IE8: A Big Improvement
For years, Microsoft has taken a lot of heat about its browser. Internet Explorer passed dear old Netscape way back around the turn of the millennium in terms of browser market share, largely because Netscape became a bloated mess and IE was shipping on every copy of Windows. Basically, IE took over the market for several years.
However, there were problems. IE, in true Microsoft style, totally failed to conform to accepted and emerging W3 standards. Redmond insisted on tweaking things (as usual) in order to force developers and users down the path of a Microsoft-only solution. The result: developers who had to create slick Javascript browser testing scripts, then route their users down one code path for IE and another for every other browser on the market.
Many (very bad) sites were created that worked only with IE. Use any other browser, and half the controls wouldn’t work. It was classic, “we’re the big boys and can do what we want” thinking.
A few years ago, that started to change. Firefox started taking market share, and leaped ahead of the pack with lots of new features. Developers and standards groups began demanding that Microsoft comply with accepted practice. Users started becoming annoyed that IE6 (the de facto leader at that time) was clunky and outdated. IE7 improved things somewhat, but was still far behind the curve and never really took off. I know many sites and individuals who simply never upgraded.
Now, however, IE8 is out. With this release, Microsoft is back in the browser game with what seems to be a really good release. It has better security, is faster, is less tightly coupled with Windows, and (hallelujah) conforms much more closely with W3 standards than any previous IE release.
According to one review, “IE8 now passes the Acid 2 test completely, although it still fails Acid 3 miserably. Microsoft is brushing that aside for now though, touting that out of the 7,200 CSS 2.1 tests that are on the w3.org, IE8 passes more of them than any other browser.”
I’m in the process of downloading IE8 now. I know it’ll never replace Firefox as my primary browser, largely because I like Open Source and adore all the handy add-ons available for Firefox. But if IE8 means the end of clunky browser-detection requirements for developers, I’m all for it.