Companies totally unaffiliated with Windows manage to produce browsers that have bleeding-edge feature parity all the way from XP through 8 (not to mention two other major OSes).
But when the company that fucking makes Windows manages to make their (less functional) browser work with a single version of a single OS they themselves produce and support, it's a news item.
The situation is much better than it used to be. However, consider that for many web developers, a quick transition from IE9 to IE10 will be a big improvement. Microsoft's sheer size and impact makes it news.
If there was a time for Microsoft to make amends for all the bullshit we, web developers had to put up with in the past 10 years or so, it is now. Hopefully they'll catch up with Firefox and Chrome.
Versus the bullshit we have to put up from the other vendors who throw out new features which everyone else has to pick up via peer pressure even though they are poorly designed?
What makes this potentially very interesting is that Microsoft is suppose to push out IE10 to most Win7 users after it's released. Within 12 months IE10 could be the most used IE browser. Hopefully, approaching 20% market share.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the browser itself?
I'm using it right now and first impressions are that it's (subjective..) ridiculously fast, compared to IE9.
Gmail, Google Calendar and Reader are really snappy, and more importantly, (imho) the biggest UX annoyance has been dealt with: a new tab opens up and is ready for use instantly.
New Tab performance has varied for me on different machines and installations, sometimes being instant and snappy and sometimes needing several seconds.
The greatest impact often are plugins, though, since IE still caters for plugins from the 90s by emulating appropriate events for “new browser window” when a tab is opened. Under “Manage add-ons” you can see how much load or navigation time each has.
That may sound trite, because it is. It's also true.
It's IE9 with IE10's substandard HTML, JS and CSS stuff shoehorned in. That doesn't even make for a better IE9, it makes for a completely different beast of a browser.
Realistically, I'm only ever going to use it to browser test, so for me and possibly everyone else here on HN, the most important feature is going to be the developer tools. And in this version of IE What's not to like?
Everything. That's what. All it's good for is checking the console, but even then it's like having your debugging info spoken to you by a special needs kid with a lisp. Objects are still just the ever useless [object Object]. Minor javascript errors are enough to send it into a tailspin, followed up by an inevitable crash. I still don't understand why the console displays line numbers as links when clicking them does nothing. Profiler and Network, yeah, they do their job ok-ish, but they do the bare minimum.
Also, I wonder: when they had the meeting at Microsoft to decide what to call the "disable cache" option, which bight spark suggested "Always refresh from server" would be the best label to properly convey the feature. Probably the same bright spark who decided to make it do absolutely nothing so you still have to empty the cache every fucking time anyway.
My rating: 0/10. As far as I can tell, there's not one single aspect of it that's in any way better than anything the competition offers. Zero "things" that could earn it even a solitary point.
I'm sick to the back teeth of IE and it's bullshit. Three sarcastic cheers for yet another turd we all have to work late to support.
After using it for a few minutes on W7, it feels at least as snappy as my normal browser, Chrome. More surprising for me is that the font rendering looks better than Chrome. Hmmm.
Fascinating. This is another way for them to send a clear message to the hundreds of millions of xp users out there who looked at 7 and rejected it: "We don't care about you, use the latest Chrome if you must".
And then they keep wondering why ie's market share is dropping like a rock.
Considering the amount of people who whinge incessantly about the latest and greatest browser not being used, why would they then whinge that the latest operating system isn't?
[+] [-] Animus7|13 years ago|reply
Companies totally unaffiliated with Windows manage to produce browsers that have bleeding-edge feature parity all the way from XP through 8 (not to mention two other major OSes).
But when the company that fucking makes Windows manages to make their (less functional) browser work with a single version of a single OS they themselves produce and support, it's a news item.
[+] [-] melling|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tzaman|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] meaty|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] preavy|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] melling|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shrikant|13 years ago|reply
I'm using it right now and first impressions are that it's (subjective..) ridiculously fast, compared to IE9.
Gmail, Google Calendar and Reader are really snappy, and more importantly, (imho) the biggest UX annoyance has been dealt with: a new tab opens up and is ready for use instantly.
[+] [-] ygra|13 years ago|reply
The greatest impact often are plugins, though, since IE still caters for plugins from the 90s by emulating appropriate events for “new browser window” when a tab is opened. Under “Manage add-ons” you can see how much load or navigation time each has.
[+] [-] tomelders|13 years ago|reply
That may sound trite, because it is. It's also true.
It's IE9 with IE10's substandard HTML, JS and CSS stuff shoehorned in. That doesn't even make for a better IE9, it makes for a completely different beast of a browser.
Realistically, I'm only ever going to use it to browser test, so for me and possibly everyone else here on HN, the most important feature is going to be the developer tools. And in this version of IE What's not to like?
Everything. That's what. All it's good for is checking the console, but even then it's like having your debugging info spoken to you by a special needs kid with a lisp. Objects are still just the ever useless [object Object]. Minor javascript errors are enough to send it into a tailspin, followed up by an inevitable crash. I still don't understand why the console displays line numbers as links when clicking them does nothing. Profiler and Network, yeah, they do their job ok-ish, but they do the bare minimum.
Also, I wonder: when they had the meeting at Microsoft to decide what to call the "disable cache" option, which bight spark suggested "Always refresh from server" would be the best label to properly convey the feature. Probably the same bright spark who decided to make it do absolutely nothing so you still have to empty the cache every fucking time anyway.
My rating: 0/10. As far as I can tell, there's not one single aspect of it that's in any way better than anything the competition offers. Zero "things" that could earn it even a solitary point.
I'm sick to the back teeth of IE and it's bullshit. Three sarcastic cheers for yet another turd we all have to work late to support.
[+] [-] preavy|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JuDue|13 years ago|reply
Does IE10 allow itself to software update?
If we could just have a proper implementation of that, it might mean avoiding a rerun of IE6 lingering for several years?
[+] [-] Toshio|13 years ago|reply
And then they keep wondering why ie's market share is dropping like a rock.
[+] [-] meaty|13 years ago|reply
So much double-think.
[+] [-] ygra|13 years ago|reply