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Internet Explorer 8 Delayed Until 2009

Posted by Soulskill on from the ready-when-it's-ready dept.

Barence writes "Microsoft has confirmed that Internet Explorer 8 will not be officially released until 2009. According to a blog posting on the Internet Explorer 8 development site, a release candidate of the browser will be released in the first quarter of next year, to be followed by a final release at an unspecified date. This news comes on the same day that Google is considering bundling its Chrome browser with new PCs. Will the IE delay and Google's tactics help to steer users in Chrome's direction?"

10 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. how by ionix5891 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    does a company with so much cash and resources is unable to release a good browser is beyond me

    must be all the bureaucracy or some sort of internal politics

    IE does so much harm to microsoft's image, are they just blind in the Death Star to notice the bad will being generated?

    1. Re:how by lukas84 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're not looking at the whole picture.

      IE does a lot of things right, which no other browser does.

      Centrally managing IE in a Windows Environment is a breeze - everything can be configured using Group Policies, a powerful tool that automates application customization.

      Deploying and upgrading IE is also easy, as it utilizes the same Windows Update infrastructure that is already in place - using the free WSUS product in small businesses, or WSUS/SCCM in larger businesses.

      IE also allows powerful intranet applications and custom security zones that can also be configured centrally - yes, this feature has been the source of many a security problem, but businesses don't buy computers because they're secure, but because they solve business problems.

      Firefox, Opera and Chrome seem to have little to no interest in being used in corporate IT environments, where automated deployment and central management is key.

    2. Re:how by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Having a lot of money isn't necessarily going to speed up development. Developing complex software (which MS Internet Explorer is) takes time. You can use money to hire more developers, and that can speed things up, but, after a certain point, having more programmers will actually slow down development. You can use money to hire better programmers, but that has its limits, too. The same goes for buying faster hardware and better development tools. At some point, you just can't make things go faster, no matter how much money you have.

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    3. Re:how by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're right. It's excellent in every way; except for rendering HTML.

    4. Re:how by Kent+Recal · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ehm, you confused google and microsoft there.
      Microsoft is the marketing company. Google is a product company.

      Google sets industry-standards with their products (search, gmail...) and people flock to them because they are better, not because google markets them anyhow. Seriously, have you seen an ad for google search or google mail ever?
      Microsoft puts out crappy products and forces them down the consumers throats through their OS monopoly and aggressive marketing.

    5. Re:how by Richard_at_work · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I beg to differ - Google is the very epitome of a marketing company, and your post is a damn good example of why. Googles products are you, not Gmail or search, you. Googles customers are its advertisers. The fact that you think Google is a product company proves that their marketing is second to none.

    6. Re:how by David+Gerard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, he's quite correct. Google get money from their advertisers. What they sell the advertisers is your attention.

      Search and Gmail are not the "products" that Google actually sell* - they're bait to lure in the products that they sell.

      * OK, they do sell Gmail for your domain as a product. But the vast majority of their income is selling your eyeballs to advertisers.

      --
      http://rocknerd.co.uk
  2. Ummm.... by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is not massive news as it is Late November in 2008. Meaning if IE 8 was release it would have to be released within 6 weeks. Heck it would need at least that much time in the RC levels just to make sure things are kinda going smooth.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  3. Delay means very little by sleeponthemic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Chances are, if you're an internet explorer user you're not on the edge of your seat about the next version coming out - because you have no knowledge about it. Furthermore, you've never heard of chrome. Some people in the office go on about Firefox but your browser works just fine - infact, you consider the browser you used in 2002 to be no different than the one you use now.

    --
    I record my sleeptalking
  4. Funny, but not funny by Redbaran · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know we all like to laugh at MS for not shipping a product on time, but as a web-developer, I am not happy (nor surprised). Anything that delays the average web-surfer from having a more standards compliant browser is not a good thing. While I'm sure IE8 won't be as compliant as it should be, it's still a step in the right direction.

    I'll never get back the hours and days I've wasted on browser differences and bugs, but the mirage that one day I won't have to waste that time is enough to keep me wandering through the desert with a little bit of hope.