IE 9 Beta Strips Down For Speed

CWmike writes "Those who have written off IE as being slow and old-looking are in for a surprise. The just-released Internet Explorer 9 beta is dramatically faster than its predecessor, sports an elegant, stripped-down interface and adds some useful new features, writes Preston Gralla. Even more surprising than the stripped-down interface is IE9 beta's speed. Internet Explorer has long been the slowest browser by a wide margin. IE9 has turned that around in dramatic fashion, using hardware acceleration and a new JavaScript engine it calls Chakra, which compiles scripts in the background and uses multiple processor cores. In this beta, my tests show it overtaking Firefox for speed, and putting up a respectable showing against Safari, Opera and Chrome. It's even integrated into Windows 7. One big problem: It will not work on Windows XP. So, forget the performance and security boost, many enterprises and netbook users."

I know other whores...

[dotancohen]

...who strip down for speed, dope, blow, and whatnot.

I don't go near any of them, either.

This just in...

[Aggrav8d]

Javascript engine speeds have nothing to do with quality of code. It's all about how cool a name you come up with for your engine. IE9 is the latest to jump on the bandwagon with their "Chakra" engine, sure to appeal to a wide market of yuppie-wanna-be-hippie 30 somethings. Following this news, Mozilla has announced their next javascript engine will be called "unicorn bacon", and apple have bought the rights to use the name "iMegatron". The future is now!

Re:No cross platform support either

[Anonymous Coward]

This is incredibly annoying. I'm actually going to have to pirate windows 7, and run it in a VM for the sole purpose of testing websites out.

Re:No cross platform support either

[natehoy]

I'm not disputing your 2% number, because I don't have any other numbers to dispute it with. But not all computers are new computers.

Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal, but I personally know of a handful computers that are running Linux. They probably did come out of Big Box Retailer, but almost a decade ago. They won't run Windows any more (at least not a flavor that will work in today's world), but they are all perfectly happy with a lightweight window manager running under Linux, and can run the latest Firefox quite happily. Their owners, who can't afford a new computer, were grateful to get the results of my dumpster-diving, reformatting, and refurbishing. It costs me (and them) nothing.

"New Computers Sold" obviously would show a massively overwhelming preponderance toward Windows, obviously. But Linux is incredibly useful for slightly older hardware for people on a tight budget. There's a good bit of hardware that would have once had a one-way trip to dumpsterville that is now making a long stop at Linux Station along the way and getting a few more useful years of life.

I agree that 10% seems rather, well, "overly optimistic". My gut tells me it's higher than 2%, though.

To be fair, my gut tells me the two cheeseburgers I had for lunch were just what I needed, so it lies to me sometimes.

IE9 ROCKS!

[PhrozenOne]

I have used every freaking browser that has ever been - IEx, FF and all the Gecko based, Chrome Safari and all the webkit based. But IE 9 *BETA* is amazing. Welcome back, Microsoft. I missed you. :)

Re:No cross platform support either

[mark72005]

Well, obviously 2009 was the year of Linux on the desktop.

Duh.

Re:Oh mod me a troll BUT

[Yvan256]

IE is that special kid in class, who wins a price not for coming in first, but because everyone is special in their own way. Even if they eat the chalk.

Are you saying that IE is the Ralph Wiggum of the web browsers?