Internet Explorer 8

[Rick Hall]

Just wanted to say that I have updated to IE 8 on both Vista 64 bit and XP 32 bit, and I find that the new browser is considerably faster on both operating systems then IE 7 was.
So far I have had no problems on either computer.
Just thought that some of you would like to know if you are considering updating.

I beleive that Microsoft has taken a step in the right direction with this new browser update.

By the way, IE 8 also has privacy browsing, idea stolen from Google Chrome no doubt.

[glc]

I'm glad you have had good results, but people I trust say to wait a while.

http://windowssecrets.com/comp/090402

[mjkovis]

I went ahead and upgraded too. Probably shouldn't have since I need IE 7 and below to test web designs and make sure that they don't break apart on older web browsers, or at least down to IE 6. I use Firefox anyways, but so far I have seen some great improvements in IE 8. It has seemed quicker to me. Overall, I think Google Chrome takes the cake on loading times.

I've been using IE8 off and on for about a week, for me, it loads faster than FireFox but its slower surfing the web.

[ConLog]

Mmmm, I click on IE8 and it takes around three seconds to come to life.

Other weird anomalies too happening for me.

This is glitchy and should not have made it past beta.

[Force Flow]

Originally Posted by mjkovis I went ahead and upgraded too. Probably shouldn't have since I need IE 7 and below to test web designs and make sure that they don't break apart on older web browsers, or at least down to IE 6. I use Firefox anyways, but so far I have seen some great improvements in IE 8. It has seemed quicker to me. Overall, I think Google Chrome takes the cake on loading times.

Check out Microsoft Virtual PC 2007: http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/pro...c/default.mspx

And these Virtual PC images with each version of IE:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Note that this batch of images expires April 30. Microsoft usually updates them around the expiration date.


(Aside: If you want to do virtual machines for real, the best one for any OS appears to be VirtualBox)


As for IE8....on paper, it looks much improved, with focus on moving towards web standards while retaining backwards compatability for IE-developed sites.

In practice...I wouldn't use it (or any version of IE) as a primary browser. There's too much junk kicking around out in the internet that latches onto IE far too easily. 90% of the cleaning jobs I do for people use IE as their primary browser.

[Panama Red]

I installed IE8 on my Vista Ultimate 32bit machine (my daily cruiser) and haven't seen any issues yet. But then I installed it without all the fluff they built into it. I opted out of all but the browser upgrade from IE7. Seems a bit faster loading than 7 or 6. I figure the majority of my customers use IE so I might as well become familiar with the new interface too.

[rjfvillarosa]

IE8 beta came bundled with Windows 7 beta that I have installed on one of my machines. So far I have found it very fast and reliable, not a single issue with it.
Is it out of beta yet?
If it is I will probably install it on my main XP machine.

[juppy]

Originally Posted by rjfvillarosa Is it out of beta yet?

Yeah, IE8 came out of beta on March 19, 2009.

[glc]

Originally Posted by juppy Yeah, IE8 came out of beta on March 19, 2009.

Which means wait till May to install it!

[rjfvillarosa]

I am a bit too busy to faff about with it right now, so if it is out of beta then May or June sounds like a good time to take the plunge.

[feranm_ie8team]

rjfvillarosa,

Hi, my name’s Feran and I’m working with the Internet Explorer Outreach Team to provide assistance and help answer questions people might have about Internet Explorer.

Like others said, IE8 is out of beta as of March 19th. If and when interested in downloading it you can get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/int...?ocid=ie8_sm_a

Feran
Internet Explorer Outreach Team

[glc]

Would you be kind enough to address the issues brought up in that article I linked?

[jdeb]

I tried it and un-installed it. still bloated and slow on my machine, although faster than version 7. I will stay with Mozilla at this time, thank you very much. I use Windows about 50% for my computing needs, just installed the version 8 on my test rig and I pretty much yawned.

[juppy]

Originally Posted by jdeb I tried it and un-installed it.

Same here. I usually wait several months (like glc mentioned above) but most of the time there's a bunch of people whining about things not working. At the time, there wasn't much complaining, so I thought, meh, what the heck, give it a try. All it did was cause errors on my machine and it was a LOT slower than IE7 on initial loading. Upon uninstallation, it made my computer blue screen too, which made me think I had a power supply or ram screwing up or something. After that one time though, it hasn't blue screened again (yet.....knock on wood). I'll just stick with IE7 for awhile.....maybe for good.