Internet Explorer 8 Final, Ready for Download
In recent times, Microsoft’s ubiquitous Internet Explorer has fallen behind.
Even with it being the default browser shipped on most of the world’s computers, Internet Explorer was losing ground to Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and even Google’s Chrome.
The reason for IE’s slip was simple, and that’s because it was lagging behind the competition. Microsoft set out to bring back IE with a vengeance, and today’s the day of the official release of Internet Explorer 8.
"Customers have made clear what they want in a Web browser -- safety, speed and greater ease of use," said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. "With Internet Explorer 8, we are delivering a browser that gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match."
Early feedback from users of the IE8 beta and RC, as well as Windows 7 testers, is positive. Being that security is one of the top concerns amongst internet users, Microsoft boasts that a study released today by NSS Labs indicates that Internet Explorer 8 blocks two to four times as many malicious sites as other browsers on the market today.
Microsoft is pushing that its browser now among the fastest, saying that IE8 will beat top browsers in page load time on almost 50 percent of the 25 top comScore web sites. See a chart with speed comparisons here.
Internet Explorer 8 will be available for download here at noon EDT.
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Remind me NOT to be the first to try this!
HAHA! Firefox loads Microsoft.com faster than IE8!!!
And IE8 loads Mozilla.com faster than firefox. :>
No comparison with Safari?
Anyway, the reason many people not liking IE is not the loading speed, it's much more because of the security holes causing trouble the in the past.
Oddly enough IE8 loads Mozilla.com faster while Firefox loads microsoft.com faster. Overall load speed difference is insignificant in daily use. For me it's the usability that makes a difference.
Either way, I will load IE8 for development puroses but still keep Firefox as the browser to use. I am sure Windows 7 will give IE8 a boost, but many Firefox converts will just as quickly load FF onto any new system.
No comparison with Safari?Anyway, the reason many people not liking IE is not the loading speed, it's much more because of the security holes causing trouble the in the past.
The reason it has more security problems isn't necessarily because of security holes, it's because of it's marketshare.
No comparison with Safari?Anyway, the reason many people not liking IE is not the loading speed, it's much more because of the security holes causing trouble the in the past.
Don't forget the tight integration it has inside Windows in the fist place.
Ive had IE 8 Beta for quite a while now and it drives me a little nuts. For the most part I use IE for all my tasks. Adobe SGI seems to only work with IE and not at all with firefox. I have alot of Monowall WRAPS out and about that I need to monitor the traffic graphs on. IE is the only browser that displays them properly. Anyways... IE 8 drives me nuts. You must be familiar with the yellow pop up bar in IE imagine having to use that for every web page with flash, active x, or any kind of script. It also crashes a lot. I installed it on XP before SP3 was installed so i could not remove it with some effort which is why its still installed.
security isn't my top concern, its my anit-virus' top concern. Speed is what I care about and after messing around the IE8 beta I can confidently say that speed is what IE8 lacks
No security holes?
-> (PWN2OWN 2009) -> http://www.tomshardware.com/news/P [...] or=RSS-181
Just like last year, Firefox was the last one hacked.
The web slice feature looks interesting.
@bravura
They probably didn't compare it with Safari because Safari has such a small user base.
-> http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=0
Safari 8%, Chrome 1%
Is Ballmer taking pills or something? Granted, IE8 is better than IE7, but I've made dozens of tests using Acid3 and SunSpider. IE8 always come last. And the memory usage is unacceptable. Bill, where are you...?
It states in the article that Miller tested his stuff before hand, I'm guessing the other hackers did the same. The order they applied the hacks they knew about isn't all that important. It's just a question of tweaking it to get it to work in a slightly different environment. It's not like they show up and go "hmmm I wonder if this might work." These programs were probably exploited weeks ago.
The probably went in order of hardware they wanted, followed by prestige. Eveyone wants to see Safari hacked to spite mac users, followed by IE because eveyone wants to spit on MS.
after reading about safari/osx 10 second hack, i wonder how long this new ie will take to be hacked... new release, new bugs and wholes to be found and exploited.
Is Ballmer taking pills or something? Granted, IE8 is better than IE7, but I've made dozens of tests using Acid3 and SunSpider. IE8 always come last. And the memory usage is unacceptable. Bill, where are you...?
looks like he's been drinking the coolaid. i've done some testing too and chrome's javascript is diffinitively much after than ie 8's and it's a bit sluggish, try opening a new tab and see how long it takes to create a new instance, wow! slow, mozilla takes less, why so slow, i guess all the security crap, that really doesn't work, see other posting on just how long it takes to hack browsers with tips found on google.
