Internet Explorer 8 arrives today
Word is that Microsoft will be releasing Internet Explorer 8 today.
The new version of Microsoft’s browser is ready to go. And just as IE7 was less annoying than IE6, IE8 promises to be even better, with updates to its rendering, including expanded CSS support. Better AJAX functionality and RSS tools are also included.
The main features of the new browser, though, revolve around security, privacy and speed — IE8 is supposed to be a much safer, faster browser to use, brining it closer to its fast-moving competitors.
The browser is set to launch at around noon today, according to Microsoft. When the final becomes available, it’ll show up here. I guess this afternoon I’ll need to take it for a spin around my sites, and my clients’ sites, to make sure everything plays nice in IE8.
Hopefully this also encourages some people (and IT departments) to move away from IE6, now that it’s two versions behind.
I’m actually more excited about the pressure this puts on on IE6 users to upgrade versus all of the new features. I guess it’s because I am not an IE user and my greatest concerns are related to ease of development as opposed to user experience from the browser itself.
Same here. I don’t actually use IE either, except for testing.
I heard somewhere that IE9, whenever it comes along, is planned to be more detached from the operating system. I’m not sure if that’s true but it may be an escape from the same-old-IEdness of things.
Honestly, the differences between the browsers in terms of regular use these days is negligible… Firefox has a few handy extensions so I use it the most, but I don’t notice many other differences that I care about, and any new features that come along quickly show up across the board.