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Microsoft Launches New "Get the Facts" Campaign
ko9 writes that Microsoft has re-launched its "'Get the facts' campaign, in an attempt to promote Internet Explorer 8. It contains a chart that compares IE8 to Firefox and Chrome. Needless to say, IE8 comes out as the clear winner, with MS suggesting it is the only browser to provide features like 'privacy,' 'security,' 'reliability.' It even claims to have Firefox beat in 'customizability.'"
now give me the story!
~Once you have your choices narrowed down, the rest will fall into place.
It even claims to have Firefox beat in 'customizability.'"
Of course, they only get to that point by sneaking in windows updates into your Firefox addons that cannot be removed short of a massively complicated and obscure fix...
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.
Those Grapes are Sour ANYWAY!
And nothing is worse than this one:
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.
Did you hear that? Because my head just fucking exploded.
And what the hell does "Manageability" mean? Rate at which the browser is able to be handled or controled? What the hell?! And their little quip for this one:
Neither Firefox nor Chrome provide guidance or enterprise tools. That's just not nice.
You know what's not nice? Having to write in my freaking javascript if(IE){ do tons of fucked up shit } else { everybody else's predictable behavior }. You know what else isn't nice? The scourge of websites that will forever taint the web because you couldn't get your shit together for IE6 and then you let it fester for years.
I am so done with internet explorer in any form. This ridiculous campaign is just here to piss me off. Microsoft has no one to blame but themselves for making me jaded and opposed to any form of IE.
My work here is dung.
Microsoft rapes puppies when you use Chrome...FACT!!!
I can't find it in the repos.
lawl?
While Microsoft's campaign is rubbish, unfortunately Mozilla is no better.
With FireFox, only the user can customise the browser. With IE, any remote attacker can as well!
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I love my Microsoft keyboard. I love my Microsoft mouse.
I loved their Z-80 Softcard on my Apple II.
It's too bad they insist on making second-rate software. Their hardware is excelent.
http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
... you keep on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
web standards? no browser has given me more greif by completely changing the layout of a page which every other common browsr in every common OS displays perfectly fine. Not to mention all the 'made for IE' pages that look like shit in every other browser.
IE is going to have to work damn hard to get rid of that reputation amoungst developers
It's pretty hilarious on all of the categories which are ties that Microsoft admits the other browsers are better, but then discounts the reasons why because, according to them, it turns out that the category doesn't matter for some reason or another so, it's a TIE!
I clicked the "Download Now" button, and I can't find my operating system in there.
Compe up with a native Linux/BSD version Microsoft, and then we will talk.
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
No doubt MS is overrun by business managers, which I am sure is most of their problems. To a business person, the product is the after thought, but the marketing is the most important thing. IE does not have problems because of poor marketing. It has problems because of of countless security issues with the code itself that have in the past left machines very vulnerable to malicious attempts. Any technology person can tell you this, but I bet this will not be presented as a "fact" on their marketing campaign...
They seemed to take out a couple of categories from the original chart.
* Browser most likely to cause the user to pull out hair - IE8
* Browser able to download viruses and malware the fastest - IE8
* Browser able to crash and take your whole OS down faster than a $2 hooker - IE8
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
They're using the definition of fact that says: "fact : a statement accepted as true as the basis for argument or inference "
The catch is, it's biased people at MS who "accept it as true" on the "basis for [inherently flawwed] argument or inference"
Microsoft is becoming infamous for these bogus get the "facts" campaigns, which are really marketing attempts to use Microsoft's truth to distort common belief, replacing the facts with MS' contrived point of view.
At some place, I use firefox and have to use IE7 for one single purpose: sharepoint. I installed IE8 once, and guess what, explorer view in sharepoint didn't work in IE8, only in IE7. So I had to install IE7 again. Conclusion: IE8 is useless. What a waste of time and energy to launch a campaign about that.
"Get the FUD" is more accurate.
Looks like this campaign is not even aimed at the market. Microsoft announced a lay off. It appears they are not culling the employees by performance and competence. They seem to be lopping off whole programs and letting everyone go in those programs and all the lucky ones who happen to be in the rest will continue employment en masse. This leads to low employee morale as the IE team people go, "my job depends not on my performannce but the kind of contacts my manager has with the higher ups and how well my team's output is doing in the marketplace. IE is steadily losing marketshare. Europe is going to unbundle IE and there will be a push to get IE less Windows in USA too. What is going to happen to my job? Should I bail out?". So the IE Team VP gets the higher ups to show some signs that his reportees will not be left high and dry. Just a product of internal turf war, empire building and palace intrigue within that large bureaucracy. Nothing much to see here. Move along.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Ok, so this may be a single case. But I once made an interesting animation using nothing but html, css and javascript (flash to play back an mp3). It worked perfectly on all browsers (firefox, chrome, opera, safari, msie 6 and msie 7). But it quite broken in MSIE8, the performance is absolutely terrible on my laptop (which is the only machine I installed IE8 on) which wasn't the case before. The animation contains movement of animating gifs, in IE8 they don't animate properly.
The site in question: http://www.idleballad.com/
One wouldn't need such malware protection if they didn't run windows.
Don't know what privacy victories you get to win when so many addons get behind the filter.
Compatibility, that is a metric they win solely on being able to define the playing field. activex and such shouldn't be a metric used. Further the non standards they forced on web developers for previous versions of IE also defined a playing field that no one else wanted to use.
Using copy that says "Thats just not nice" when speaking of enterprise tools is just showing how much the copy editors where gagging on the points they had to convey.
And what the hell does "Manageability" mean? Rate at which the browser is able to be handled or controled? What the hell?!
I think "manageability" might have something to do with the IT department's ability to control settings on hundreds or thousands of computers in an Active Directory environment through Group Policy objects. Do Mozilla, Opera, and Google provide analogous tools to manage thousands of installations of Firefox, Opera, or Chrome?
