IE8 Browser Comparison Chart

[kelvin070]

Source: Windows Internet Explorer 8: Get the facts

 

[ssl]

Cliff-Notes: Marketing bullshit + One common sense category = Marketing bullshit.

----------

the only reason Microsoft "wins" the compatibility category is because they *made* ActiveX. Then never made it available past Windows-Only.

So, that is just bullshit spew.

Security would entail de-coupling it completely from the Windows OS. Like, I could uninstall it *completely*.

Ease of use - you see the interface recently? It's like they are trying to get the important & useful shit out of sight.. Just put everything next to the close button. Thats fucking intelligent. Take some cues from Firefox's interface (back, forward, history of the session, refresh, home, address, search -- the only buttons/boxes on my Firefox browser bars. I have the menu for whenever I need to delve into other options, and I have the tabs bar always showing; very clean; I have all the necessary add-ons, such as flash/pdf-viewing(adobe)/hell, i even have a couple of Microsoft's stuff, such as WGA & Office 2007 System add-on (but the office 2k7 is disabled... as I do not use it in the browser..??).

Let's see IE8 delete pretty much *every* private piece of information when you close your browser... Oh wait, that would just defeat the purpose of all those accelerators/web slices/add-ons. When you have to name the feature, because you want to highlight it... whats the point? "InPrivate" Browsing and Flitering? um... just do not store any history (browsing) and filtering... just go to the sites that are trustworthy? how hard is this?

Developer Tools.... for a browser? You mean, for ActiveX pages? Oh yeah, that Microsoft-only technology? Yeah, ... thought so. Firefox's only development (besides the actual browser) by third-parties .. would be the Add-Ons! The browser is standards-compliant, so you could use *any* website development suite you want!

Reliablility... just discombobulate from the operating system. That move, and that move itself, would make IE much more secure. Seriously would make me think of using it. A piece of software should not be purposeful more than it's goal; IE is an Internet browser.. but what is Windows Explorer? I'll let you know... change a few toolbars around... change some pictures... that little animation in the corner? Yeah, ... you know now (if you did not before).

Manageability... "Neither Firefox nor Chrome provide guidance or enterprise tools. That's just not nice." - Hmm.... nice big words for? I will go out on a limb here.. and say that the Add-Ons window in Firefox is not a management window for the add-ons you install for it. Microsoft must not test Firefox enough to happen to come across about:configure...

Chrome - never tried it.

----------

Web Standards - "It's a tie. Internet Explorer 8 passes more of the World Wide Web Consortium's CSS 2.1 test cases than any other browser, but Firefox 3 has more support for some evolving standards."
-> Yeah, which means Firefox 3 is supporting newer standards... unlike IE8 which still supports the 1996 ActiveX technology....

Customizability - "Sure, Firefox may win in sheer number of add-ons, but many of the customizations you'd want to download for Firefox are already a part of Internet Explorer 8 – right out of the box."
-> That depends on who Microsoft is talking to. Do you not like generalizations? Which customizations I already want, without Microsoft talking to me??

Performance - "Knowing the top speed of a car doesn't tell you how fast you can drive in rush hour. To actually see the difference in page loads between all three browsers, you need slow-motion video. This one’s also a tie."
-> First piece of common sense here.

============

However, just on that "MythBusting" tab on the website...

"Internet Explorer 8 is designed for what you really do on the Web—things like searching, shopping, emailing, or just catching up on the world. Except now you can do all of those things faster, safer, and easier than ever. Really."

Wait... faster? I thought they just said it was a Performance tie? Safer? sure, when you have more problems, you can fix more issues. Easier? that depends, actually, on the website you are using. OffTopicz, to my knowledge would be easy in all three browsers mentioned.

Actually, in the two browsers mentioned. The only real mention of Chrome is the tab isolation feature...

--------

Marketing is still trying too hard to sell IE. Just develop it better (and remove Window's dependency on IE completely) and I bet that you will not need this much marketing.

 

[ssl]

Awesome quote from the Reasons to Install tab:

InPrivate Browsing gives you the option to prevent browsing history, cookies, usernames and passwords from being retained by the browser.

and you can set that option with Firefox - mark the "Always clear my private data when I close Firefox" option.

Major issue with marketing in the comparison table. That Firefox option makes IE8 and FF3 both have the same thing. And Firefox has had this option at least since 1.5 (when I first installed Firefox)!

 

[Omega]

I choked when I saw this! IE 8 is a major fibber, and as a web designer, I know. Trust me. I have a website that will not even WORK on IE at all, thus the start page will redirect you to a page stating why not to use IE if you try to enter on IE. While this page isn't much use to people who don't know what my website's about, check my site at: Glest Guide. Be sure to check the lua page with both IE and any other browser (Firefox, Safari, etc and you'll see how bad IE really is.

--------

My comments to this chart:

Security: Regardless of the BS that microsoft gives, IE is still insecure, and the few features it has are easily rivaled by Firefox. IE has the most vulnerabilities for any browser, and probably always will!

