Comments on: Internet Explorer 8 Getting Ready for You

By: FireFox Bravely Battles On in the Browser Wars : The Blog Herald

FireFox Bravely Battles On in the Browser Wars : The Blog Herald — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:33:11 +0000

[...] release of Internet Explorer 8 is coming soon, which will drop the statistics for IE 6 and 7, but many continue to switch to FireFox as a viable [...]

By: xiela

xiela — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:15:15 +0000

i cant wait for IE8 it just means stiffer competion for FF and other browsers available out there. stiffer competition, better products, hopefully!

By: Pushing Internet Explorer 7 « Lorelle on WordPress

Pushing Internet Explorer 7 « Lorelle on WordPress — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:57:18 +0000

[...] Internet Explorer 8 Getting Ready for You [...]

By: Lorelle VanFossen

Lorelle VanFossen — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:09:40 +0000

@Jacob Santos: You made some very good points. I have a lot of friends who are still using Windows98, and if they upgraded, did not go past IE6. Most of these people live outside of the United States, but not all. I have one family member in the midwest still using a computer from the 1980s who refuses to upgrade, though he thinks about it now and then. It works for him. Of course, he is rarely on the Internet. :D

By: Jacob Santos

Jacob Santos — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:13:27 +0000

My rant is almost double your post without quotes. I think I need to tone it down a little.

By: Jacob Santos

Jacob Santos — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:09:17 +0000

I think the problem Microsoft faces with Internet Explorer is the fact they have been the “standard” for many users and designers. To break away like Netscape did would be a mistake as Netscape never recovered.

I think it is more difficult for web developers and designers, because we expect either for all of the past bugs to still “work” as they did or for all of the standards that work on Firefox/Safari/Opera to work on IE as they do on the other browsers.

It should probably be noted that IE might be the last popular browser to pass the Acid2 test. Firefox 3 has already passed the test a while ago and Safari and Opera have done so for longer than Firefox.

The main concern going forward for IE is that they want to support the standards that the other browsers have fully supported years ago. The other browsers are already working on CSS3 and a few almost have a finished working spec of CSS3. Firefox has some support, but IE most likely will not have any.

Designers and developers want to move towards SVG, XHTML 2, HTML 5, JavaScript 2, etc technology. The rate IE is going, it may be until IE 9 before we get even basic support for these technologies.

Firefox seems to be the lone wolf in moving towards supporting JavaScript 2, but I haven’t heard any word from Safari and Opera (I do believe they are also working towards full JS 2 support and I think they will get it finished even before Firefox).

The slowness might be an benefit in that users will eventually move towards IE once more and more of their sites begin to not function as most of the web moves towards supporting IE7 as a minimim when IE 9 comes out.

I still see users on IE 5 and IE 4! Good luck to them. However, from the site statistics that I work on, we get about half and half with IE 7 losing of IE 6 and IE 7 users. About 5% Firefox, so it is just barely worth supporting them.

Well, I think also, that you have an barrier for the users who are still using Windows 98. They will have to upgrade to even be able to consider upgrading to a later IE version. IE 8 will also probably be the last version to be ported to WinXP. So unless the user is on Vista when IE 9 comes out in 2010, I don’t see many people upgrading to IE 9 either.

By: Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 01:07:20 +0000

Annie: I do install FF on my family member’s machines including this one. The rub is that I don’t want to use the same browser as they to avoid logging them out of their sites to get into mine. It’s a courtesy thing.

Now, if I were smart. I’d have a USB drive and portable Firefox with me at all times. THAT is what I need to be doing…

By: Arab Aquarius

Arab Aquarius — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:29:25 +0000

Hopefullt IE8 will be better and more flexible than 7. I use maxthon and firefox but wouldnt mind using IE if its quality is improved

By: Anne Helmond

Anne Helmond — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:39:20 +0000

I also use Internet Explorer primarily for webdesign testing. I also use it for a lot of (commercial and governmental) sites that I use for administration purposes such as T-mobile which only work on IE.

@Jonathan Bailey: I always install Firefox on family members’ computers whenever they ask me to fix their computers ;) I’ve never heard anyone complain about switching their default browser, I guess that means they’re satisfied ;)

By: Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:44:14 +0000

I am forced to use IE when visiting my in laws. I am always grateful for the experience though as it makes me not only respect my Firefox, but also my broadband connection.

Thanksgiving takes on a whole new meaning…

Still, it will be nice to see a standards-compliant browser become the stock and trade of the Web. I am hoping that it will take off, at least with the current IE6 and IE7 crowd…

By: Dexter

Dexter — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:32:49 +0000

Thanks for the head ups..Will this topple down mozilla