"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." Translation: Has a bunch of stuff you don't want or use.
So by ms standards Opera isn't even a browser. Or maybe they just didn't know how to tame that gaping margin on the right so they could fit a fifth column in there... But I bet now that they have support for CSS (or so they claim) it won't be long until they figure this one out...
I had to uninstall IE8 from vista because it screwed up folder views for all of Vista. For some weird reason, on some systems, IE8 causes every folder to be opened in a new window. The only fix at the time was to go back to IE7. Pretty sad when upgrading a browser downgrades your OS.
Since the Beta 2 release last spring, SmartScreen filter has blocked over 8 million malware and phishing scams, and projections show that it's on target for over 1 million blocks per day.
It's blocked 8 million, over the course of a year, and is on target for 1 million blocks a day how?
Laughter is the best medicine, except if you have a broken rib.
FAIL
I argue because it's the internet....and I can.
I use a program called SpiceWorks to monitor the network, run the helpdesk etc which makes heavy use of interactive content.
I notice that the very last item is about performance.
I can load up the entire inventory of my network in around 3 seconds in Chrome and Opera. It takes 11 seconds in IE8.
Not fast at all.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
I have absolutely no idea what those things are, or for that matter where in IE8 you can find them.
Why is this even being discussed. Its obviously PR. If you wanted a serious comparison go look on google for one. Honestly you don't trust the sales man to give you the best price on your car. You know he is going to fleece you. Its the same thing here.
You obviously haven't had the unfortunate experience of owning a RROD 360.
Microsoft Launches New "Get the Facts" Campaign
'Microsoft Launches New Get the "Facts" Campaign' There, fixed that for you....
I'd still have to run Windows to use it. That's not an option (cost, usefulness problems, etc).
Port IE8 to Linux, or Mac OSX and I might consider using it.
Oh, right, IE8 is a Windows only application. It's also closed source and highly tied to an expensive and ineffective bloaty piece of shit OS. Clear winner my ass.
Fact: Internet Exploiter is PART OF THE USER INTERFACE of every windows operating system since 95.
Fact: You can't uninstall IE without effecting your core operating system functionality. (Windows updates, programs that use IE's rendering engine for their own user interface - antivirus software, I'm looking at you!)
Fact: A VAST majority of Windows users have automatic updates enabled by default and will receive IE8 whether they like it or not (and they probably won't care anyway, as most users couldn't even tell you what version of IE they're running in the first place.)
Fact: Internet Exploiter has nearly always been, is currently and will always be the most used browser on Windows platforms. Yes, suck it up FF/O/Etc fans. We will gain market share, but when you're aftermarket and not OEM, people generally don't care. How many people change the stereo in their car? Sure. You can get an awesome stereo to replace the factory one, but if the factory one functions correctly and lets you listen to music, then why change?
I have worked in IT for over 10 years in the frontline. I'm tech support at a retail store, so my customers are the general public. We load FF on every PC that comes in and encourage our customers to use it. We load IE8 on every clean install of Windows we do because, and here's a really important point, that's the only safe time to upgrade IE without having the OS get screwed over. When IE8 first became a "Critical Windows update" and customers were installing it, we were inundated with fxxked computers that lost network connectivity, or crashed, or ran dog slow.
Hell, I recommend customers use OpenOfficeOrg instead of forking money out for Office.
And you can blabber on about developers. I do some web developing myself and I adhere to the W3C standards - NOT Microsoft standards. But the END USER doesn't care. If the page works fine, then whoopedy-doo! If they run FF/O/etc and the page doesn't work, where do they go? Do they send emails to the website? Do they complain to the W3C? Do they send mail to Firefox? No. They click the shiny (e) icon and try it there. Then what? Most users will continue their browsing experience in IE. Why switch back and forth between 2 browsers? End users see that as redundant.
This may be a little off-topic, but how about an "Only works with IE" blacklist website where IExclusive (hehe, I just came up with that LOL) websites are NAMED AND SHAMED. Then promote the shit out of the site. Maybe developers who cater only to Microsoft's needs would think twice about firing up Fro... Front.... Frontpa.... damnit, I can't say it.
We'll hide your porn.
Apple Safari v3
Google Chrome 1.0.154
Microsoft Internet Explorer v8 (RC1)
Microsoft Internet Explorer v7
Mozilla Firefox v3.07
Opera 9.64
So they compare a Release Candidate vs "older browsers"?
Safari is at version 4 as a regular release, not sure about any beta's or RC's...
I'm using Chrome 2.0.172.31 right now to post this
Firefox is at 3.5 for a Beta (Or RC by now..)
Opera is at 10 for a Beta
They should have done apples to apples. When the IE8 RC was out, so was pre-releases of FF 3.5, Opera 10, as well as Safari and Chrome in more updated versions than they used.
if (IE) { display "sorry, come back when you overcome microserfdum" } else { display page }
This looks like the same thing that happened when Motorola started hemorrhaging. There were to many middle managers and they were all trying to save their jobs so they did what ever they could to look like they were doing something even if it was not value added or looked ridiculous in the marketplace. If this is not a fine example of that nothing is.
Who are they aiming at here? Certainly not this group. Definitely not developers. Anyone in IT is going to get a good laugh. It's just surreal.
It's like this ad campaign was designed when the execs were baked. It sounded good in the hot tub but when reality strikes, they discover that planning ad campaigns when you're high is a really bad idea.