Privacy: Firefox, Chrome, and Safari have all had these features for a long time (well, not firefox, as its kinda new there, but Safari was the first ever to impliment this). Although its not the biggest thing to boast about, since this is often known as 'porn mode' because others can't see your history.

Ease of Use: Chrome is far easier to use than any other browser, and firefox is pretty much the same. I admit, ease of use is a vauge topic, since browsers are pretty similar. They all have that address bar and that's all a newbie needs. Firefox's plugins make it WAY easier to use than IE.

Web Standards: As a web designer myself, who knows pretty much all of XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. I also know how horrible IE is at using JavaScript. Nothing ever works properly on IE, and I refuse to hack my sites for that. If someone even thinks of visiting my site on IE, I shoo them into a page to scold them. Yes, its harsh, but it beats filling out a form only for the form parser to not work on IE. IE cannot properly use the CSS property position 'fixed' either. While it sometimes works, it never seems to for me! IE has some extra code that is NOT to standards, and is only there to brain wash people who try to learn HTML. IE 8 fails the web standards quite horribly!

Developer Tools: Firefox's plugins make it vastly superior here. The web developer plug in is just heaven...

Reliability: IE WILL crash at least 200% as much as firefox. Guarenteed. When firefox freezes because you happen to be using Windows, it will usually regain control, while IE will simply say 'sorry'. On any other OS, You'll be hardpushed to see Firefox crash! And firefox is far better at recovering tabs, and needs no plug in to do so!

Customization: This is such BS! Firefox can do EVERYTHING that IE CAN'T! The personas are awesome, and the themes are customizable. I'd like to see IE do THAT!

Compatibility: See Web standards for the basic outrage. Microsoft has no compatibility at all. It tries to use its own code to ensure that web designers like me must try to code how they want us to, not like the WC3 says we should. For petes sake IE, can't you even keep up to date? What about the new standards like <video>? And the Acid3 test (The Acid3 Test) is prove of IE's big flop. It scores in the 20% range. Firefox is around 93% and safari is a sweet 100%. I think chrome is 100% as well... And firefox is fixing the last few things. IE has no plans to fix this because if they adopt standards, people have no reason to use windows programs as much because web games would take over, being cross platform compatible.

Managability: The about:config gives more control than any other browser, and add-ons will add to this managability. So you can quit lying now IE.

Performance: Chrome is by far faster than IE, no matter what Microsoft says (and they'll usually lie anyway). While firefox is actually not the fastest browser, performance is also how well the browser performs, which is where IE lost.

As we can see, IE is hardly as good as it looks anymore, eh?

 

[kelvin070]

You guys got to look at things from differnt perspectives. 99.9% of people using computers are not doing IT related jobs. For these people IE8 or even XP2 or Vista or the upcoming Widows 7 will suffice. They don't care two hoots abt Linux or FF.

 

[ssl]

You guys got to look at things from differnt perspectives. 99.9% of people using computers are not doing IT related jobs. For these people IE8 or even XP2 or Vista or the upcoming Widows 7 will suffice. They don't care two hoots abt Linux or FF.

You don't have to mention Linux (where does Linux fit into this conversation... we are talking browsers??!?).

You tell the person you are helping (paid or not) that you switched them to a more secure browser, such as FF or Safari -- by using the Default Programs screen -- and they do not even notice too big a switch, because they do not care how they get to where they want, just as long as they get there.

That is how the majority of people think. If they can go from Point A to Point B, it works for them. If they can do more while doing that, awesome.

Hell, why do you think cars have radios, cup holders, and (optionally) GPS?

Only one helps with a detour/faster route.

 

[kelvin070]

Why restrict to browsers here. The same principle applies to OS too. Microsoft still dominates.

 

[ssl]

Why restrict to browsers here. The same principle applies to OS too. Microsoft still dominates.

This is a thread about internet browsers.

And no one is contesting the domination of Microsoft. They are an excellent study on marketing strategies; just that some of their products are not *quite* up to par with other organizations' offerings.

I heart a good bit of Microsoft's stuff, namely their development software. Well, when I upgrade to the .Net or higher stuff this fall (MSAA)... I will see if I still like it.

Their stuff might be feature-rich... but they gotta make it good features to keep their dominance, and in some segments of the respective markets, they are not the first to put out the feature... I think Microsoft's policy in terms of browsers is feature quantity over feature quality (there is some quality, but not at the same levels of other organizations' offerings).

 

[Margene]

I'm using IE 8 and I have no complaints. I'm not in IT, just a user of a browser. I like the format. So it works for me.

 

[ssl]

I'm using IE 8 and I have no complaints. I'm not in IT, just a user of a browser. I like the format. So it works for me.

nUb!!!!

:jk

Like I said, if it works, why fix it?

ha, that reminds me of Microsoft's internal policy: If it's broke, get the duct tape. :24: