Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) came out a month or so ago. I haven’t heard much about it since, and now I suspect this may be due to the fact that it, unlike previous versions of IE, is actually standards-based. This is a departure for Microsoft, and it may actually cause problems in terms of acceptance.
Here’s why.

IE6, which was the de-facto standard browser across much of the world a few years ago, adhered to Microsoft’s “private” version of various Web implementations. Developers had two choices: either use hacks to make their applications browser-agnostic, or abandon every other browser and write solely to the IE “standard.” Many businesses appear to have chosen the latter course for their in-house applications…which means they’re not upgrading to IE8 just yet. In fact, I’m hearing that many are simply not upgrading at all and have suppressed distribution of anything above IE6 pending upgrades to their corporate suites.

Plus, Microsoft is now getting ready to distribute an IE-free version of Windows in the EU. This means people can pick and choose any browser they want, since one won’t be bundled with the OS by default.

This presents an opportunity for Firefox and other browsers, which have been gaining traction in the marketplace anyway over the last few years. They’re actually ahead of the game in many respects, and Microsoft is still playing catch-up. While IE still has some advantages in terms of easy provisioning and distribution within an enterprise, other players are offering tempting tools for the enterprise. Witness: “with the release of Firefox 3.5, due at the end of the month, Mozilla will offer tools for Web developers who want to recreate corporate applications using standards common to the modern Web — standards that Microsoft only began supporting in earnest with IE7.”

Now that companies will have to upgrade their applications to handle standards-based IE8, they’re free to look at any browser they want. Whatever they write will render identically on IE8, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or Safari…so it’s no longer a simple choice. As “companies think about migrating those older applications and their mandated browser from IE6, they might choose a competitive browser instead of upgrading to a newer version of IE.”

Are IE’s days as the one and only browser of world domination numbered? We’ll see.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 7:34 pm and is filed under Browsers, Software, Windows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.