Acid 2 was the test when IE 8 was announced, and it tests the current web standards. This is Microsoft's "catchup" browser, os I think it is fair to cut them some slack and just be pleased they meet most current standards. Let 8.5 worry about the new stuff.
Also in "rush hour" (bandwidth issues) there is nothing, I repeat nothing can beat Opera 10 beta. It even senses the bandwidth issues automatically and enables its "Turbo" mode which produces amazing results in such conditions.
and you're an idiot. firefox is far more secure over IE8. the only advantage I've seen IE8 have over firefox is that it uses a svchost.exe for every tab, while firefox doesn't. And as far as i can tell, IE doesn't have skinning abilities...and i've never seen a single plugin for IE either.
When Firefox crashes, it asks me if I want to start a new session or reuse an old one. Is there a better recovery method than that?Personally, I just say "no" because if it crashed it was after I had tons of tabs open and probably lots of Flash ads and such open. Not so sure I would make much use of crash recovery, if that is what it does.
@earthforce: I agree. Linux (and to a lesser extent FreeBSD) put price pressure on anyone selling a way over-priced system.For big shops like Google/Amazon, medium-sized, and even some small businesses - they get a Linux guru (if they don't already have one on the payroll) and they are good to goYou can update the apps on a Linux system without rebooting but try that on Windows someday. There are a couple apps like iTunes+Safari on the Mac that seem to require a reboot after updating but they are the exception to the rule on Mac. Windows has the most complex, time-consuming software installation process of the 3 operating systems.Worse, the Windows desktop & Mobile OS autorun malware on USB drives and CDs, instead of asking you "you want this virus?" or just leaving it alone like every other operating system would do.Windows support operators/techs are expensive - about $70K/year in my area, according to radio ads. When major, global Windows worm outbreaks happen - the biggest ones seem to get through the firewalls anyway, and fast. Sometimes, the infection even goes unnoticed for days even though the outbreak itself is front page news.Windows needs 2-3 layers of active AV, slowing down your system: download scanning, and disk scanning. Plus, it needs to do signature checks for at least half a million known Windows viruses as well as heuristics & algorithms to find dynamic viruses that cyberthieves are doing this year. Not only do they scan files but they also scan highly compressed archive files. I've had Windows AV software interrupt perfectly good/safe downloads (FOSS standard open source Java .zip files, for example) and nearly grind to a stop for an hour each day while it scans a hard disk. Consequently, unlike Mac & Linux, Windows does not get anything close to full CPU performance while you are using it.Looking at the price you pay for Windows system, it is not that cheap, actually. The average Windows systems are at the same price point as the equivalent Mac. The turnkey Windows PCs you buy pre-built are not much cheaper than Macs. The only ones that are noticeably cheaper are the Atom-based netbooks - and I looked into that:- CPU is single core not dual core (kinda 1990's)- CPU is clocked around 1.6 GHz not 2.6 GHz- CPU is not 64-bit; unless you pay a lot more for the system, it can only handle 32-bit- unit is size of a bulky PDA, it's not size of a notebook but rather a teen's clutch purse- screen is small so you are going to just get around 20 lines of 14-point text on it- screen is low-resolution by today's standard's - just 1024x600 pixelsThese units are sold by Microsoft OEMs, so even if you do not buy Windows on them, they still charge you, because Microsoft still charges them. It's in their Windows OEM contract - the infamous "Microsoft tax" clause.I looked at one of the tech blog sites this fall that someone submitted on Digg. It was a "build your own PC cheap" how-to article and the system cost $999. I looked at what you got and buying a Mac Mini + monitor + a nicer mouse/kbd. was cheaper, and OS X is included free.I got dugg down but hey, what did they expect? The PC was just an average system that you had to buy parts from lots of different companies and wait for them to arrive, assemble as a kit, had dubious tech support & warranty potential, and was vulnerable to a zero-day exploit and critical security flaw that was announced right after that.Apple has done OS development and created lots of free apps during this decade (Safari, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, etc.) and they bundle them with their computer, so I don't see that it costs more. Now, Microsoft is a VAR. Yep, when they opened a PC retail store they became the textbook definition of a VAR. Due to the reality Windows is a single-source OS, Microsoft is in a position to put competing Windows retail stores out of business. They can simply raise the Windows OEM licensing fees to one OEM at a time, or across the board all at one time. OEMs, thus retailers, thus consumers/businesses will have to pay it - unless they buy their computer for Microsoft. Right, because Microsoft is the one computer retailer/vendor in the universe that doesn't have to pay for Windows!There is zero contract, law, or regulation that I know of that will stop that as OEM contracts come up for renewal. (IANAL)I think Microsoft will probably do it. The only thing that will limit how high they will raise prices is Apple and Linux prices - that is simple economics. With Microsoft owning their own store and the OS, Windows OEMs have zero power. None. At best, OEMs can cry antitrust and we already know that will do them no good.I think on the desktop, Firefox and Mac OS X have forced Microsoft to pay more attention to quality. For price, Macs are starting to put some pressure on Microsoft; Windows Server is far overpriced compared to Snow Leopard Server. Linux, of course, exerts a lot of price pressure. In the future, Microsoft will be raising the prices of Windows PCs and Apple will control the price ceiling that Microsoft bobs up to.
andjewJun 18, 2009
look at all those ticks!!