If there's some super sekret ad strategy at work here I'd sure like to know what it is, because it's hard to see it as anything but a massive waste of time and money. I don't think most people even care and it reminds the development community how much they hate IE.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
How come Safari and Opera got left off the list? I know the Redmond answer already: they aren't popular enough and therefore aren't something a user would be interested in. Perhaps they aren't listed because they would skew the results away from IE8. Even if the results weren't skewed, leaving out other browsers leaves the door open for people to speculate why those browsers were left off the list. Isn't Microsoft bribing people to use IE8 with that $10,000 scavenger hunt thing? I can see the scripting now... if (IE8) { runScam(noobUser); } else { showPage(); }
Rule #1: If you want to talk about how great your browser is, make sure the relevant pages pass the validator.
My first thought was to laugh myself silly with a touch of indignant rage.
But actually I take this a bit more seriously.. There is a well known phenomenon (that I am sure somebody else knows the name of) where people tend to believe what they read and we are not the target audience of this advertising tripe. Many people who will read this (and do not know better) will believe it and follow it and pass it on. And that irritates mes.
In this fraternity we all sit back and mock the ridiculous claims and statement in their FUD and sales - but at the end of the day they are quietly winning the war with one ill educated person swayed towards their cause after another.
I sure have no answers, but I do not feel like mocking this kind of crap anymore.
At work I use FF - but I am forced to use IE for the corporate portal because apparently only IE can possibly work on the portal, so they paid somebody to edit the script to reject all "non-approved" browsers. That is the end result of ill informed high up decisions based on fluff like this.
How do they get off saying IE is the same speed... It's slower then Vista...
As lame as this clearly is, I can't really fault Microsoft entirely; I think this is just a product of the deteriorating state of advertising and marketing in general.
Time was, you only had to take an advertiser's claims with one grain of salt, but in the last few decades it seems like there's been a kind of hyper-inflation; now, you can't even read an advertisement critically to filter the hyperbole and extract some useful information, because there isn't any left. After years of being unabashedly lied to by advertisers, we now have no choice but to assume that all advertising is pure, unadulterated lies.
It's a little sad; it only took a few companies abusing the consumers' trust to ruin it for everyone.
Can we come up with some intelligent, thought-out responses against this? I'm picturing myself in the shoes of a non-anti-Microsoft zealot and I'm seeing nothing more than "Microsoft sucks because it does" here.
I think that was just a poorly worded maintenance. I believe what they are trying to say is that it has blocked 8 million distinct malware and phishing scams, and they are on target to block 1 million attempts to reach one of those 8 million distinct scams a day.
"and projections show that" is not the same as "therefore"
I'm not sure what I was thinking, but that was suppose to read "poorly worded sentence".
I just witnessed victory at hand when recently I saw someone not very computer oriented boot a random computer and say when looking at the desktop: "damn, there's no Firefox, how do I get on the Intharnet?" while IE's icon was right there.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
You were thinking about maintenance.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
Easy, the first day they blocked one site. The next the blocked two. Now at this rate in a million years they will eventually be blocking a million sites a day, therefore the are "on track" to block 1 million a day.
Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
Now, IE has been around so long that its every exploit is well-known and a lot of software (both malicious and innocent) is made specifically for it. I'll draw a lot of flak for it but Firefox now is approaching IE - it was once the amazingly fast super-browser that was bound to replace its predecessor, but now has been replaced in the hearts of many by the likes of Chrome, the even newer and faster browser. It's simple enough - the older a piece of software gets, the more bloated it gets and the more exploits are discovered for it.
It's all about finding the right balance. I prefer Firefox because it has what I consider the best balance - supports newest standards, has lots of addons that are mostly unavailable for other browsers, and is still fairly fast. This rant was mostly unrelated to the topic, but I had to correct some people in the thread.
Yet Another Tech Blog
(but so much more, including game and movie reviews)
http://yanteb.peasantoid.org
The number one thing downloaded with IE8 is its successor IE7, meaning that they either automatically don't trust that IE8 will work correctly or that know they want to revert back to IE7 after trying it. Take your pick. Of course, if you wait until AFTER you screw up your OS its too late to be able to download the required downloader needed to fix the problem, so I concur.
Am I convinced yet about IE8? Well, the javascript on that page completely stalled my current browser of choice while just trying to load that page. I had to actually turn off javascript and force a reload just so I could cut and paste the 'fact' above. So, tell me Microsoft, is that why I should be running IE8?
Well, Microsoft. You asked for it. The fundamental action performed in a multi-tabbed application is..., well, opening new tabs. IE8 is the slowest to open a new tab after clicking Ctrl-T compared to any browser. I am wondering if this got factored into the "performance" category.
M$ has finally admitted that the Mac Platform runs Windows best?
Microshaft launches new Get the FUD campain
There, fixed the headline for ya!
Myth #2: Internet Explorer is less secure than Firefox.
The Real Deal: Research proves that Internet Explorer 8 catches almost twice as much malware than the competition. That's "less secure?"
I guess they're talking about 'catching' in the sense of catching an STD...
The story is, quite simply, that it is appallingly easy of companies to shamelessly and flagrantly lie, to produce the most obvious falsehoods, and for absolutely no one whatsoever to bother stating the obvious fact; that they are appalling liars.
It's not even deceptive wording, or qualified phrases we're talking about here. Most companies and organisations just come right out an lie nowadays. Some choice selections from the article. Note that the tick marks in the article next to browsers are replaced by stars here.
A lie.
A falsehood.
A barefaced, shameless, utterly false lie. For you see, there is no W3C CSS 2.1 test suite. There is a Pre-Alpha CSS 2.1 Test Suite, but upon further investigation it can be seen that the IE team themselves have submitted at least 3221 of the 3708 test cases, or at least that was the case last August 18th.
Perhaps some would argue that these are merely exaggerations or omissions, not lies. I beg to differ. Taking these statements as truths would lead one to believe that IE has less exploits, less chance of exposing private data and a higher or equal chance of rendering web pages correctly that either Firefox or Chrome. All three conclusions are false. These are lies.
Some will believe them, but even sadder, more will not accept them as lies.
P.S.
My reply text is being squashed into a 25 character wide column to the right of a mass of grey. It would be great if Slashdot rendered properly these days.
P.P.S.
Perhaps I'll try it in IE8!
May the Maths Be with you!
In this fraternity we all sit back and mock the ridiculous claims and statement in their FUD and sales - but at the end of the day they are quietly winning the war with one ill educated person swayed towards their cause after another.
Not all of us sit back, but way too many. It's not important to mock the crap, it is important to not use it and, at this late stage, prevent it completely.
Don't sit back. Hit back. The only place that has effect is the wallet and that's fed by both the software and the data formats. Zero tolerance.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
but a lot of the stupid posts attached to this article had 5 points, so down-modding them by 1 wouldn't have made much difference.
Also, it continues to become more and more painfully obvious that the new crop of Anonymous Cowards are WoW forum refugees; the least intelligent, educated, or mature community on the Internet, by a mile. The trademark WoWisms in their text are all there.
First they ignore you, (IE6, "What other browsers?")
then they laugh at you, (IE7, "LOL we got your tabs right here")
then they fight you, <-----(You are here)
then you win.
I suspect that managability means that someone (who is familiar with group policy objects) can manage a myriad of IE settings and restrictions across many machines in one go.
To do this with Firefox (and someone please correct/confirm me), you need to push a firefox configuration file to many machines at once & lock it down.
In the case of my office, we lock every IE user to machine configuration registry keys, and set those with a GPO. End users cannot reconfigure their IE settings to allow things like active-x,
With Firefox, while I suspect it's just as configurable - I also suspect that it's slightly more difficule, and less documented.
$.02
fact (plural facts)
1. An honest observation.
2. Something actual as opposed to invented.
In this story, the Gettysburg Address is a fact, but the rest is fiction.
3. Something which has become real.
The promise of television became a fact in the 1920s.
4. Something concrete used as a basis for further interpretation.
Let's look at the facts of the case before deciding.
5. An objective consensus on a fundamental reality that has been agreed upon by a substantial number of people.
There is no doubting the fact that the Earth orbits the Sun.
6. Information about a particular subject.
The facts about space travel.
Microsoft adds this to the list:
7. Something Microsoft pulls out of their asses.
"Get the facts".
They have given bogus 'facts' about their software offerings with regards to Linux, and now to Firefox. Do they think we're idiots? Are they really that scared about competition? That they need to resort to outright lying? How can you build a trust-relationship with them, if you can't trust them when they come out with 'facts'? What happened to ethics?
80 CC D8 AF AE D3 AB 54 B7 2E CE 67 C7
The first step on the road to recovery is admitting that you have a problem. Maybe Internet Explorer 8 is a born again standards compliant browser if it needs a special button to render sites designed for IE6.
It seems that two are two types of consumer who will see this add
Either way it seems pointless to have this sort of marketing campaign. In fact, it only serves to infuriate the people who know better when Microsoft should be doing their best to placate them after over a decade of flouting web standards.
That said, the Dean Cain ads are pretty funny.
What is this? Bizzaro World?
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
Microsoft is widely misunderstood. People think Microsoft is a software company that is often abusive. But it isn't. It's an abuse company that uses software to deliver abuse. Like for example, deliberately releasing faulty versions of operating systems.
Microsoft got as big as it is only because it was possible to take advantage of the ignorance of the average person about computers.
Facts are the enemy of the truth!
Brier Dudley, Seattle Times
Quack damn you!
If you mean they will block one more every day, they will be done 1 million DAYS from now, not years. Now, if the first day they block one and the next one two because they double the number, things will be different and they'll be telling the truth much earlier. Unfortunately they will also reach some integer overflow really soon.
So all you lose is the ability to fit the source AND binary on a single DVD.
Big whoo.
I think Microsoft is over the line with this campaign from a legal standpoint and will get the smackdown from the FTC.
Fromt the STATEMENT OF POLICY REGARDING COMPARATIVE ADVERTISING http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/policystmt/ad-compare.htm.
"The Commission has supported the use of brand comparisons where the bases of comparison are clearly identified. Comparative advertising, when truthful and non-deceptive, is a source of important information to consumers and assists them in making rational purchase decisions."
If the page "Clearly Identifies" the basis of the comparison, I don't see it.
And
"Some industry codes which prohibit practices such as "disparagement," "disparagement of competitors," "improper disparagement," "unfairly attacking," "discrediting," may operate as a restriction on comparative advertising. The Commission has previously held that disparaging advertising is permissible so long as it is truthful and not deceptive."
As many others have pointed out, several of the claims are, to put it generously, a stretch.
Once again the problem is that we are parsing what Microsoft says as though it were English, when it is actually in MMS (Microsoft Marketing Speak), a language that, true to Microsoft form, is almost, but not quite, compatible.
In English, "get the facts" is parsed as "imperative: acquire possession of" "definitive article" "true information about the subject".
However, parsing this in MMS yields "destroy" (as in a mobster saying "This man has disrespected me: get him.") "subset: (inconvenient to us)" "true information about the subject".
An easy mistake to make.
www.eFax.com are spammers
"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 oneâ(TM)s also a tie." - What the fuck does this even mean?!? Whenever a new browser comes out I load up a wikipedia page to see how it handles text, hulu for video, and ESPN to see how it handles rotating ads. The browser that I found that works the fastest with the lowest memory usage is Opera. And that was out of Firefox, IE7, Chrome, and Opera. But my big problem with this statement is that Micrsoft gives itself a check on performance on the argument that chrome and firefox are only a little faster?!? Seriously?!? How do you acknowledge that your competitor has you beat and still give yourself the check?
"Only Internet Explorer 8 has both tab isolation and crash recovery features; Firefox and Chrome have one or the other." But Opera has both, so it's not like IE8 is the only browser with these features.
