot code base is HORRIBLE. Just look at the html that is being written, I have had problems with this site in konqueror at various times, webkit and opera. Mostly I think they just hack this site until it works in IE6,7 and Firefox and then call it done and don't worry about all the simple bugs in it that should be fixed that would make it work in far more browers.
Actually I even started blocking some of the javascript on the page because it was slowing it down so much. Sometimes up to 3 seconds before the page would draw because it was waiting on one of those javascript tracking scripts.
Slashdot is definitely not an example of a remotely well written site. Just test that yourself and validate it.
Re:Best attribute (Score:5, Interesting)
If you're suggesting that should matter for web browsing something is very very wrong.
Why wouldn't it matter? With a properly coded web browser that is designed to support multiple cores, it will make a big difference.
I'm hesitant to get involved in a flame war, but here's my two cents. I've been running Chrome since about 2 days after it was released. In that time, the browser has crashed maybe a handful of times, vs. probably once a week with Firefox. When something does go wrong, it usually is specific to the page/tab, and doesn't bring down the entire browser, and while I had issues with tabs crashing early on, it almost never happens with the more recent updates. Speed? Seems plenty fast to me. I do have a couple of sites that won't work with Chrome, but it's a very small fraction.
I was a dedicated Firefox user for several years, and I still use it for web development and those few sites that still won't work with Chrome. But until the Firefox guys come up with a new version, it's just plain outclassed by Chrome for day to day web browsing.
Re:Firefox will continue to be superior (Score:3, Interesting)
It's weird, at home running firefox on ubuntu it's fast, responsive, and can stay open for weeks without issues, I frequently have MANY tabs open (30+ is not uncommon) and never run in to the whole "bloat" issue people talk about.
However, when I run firefox on my work laptop (windows XP) firefox takes forever to load, is sluggish, and over time (about 2 hours) becomes so slow as to be completely unusable, and shortly afterwards hangs the whole machine forcing me to do a cold-reboot, and this is with no more than 4 tabs ever used.
The add-ons in use on the windows one are all in use on my linux machine, and in fact it has additional ones loaded as well.
I don't know if it's something specific with that windows machine, or if it's just the windows version of firefox, but since I installed it on that windows laptop I finally can see what people mean when they complain about firefox "bloat"
Re:Best attribute (Score:4, Interesting)
I think one of the confusing points is that geeks feel sites like Craigslist have a solid UI, yet it's basically black words on a white page. It does what it needs to, and loads very fast.
There's a subtle difference between minimalism and not giving a fuck.
Re:I am not a linux/firefox fanboy (Score:3, Interesting)
...my idea of browsing the web involves launching through pages at break-neck speed middle-clicking links as I go along and loading about 20-30 tabs at a time.
This is why page load performance is not that important. I view most pages minutes after I open them. Memory management is much more important.
If you have any questions or challenges for IE 8 and don't run windows or ie 8, let me know and I will give you the results.
Like Firefox, does the browser gradually slow down and have to be regularly re-started?