The last time I wrote about IE 8 was on March 19. It’s March 30 today, I’ve been using the browser here and there, and here’s what I have to report on it.
Is IE 8 good enough to make me switch back from Firefox?
Not a chance. When I switched to FF way back in the day when Firefox was still called Firebird, I did so with a clear conscience. While the IE 8 browser is decent (and it truly is), I can’t give up the plugins I have in FF that aren’t available in IE.
Is the InPrivate feature useful?
Yes. I really like it. Google Chrome has this with its Incognito feature and IE 8 has it with InPrivate. It’s really nice to know with a quick CTRL+SHIFT+P or by doing it the menu/tab way I can pop up a session that will completely delete itself cache/cookie wise once the window is closed.
Firefox really, really needs this. Now.
Have I noticed any weird/odd problems with some sites I use?
Yes. However it’s only been on web sites that have been programmed improperly. Part of the way IE 8 renders web pages is that it pays stricter attention to whether it’s code compliant or not. Programmers who go "by the book" have applauded IE 8 for finally paying attention to this in much better detail, but the users of the browser have complained certain sites just don’t work like they did in IE 7.
To those people I say blame the programmer, not the browser, because the browser is in fact doing what it’s supposed to do.
The complaint I’ve seen the most from 8 users is that certain web forms do not work properly. Again I say blame the programmer. Take the PCMech site for example. All the forms, the forums and so on work just as they did with 7. If 8 was so bad, PCMech wouldn’t be accessible using that browser whatsoever. But obviously 8 works anywhere on PCMech just like it should.
It also should be noted that if you notice a site that doesn’t work proper with 8, use the "Compatibility View" feature, like this:
The "broken page" icon, which is Compatibility View, will correct issues. So it’s not like Microsoft didn’t prepare for this.
Does it use less memory/run faster than 7?
In my experience, yes. I won’t say it’s like a night-and-day difference, but overall the memory use is less with the 8 browser compared to 7.
I particularly noticed this on my father’s computer, which is an older single-core 2.4GHz with 512MB RAM. Not only does 8 use less memory but it loads faster, renders pages faster (even when not cached) and has an overall better experience.
What’s your take?
Have you upgraded to 8 yet? If so, is the browser to your liking or do you think it sucks? Let us know.
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