And how does IE8 even lay a claim to the most security. It's a very well known fact that nearly every bit of malware is written for IE browsers b/c of the share of the marketplace they have. Last time I checked there was almost no malware written to exploit chrome, only a few for firefox, and lesser known browsers like Opera, and Konqueror had none.
"Sure, you may not want the customizations we included, and may want ones we didn't include, or may want to create your own. But we're Microsoft! So we don't care."
No, wait, wait. Let me try again.
"Sure, Firefox may win in sheer number of add-ons, and quality of add-ons, and ability to create custom collections of add-ons to share with your friends, and ability to create your own, and... wait, how is it that we win, again?"
"Microsoft's 'compatibility list' of sites that don't render correctly in Internet Exploder 8 RC1 — requiring some non-standards mojo from the browser to look right — numbers some 2,400. They're off-the-beaten-path sites like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and YouTube." Gizmodo Blog
The link to this article was in the first five Bing results given the keywords "internet exploder." I sure am glad Microsoft has decided to attack that "search overload" problem we've all been complaining about.
Just trying to spread a little Friday cheer...
One "Aw, Shit!" is worth 100 "Ata boys!"
Smells like desperation. They can't innovate in any way except in distorting facts. Microsoft is VERY creative when it comes to lying.
An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
Eventually Microsoft will go the way of GM. I just wish it was sooner rather than later.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Everyone knows that if you want to get the facts on Microsoft the place to go is Slashdork.
This is just as bad as the comparision they had for ubuntu vs. windows, saying that windows cost less; while deliberately choosing the most expensive options for ubuntu. But this one is more to do with configurably for the sys admin I think. Still a festering pile of crap; main example being that in all standised tests I've run for chrome, IE8 and firefox IE8 was always last, no matter what the test. Chrome was the fastest for rending most webpages, especially JavaScript and firefox was a close second. So this just doesn't make any sense at all.
Yes, this site is full of lies. But a lot of people out there don't know the difference between a browser and a search engine.
So even if this is their first exposure to the concept, at least it tells them there are other browsers. And if MS auto-updates them from IE6 to IE8 - hooray! It's an improvement.
i just wasted hours trying to recover ethernet functionality on an hp box for a friend...they'd had a power hit, dsl wouldn't work anymore, got a new dsl modem, still no intarnets...xp wizard tells me cable disconnected.
i booted a live cd, ethernet card worked just fine (as did the cable)
tried the non-wipe hp recovery, no joy...tried the wipe recovery, still no joy...finally found out that the m$ driver that hp ships is crap, gotta d/l & install a good 1...
Parody of Microsoft's browser comparison
I know that even in commercials, companies are supposed to keep themselves to facts. If Microsoft goes too far with their lies, Google could very well sue them.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Leave it to /. to make a big deal out of a marketing campaign. It might as well have read, "In other news, the notoriously evil and universally hated company, Microsoft, is now running commercials trying to convince people to buy their products".
I occasionally have to use I.E. and I see no way to customize it to
a) ignore ads from selected addresses.
b) disable flash unless I tell it to play.
c) disable javascript unless I authorize it.
d) capture media playing through the browser
e) selectively zoom in/out text, images, text & images (speaking of which-- when are we going to be able to zoom in/out WINDOW text in windows. I can change title bars, menus, etc, but not the one font i need to change most.)
f) massively collect all files of a similar type at a location.
---
Lack of these features is frustrating on the occasions where i have to use IE.
So how can i do this in IE 8? I'm sure it will be forced on to my laptop before long since it is a vista box.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
The main Issue I have as a developer with the IE line of browsers is the issue they ALL have with releasing memory unless the page is reloaded.
In today's world AJAX applications are starting to become more and more prevelant and with an AJAX app the page may never be refreshed. This leads to huge memory leaks since IE doesn't clean up some of the dereferenced objects until the page is reloaded. Even if you are very careful with your code and clean up after yourself you will get some huge leaks. If the browser is the development platform of the future, IE8 has a long way to go to even be competitive with FF/Chrome.
I think the IE familiy will quickly fall to the wayside if they don't fix this issue, and FF/Chrome will become the only viable platform for web based AJX apps.
Ease of Use
Features like Accelerators, Web Slices and Visual Search Suggestions make Internet Explorer 8 easiest to use.
IE 8 is the most clunky of the listed browsers, with overly large tabs, poorly laid out UI, and, non-intuitive customization of toolbars. Why can't I just drag and drop 'commands?'
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.
Web Standards support is so much better than in IE 6 and 7, they finally have CSS 2.1 support, while nearly every other browser is adding CSS 3 features all the time. IE 8 is better because they aren't using modern technology? That's why IE 6 sucked for years, because it was so backwards.
Developer Tools
Of course Internet Explorer 8 wins this one. There's no need to install tools separately, and it offers better features like JavaScript profiling.
I'm a developer. IE 8's developer tools aren't even enough to debug why a standards complaint page isn't working in IE 8, let alone to use during active development. "JavaScript profiling" is either not really a feature, or not a useful one. Again, as a developer I only mess with IE 8's developer tools if I need to work around a problem that is being caused by IE 8. As abysmal as developer tools are in IE 8 there is one browser with worse tools: IE 6. (anyone remember the completely unhelpful javascript error message, "Object expected error on line 0?"
Reliability
Only Internet Explorer 8 has both tab isolation and crash recovery features; Firefox and Chrome have one or the other.
While the statement is true, it isn't about reliability. It's about what happens when the browser does something bad. If a browser were reliable it wouldn't need crash recovery. As far as I know no browser offers a way to kill an offending tab. I don't often see a tab 'crash' but will often see one lock up or hang. (generally not the browsers fault, so much as bad javascript) So while tab isolation is a step in the right direction it doesn't contribute much yet. I have yet to have an instance of Firefox crash and not recover on relaunch. IE 8 will sometimes recover ok, but often not.