Microsoft will be hack again and again because they hold the biggest share in browser war. I don't think I'm going to jump in the bandwagon anytime soon but I'll downloaded to test out my design website. Firefox is still my main because they patch more often than IE so in my opinion it's safer to stay away from IE. The less market share a browser has the less likely it to be hacked.
I've been using IE 8 since the beta, they improved some things in the RC and I'm now using the released version. I like the new features.
The reason it has more security problems isn't necessarily because of security holes, it's because of it's marketshare.
Not entirely true. IE is closed source while Firefox and Safari's WebCore engine are open source. In spite of the fact that any hacker can read the code for the latter two IE still has many more exploits.
I would like to see some Opera exploit statistics just for comparison.
Don't forget the tight integration it has inside Windows in the fist place.
"tight" integration?
IE8 is not part of the kernel so it's a user space program and it uses windows API just like any other browser.
So the speedup did not come from this. I mean if the integration was so "tight" why did IE6 and IE7 was so slow (compared to Firefox)?
It's because of bad code...
Anyway i think IE8 will not increase MS marketshare because i don't see any Firefox user to switch to another browser...simply because you have no reason to do this.
Sorry for my confusing(and wrong) phrasing "why did IE6 and IE7 was so slow (compared to Firefox)?"...i meant : why did IE6 and 7 suck so much?
Now does IE8 actually render web pages correctly? Or comply with the W3 standards? To me that's WAY more important than color coded tabs.
IE8 is actually more CSS2.1 compliant than any other browser now which is huge for me. It's fast and the wikipedia accelerator rocks !!!
Although I do disable the blue icon think it makes when you select text. (I prefer right-clicking).
Anyway goos job Microsoft. IE8 is great!
@armistitiu: IE6 was released back in 2001 it's ....old. It was good in 2001 but bad by todays standards. MS just wasn't releasing updates to IE while the other browsers were updating frequently.
I think MS is back in the game in a big way again though.
Not entirely true. IE is closed source while Firefox and Safari's WebCore engine are open source. In spite of the fact that any hacker can read the code for the latter two IE still has many more exploits.
Linus' Law at work.
Since they are open source, security exploits can be caught more quickly than with IE.
@armistitiu: IE6 was released back in 2001 it's ....old. It was good in 2001 but bad by todays standards. MS just wasn't releasing updates to IE while the other browsers were updating frequently.I think MS is back in the game in a big way again though.
I was trying to tell Matt_B that IE is not part of the kernel so it has no "tight" integration.
Now about IE6 and 7 ...i believe they had patches not updates. I think upgrading and improving a browser more frequently is the way to go and btw Firefox is open source and that helps a lot.
Anyway...please don't hurt the web
Not entirely true. IE is closed source while Firefox and Safari's WebCore engine are open source. In spite of the fact that any hacker can read the code for the latter two IE still has many more exploits.I would like to see some Opera exploit statistics just for comparison.
Actually Firefox has more exploits, their only saving grace is that they are faster at patching them than Microsoft. http://www.honeynet.org/node/166 (Also this trend stays true with newer version of IE and Firefox, I just don't have links on hand.)
I'm ok debating which is 'safer' just get your facts straigh first. As for open v.s. closed, I could guess that it shows a 'professional' program has less bugs initially, but then development stops while open source chugs along the whole time. Which explains alot really.
The IE security issues don't exist. Microsoft is able to patch its browser many times quicker than Mozilla or Apple will be able to, as seen late last year.
No IE8 for me thanks. As a web 2.0 developer, IE is the bane of my existence. IE7 is broken in so many ways one wonders what "standard" MS follows. It doesn't understand "closures" in javascript, it's CSS support is buggy and it's javascript engine is slow as hell.
Firefox is by far the best browser for web developers because of it's excellent add-ons (think firebug). Most tools for IE come from MS and pale compared to those from the open source community.
I don't understand why MS even bothers at this point. Just give up on IE. FF/Chrome/Safari are all superior browsers. Why MS dumps money into unnecessary development is beyond me.
The IE security issues don't exist. Microsoft is able to patch its browser many times quicker than Mozilla or Apple will be able to, as seen late last year.
Security issues don't exist???? LOL. What rock have you been living under?