Closed AccountJun 19, 2009
I'm switching to IE 8
esc27Jun 19, 2009
Acid 2 was the test when IE 8 was announced, and it tests the current web standards. This is Microsoft's "catchup" browser, os I think it is fair to cut them some slack and just be pleased they meet most current standards. Let 8.5 worry about the new stuff.
ilgazJun 19, 2009
Also in "rush hour" (bandwidth issues) there is nothing, I repeat nothing can beat Opera 10 beta. It even senses the bandwidth issues automatically and enables its "Turbo" mode which produces amazing results in such conditions.
earthforce1Jun 20, 2009
Or just display a message saying your website doesn't support that POS browser, and offer a link to redirect them to the IE8 or FF download site.
gibboapJun 21, 2009
i may be wrong but has MS not booted out live search in favour of bing??? if so why is live search on this page
sealbhachJun 29, 2009
Who said there was no value in an MBA? It's a very pretty chart.
migitmdJul 13, 2009
and you're an idiot. firefox is far more secure over IE8. the only advantage I've seen IE8 have over firefox is that it uses a svchost.exe for every tab, while firefox doesn't. And as far as i can tell, IE doesn't have skinning abilities...and i've never seen a single plugin for IE either.
migitmdJul 13, 2009
the more plugins, the slower FF is.
johnnysoftwareNov 17, 2009
When Firefox crashes, it asks me if I want to start a new session or reuse an old one. Is there a better recovery method than that?Personally, I just say "no" because if it crashed it was after I had tons of tabs open and probably lots of Flash ads and such open. Not so sure I would make much use of crash recovery, if that is what it does.
johnnysoftwareNov 17, 2009
@earthforce: I agree. Linux (and to a lesser extent FreeBSD) put price pressure on anyone selling a way over-priced system.For big shops like Google/Amazon, medium-sized, and even some small businesses - they get a Linux guru (if they don't already have one on the payroll) and they are good to goYou can update the apps on a Linux system without rebooting but try that on Windows someday. There are a couple apps like iTunes+Safari on the Mac that seem to require a reboot after updating but they are the exception to the rule on Mac. Windows has the most complex, time-consuming software installation process of the 3 operating systems.Worse, the Windows desktop & Mobile OS autorun malware on USB drives and CDs, instead of asking you "you want this virus?" or just leaving it alone like every other operating system would do.Windows support operators/techs are expensive - about $70K/year in my area, according to radio ads. When major, global Windows worm outbreaks happen - the biggest ones seem to get through the firewalls anyway, and fast. Sometimes, the infection even goes unnoticed for days even though the outbreak itself is front page news.Windows needs 2-3 layers of active AV, slowing down your system: download scanning, and disk scanning. Plus, it needs to do signature checks for at least half a million known Windows viruses as well as heuristics & algorithms to find dynamic viruses that cyberthieves are doing this year. Not only do they scan files but they also scan highly compressed archive files. I've had Windows AV software interrupt perfectly good/safe downloads (FOSS standard open source Java .zip files, for example) and nearly grind to a stop for an hour each day while it scans a hard disk. Consequently, unlike Mac & Linux, Windows does not get anything close to full CPU performance while you are using it.Looking at the price you pay for Windows system, it is not that cheap, actually. The average Windows systems are at the same price point as the equivalent Mac. The turnkey Windows PCs you buy pre-built are not much cheaper than Macs. The only ones that are noticeably cheaper are the Atom-based netbooks - and I looked into that:- CPU is single core not dual core (kinda 1990's)- CPU is clocked around 1.6 GHz not 2.6 GHz- CPU is not 64-bit; unless you pay a lot more for the system, it can only handle 32-bit- unit is size of a bulky PDA, it's not size of a notebook but rather a teen's clutch purse- screen is small so you are going to just get around 20 lines of 14-point text on it- screen is low-resolution by today's standard's - just 1024x600 pixelsThese units are sold by Microsoft OEMs, so even if you do not buy Windows on them, they still charge you, because Microsoft still charges them. It's in their Windows OEM contract - the infamous "Microsoft tax" clause.I looked at one of the tech blog sites this fall that someone submitted on Digg. It was a "build your own PC cheap" how-to article and the system cost $999. I looked at what you got and buying a Mac Mini + monitor + a nicer mouse/kbd. was cheaper, and OS X is included free.I got dugg down but hey, what did they expect? The PC was just an average system that you had to buy parts from lots of different companies and wait for them to arrive, assemble as a kit, had dubious tech support & warranty potential, and was vulnerable to a zero-day exploit and critical security flaw that was announced right after that.Apple has done OS development and created lots of free apps during this decade (Safari, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, etc.) and they bundle them with their computer, so I don't see that it costs more. Now, Microsoft is a VAR. Yep, when they opened a PC retail store they became the textbook definition of a VAR. Due to the reality Windows is a single-source OS, Microsoft is in a position to put competing Windows retail stores out of business. They can simply raise the Windows OEM licensing fees to one OEM at a time, or across the board all at one time. OEMs, thus retailers, thus consumers/businesses will have to pay it - unless they buy their computer for Microsoft. Right, because Microsoft is the one computer retailer/vendor in the universe that doesn't have to pay for Windows!There is zero contract, law, or regulation that I know of that will stop that as OEM contracts come up for renewal. (IANAL)I think Microsoft will probably do it. The only thing that will limit how high they will raise prices is Apple and Linux prices - that is simple economics. With Microsoft owning their own store and the OS, Windows OEMs have zero power. None. At best, OEMs can cry antitrust and we already know that will do them no good.I think on the desktop, Firefox and Mac OS X have forced Microsoft to pay more attention to quality. For price, Macs are starting to put some pressure on Microsoft; Windows Server is far overpriced compared to Snow Leopard Server. Linux, of course, exerts a lot of price pressure. In the future, Microsoft will be raising the prices of Windows PCs and Apple will control the price ceiling that Microsoft bobs up to.
littletinkerFeb 21, 2010
This serves only to keep the ie8 fanboys happy. Those who use the other browsers won't be stupid enough to fall for this.
littletinkerFeb 21, 2010
If there is a lot of traffic, you take the subway. Very poor analogy.