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.
How does IE 8 know which features I want? Just because a product has more features installed (which cannot be easily removed), 'out of the box,' doesn't make it in any way customizable.
Compatibility
Internet Explorer 8 is more compatible with more sites on the Internet than any other browser.
More compatible with more sites? I would like to see some evidence or proof of this claim. As a developer, I write for modern web standards, and that means my web applications/sites work with Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera, with no problems. If need be, I write hacks to make things OK, in IE 6,7, and/or 8.
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.
Um, actually you can just run each browser on the same page at the same time and compare speed. Just because there is a bottleneck at the network doesn't mean I want my browser to render slowly once it gets the content. IE 8 does render slower, often visibly slower. And IE 8 is very slow in starting, launching a new tab, exiting, and executing javascript.
Internet Explorer is clearly superior, Microsoft's independent and rigorous testing proves this.
Anybody who disagrees with the results is an "Internet Explorer Denier" - we are working with the German government to create a law against such viscous lies.... Oh, and, some cavemen brought down the twin towers using only a pair of box cutters and pure hatred.
I like how they conveniently leave out Apple's Safari, the only web browser to pass Acid3 on the PC and IPHONE
There are lies, damn lies, statistics, and Microsoft Facts.
Just... wow.
"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 â" right out of the box."
really? IE* has AdblockPlus, Firegestures, and Greasemonkey built in????
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 â" right out of the box.
I am trying to deploy a new PKI root certificate to around 100,000 desktops. For IE I deployed it via Active Directory. For the Firefox, Thunderbird and Unix desktops I had to write a complex package using the Mozilla 'certutil' tool. The result was dozens of helpdesk calls due to corrupt 'cert8.db'.
BIG BONE LICK, Kentucky, Wednesday — Microsoft today heeded the lessons of technological history, taking the popular "preview porn videos in the search engine" feature and turning its Bob Hope "decision engine" into a porn finder at the address explicit.bobhope.microsoft.com, and a new IE8 "Get the F*cked" campaign.
"It worked for VHS over Beta, porn sites were leading innovators in online payments. It's a natural synergy," said Steve Ballmer, looking somewhat sweaty and flushed.
Porn sites are some of the keenest users of Microsoft technologies, using the undocumented interfaces in Internet Explorer to install helpful toolbars and bulk email tools on users' systems. "It's all about tools. Our tools have amazed people for decades. Microsoft are famous for the biggest and best tools ever. Developers! Developers! Developers! DEVELOPEEERS!"
Internet Explorer 8 is also part of the promotion. After a competition that advertises IE8's superior standards compliance with a site that deliberately breaks all other browsers, a programme to donate eight free meals for the poor for every IE8 download (with the cost of the meals being 10% of the spend on promoting them) and a string of free porn sites requiring a Silverlight download to watch the smut, IE8 Service Pack 1 will include a "boot straight into porn" mode. "We found that was what users really wanted in an operating system. I mean, browser." It will include the Storm, Conficker and FBI botnets as standard. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." The system will also set up automatic deductions from your bank account and credit card.
Mr Ballmer promised that Microsoft will, as always, deliver. "Unlike porn sites, we don't just tease — we really will fuck you. Now bend over."
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Ha ha ha ha, I am going to make my own ruler and then mine will be longer than anybody else's.
Have you seen Microsoft attempt to bribe Aussies into downloading IE8:
http://www.microsoft.com/australia/ie8/competition/default.aspx
A few days ago, if you read the page with a different browser you'd get a custom insult, like "boring Safari" or "old FireFox"... today they've toned it down. But the page still has the disclaimer on the bottom that "it's not as stupid as it sounds."
Why yes, Microsoft, it is.
Search Twitter for "@tengrand_IE8" to see just how much love Microsoft is getting out of this campaign.
Neither Firefox nor Chrome provide guidance or enterprise tools. That's just not nice.
Does IE8 offer these tools? This campaign is called "Windows Internet Explorer 8: Get the facts". Not trolling here - I would be very interested as "the IT person" in a small company with mostly non-IT duties. Does IE8 allow me to manage other IE8 installations on our LAN? Otherwise, if Microsoft's enterprise tools can manage FF or Opera or Chrome just as easily as IE8, then what is the point? If enterprise tools can't manage FireFox et al, then what does that say about Microsoft. Is this point just a statement of "we sell X too so you should buy Y".
It doesn't exist, so I won't use it.
lenny:~# apt-get install ie8
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package ie8
If you don't like the default new tab behavior, you can change it.
Okay.. while i wait for a reply to this (expected one by now)....
Are these things possible in Opera? I'm considering trying Opera out (the web server option has me interested).
Any "gotchas" or drawbacks I should know about Opera? I assume it plays well on a multi-brower system?
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
In the time it takes for me to start Firefox, I can fire up Chrome and have my email checked. IE8 does run faster on some critical sites, so it's the only other browser I ever touch anymore. Say what you want about horrible advertising, but Firefox is playing catch-up and this is the perfect time for Microsoft to pounce (although it would be nice if they did so in a non-M$ way).
---Vote None of the Above---
I left Microsoft, if they have to bend the truth all the time there must be something to hide.
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
That's such a Friday Feelgood thing to daydream on!
1. In response to this: "Security - IE8: * FF: CR: - Internet Explorer 8 takes the cake with better phishing and malware protection, as well as protection from emerging threats."
The driveby addon would ask: "Please select one of the following browsers, all of which provide better protection than the decaying threat of IE: (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, _____ )
2. Microsoft felt perfectly justified in pushing an non-deletable addon for Firefox a while back, so it's only fair play to push an addon for IE right?
3. Provide a notice: "IE cannot be deleted because the components are smashed so deep into Windows. However, we have obscured the remains of IE as much as possible and hope this will suffice."
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
A truly pathetic marketing campaign also precisely explains Microsoft's vision for an incompatible Internet, composed of "cleverly concealed web page[s] that only Internet Explorer 8 can view".
you had me at #!
Okay, I am going to attempt to swim up river here and look at this analytically instead of joining into this insane self-righteous Mozilla/Google circle-jerk.
Let's go down the list:
Security - They're correct in asserting they have better phishing and malware protection. There's no dispute over this, actually. Their phishing protection is the best. IE 8 is extrremely sandboxed, perhaps even moreso than Firefox... so there's no glaring security holes, but note that they're not mentioning sandboxing so that they don't have to mention Chrome. They would lose to Chrome on that one.
Privacy - Although Chrome has an equivalent of inPrivate browsing, Firefox still has no built-in porn mode. Furthermore, inPrivate filtering seems to be IE 8 unique.
What is InPrivate Filtering?
InPrivate Filtering helps prevent website content providers from collecting information about sites you visit. Here's how it works.
Many webpages use contentâ"such as advertisements, maps, or web analysis toolsâ"from websites other than the one you are visiting. These websites are called content providers or third-party websites. When you visit a website with third-party content, some information about you is sent to the content provider. If a content provider offers content to a large number of the websites you visit, the content provider could develop a profile of your browsing preferences. Profiles of browsing preferences can be used in a variety of ways, including for analysis and serving targeted advertisements.
Usually this third-party content is displayed seamlessly, such as in an embedded video or image. The content appears to originate from the website you originally went to, so you may not know that another website might be able to see where you are surfing. Web analysis or web measurement tools report website visitors' browsing habits, and are not always obvious to you. While these tools can sometimes appear as visible content (such as a visitor counter, for example), they are often not visible to users, as is often the case with web beacons. Web beacons are typically single-pixel transparent images whose sole purpose is to track website usage, and they do not appear as visible content.
InPrivate Filtering works by analyzing web content on the webpages you visit, and if it sees the same content being used on a number of websites, it will give you the option to allow or block that content. You can also choose to have InPrivate Filtering automatically block any content provider or third-party website it detects, or you can choose to turn off InPrivate Filtering.
Althought I am sure Firefox can have this by extension, it's not there by default. Same goes for Chrome- this is a robust privacy feature which you would not find in minimalist Chrome.
Ease of Use - This is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? Accelerators are pretty cool if you want to customize yourself a quick browsing environment... and they can be written by users. Think of them as modern less ugly web toolbars. This is only true if common users find this model easier than Firefox's wacky extension model or Chrome's nonexistent one.
Web Standards - They're correct, once more. They do support established standards better but fail to support as many popular emerging drafts. American web developers just love using bleeding edge emerging drafts in web design, don't they?
Developer Tools - This is a matter of opinion once more. Do Firefox or Chrome have a javascript profiler? If they don't, then they're not lying. Just stating an opinion on what's important.
Reliability - Okay, this is true again. Chrome likes to crash in a really ugly unrecoverable way and Firefox just takes out the entire browser when a page misbehaves. However, despite IE's tab isolation, it's still quite possible for a bad tab to take out the browser. So, this is correct as they state it but perhaps misleading.
Customizability - They are pushing forth their customization features as comparable
Funny, didn't see one thing about how well it works on Mac/*nix/mobile devices. Did I miss something?
The cake is a lie...
During the last 2nd Tuesday updates for Vista, IE8 was checked in the list of updates, so I thought, what the heck, might as well include the update. Well, I noticed that the side bar gadgets stopped working. The clock was stopped at the wrong time, the local temperature was wrong and the CPU use/memory use gadget was way off and frozen. I looked around the net and found many forums pointing out the same problem, so I uninstalled IE8 and the gadgets work. This leads me to wonder what else IE8 breaks in Vista.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
"But not Adblock Plus, which is the one I REALLY like." - by Z00L00K (682162) on Friday June 19, @09:31AM (#28388855) Homepage
Per my subject-line, Z00Look: You've had the answer, all along, as long as your "OS of choice" bears a BSD-derived IP stack (or one that functions like it) such as Microsoft ones do (assuming you're a Windows user, but Linux, BSD, or Mac & other *NIX's can use this also, as they have one already)...
Take a read here -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1255487&cid=28197285
(That's about HOSTS files benefits and "universality/globality" (not sure if those are 'real words' or not, but, hope you "catch my drift" once you read it))
Also, for more from myself on that note, & where it can help even more, see here -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1270901&cid=28364263
(That's about how it can shield folks from what's going on lately in Germany, DNS port 53 queries over udp logging)
Plus, lastly, but not least - Some "backup/backing" from the likes of Oliver Day, in regards to HOSTS files usage, here -> "Resurrecting the Killfile" by Oliver Day, 2009-02-04 http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/491
(By using said customized HOSTS files, which YOU, yourself, can FULLY control yourself, for a high degree of control over adbanners (especially bogus malware script bearing ones) + gaining more speed as well (via blocking those banners but also "hardcoding IP addresses" of your fav. sites) & more)...
APK
P.S.=> Enjoy, hope that helps - &, sorry I could not be of more help, but I am busy today & have to make a meeting (ugh!)... apk
"Microsoft put significant effort into make sure sites still work, even if they're designed for older versions of Internet Explorer, by giving users a Compatibility View button."
You didn't have to put in the effort if IE(8-x) was standards compliant to start with...
Embrace and Extend... You will pay for you bad karma!
the fonts on 8 are so different then the 7 version i had to uninstall IE8 and put 7 back on becasue my wife has vision issues and was unable to read websites correcly with IE8.
This is quite simply one of the most appalling and disgusting abuses of corporate marketing muscle I have ever seen, and I am furious on a level I can scarcely begin to describe. My livelihood depends on my ability to develop user-friendly, attractive, and functional web sites and applications. I owe a serious debt of gratitude to the Mozilla foundation and Joe Hewitt (creator of the Firebug extension) for the extensibility and development tools that make my job so much easier. Internet Explorer, on the other hand, is the bane of my existence (as any well-versed developer will tell you). Microsoft's insufferably slow pace to implement anything remotely resembling standards, the fact that those "standards" seldom bear much MORE than a passing resemblance to the W3C version, and their obstinate rebellion against the whole standardization movement (despite the undeniable fact that, like it or not, we all use the SAME WEB), frequently turn minute work into hours of laborious suffering, which costs my employer a great deal of money (not to mention whittles away at my sanity). For the record, I have used every version of Internet Explorer since 1.0, and have a fair amount of experience sorting out the same kinds of problems in 8.0 as I did in 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, and so on. I can tell you quite solidly that Internet Explorer 8 is but a narrow departure from prior offerings and offers nothing significant except an interpretation of standards that is still broken, but broken differently (which means I'll have to rebuild my apps yet again). And the worst part is, the average user doesn't know what they're missing. They've never used Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera. They don't understand what a pleasant experience they're missing out on. Or if they've used these vastly superior products, when they come across the website that was coded ONLY for Internet Explorer, the site appears broken to them, and so they quickly abandon them. They rely on Microsoft, who owns their soul by virtue of the operating system they live their life through, to tell them what to believe. And so for Microsoft to release this article, this blatantly bold-faced-lie-soaked Filth, is NOT merely a humorous anecdote to me. It is a blatant attack on my profession, on my sanity, and on all the people who will miss out on many other opportunities as a result. It is also an attempt to undermine all that I've worked for by convincing people, through a pretty-looking piece of bottom-of-the-scum-chain-dishonest propaganda, that the web they know can only be experienced properly by succumbing to the use of a product that is, in every possible way, drastically inferior. For a company that has pioneered lows in the past few years, Microsoft has sunk to the deepest abyss imaginable -- they are using their dominant market position NOT just to sell people an inferior product, but to force-feed the people filthy lies and deception, and to crush and destroy any innovation that might otherwise be occurring in this market.
Mr. Mohra: So, I'm tendin' bar there at Ecklund and Swedlin's last Tuesday and this little guy's drinkin' and he says, "So where can a guy find some action? I'm goin' crazy out there at the lake." And I says, "What kinda action?" and he says, "Woman action, what do I look like?" And I says, "Well, what do I look like, I don't arrange that kinda thing," and he says, "I'm goin' crazy out there at the lake," and I says, "Well, this ain't that kinda place."
Officer Olson: Uh-huh.
Mr. Mohra: So he says, "So I get it, so you think I'm some kinda jerk for askin'," only he doesn't use the word jerk.
Officer Olson: I understand.
Mr. Mohra: And then he calls me a jerk and says the last guy who thought he was a jerk was dead now. So I don't say nothin' and he says, "What do ya think about that?" So I says, "Well, that don't sound like too good a deal for him then."
Officer Olson: Ya got that right.
Mr. Mohra: And he says, "Yah, that guy's dead and I don't mean of old age." And then he says, "Geez, I'm goin' crazy out there at the lake."
Officer Olson: White Bear Lake?
Mr. Mohra: Well, Ecklund & Swedlin's, that's closer ta Moose Lake, so I made that assumption.
Officer Olson: Oh sure.
Mr. Mohra: So, ya know, he's drinkin', so I don't think a whole great deal of it, but Mrs. Mohra heard about the homicides down here and she thought I should call it in, so I called it in. End o' story.
Officer Olson: What'd this guy look like anyway?
Mr. Mohra: Oh, he was a little guy. Kinda funny lookin'.
Officer Olson: Uh-huh. In what way?
Mr. Mohra: Oh, just in a general kinda way.
Do these security features include being secure. If not, then perhaps you begin to see the nature of my complaint.
Take your pick. Installing and running any of these add ons is only marginally more complex than using InPrivacy, and far more useful and effective to boot.
They are not valid test cases because there are no tests. There is a "Pre-Alpha" suite of tests which the IE team have crammed solid with their own tailored submissions, and which have not been vetted by anyone.(Indeed with so many, they probably never will).
So unless you accept such unofficial an unvetted submissions as proper impartial tests (whilst simultaneously ignoring the legitimacy of addons), and ignore the universally know, documented and lamented inability of IE to render properly coded web pages correctly, the no, IE does "draw even" if a Web standards comparision. THAT is the lie.
You've allowed yourself to become distracted by "facts" presented to you without stopping to asses the reality. IE is less secure, offers less privacy protections and is far less compliant to web standards than BOTH Firefox and Chrome, not to mention Opera and Safari, conveniently excluded from this thorough presentation of the "facts".
These are not facts. They are "anti-facts". Half truths and distortions devised to sweep away real facts and present a totally false version of reality. Their purpose is make a lie appear true. Apparently they've succeeded. And, they always will with people who shut their eyes and senses to everything except what is literally put before them.
May the Maths Be with you!
ignore ads from selected addresses
Hosts file. Not great, but it works.
disable flash unless I tell it to play.
Not specifically flash, but you can set all activex to prompt you, including flash.
disable flash unless I tell it to play.
Set Javascript to "prompt"
If you need web hosting, you could do worse than here
.
Renaming IE shortcuts from 'Launch Internet Explorer' to 'Launch Internet Advertising Companion' since 1999.
Are they being deliberately stupid, or do they actually believe the bullshit that they spew on that page?
http://experimentaldevelopment.com/devtools.jpg
Thanks...
The hosts file sounds sort of equivalent to adblock.
The flash and javascript sound more painful.
The flash prompts would drive me crazy- I currently get an indicator flash is there and if I want to play it, I click on it. Otherwise, I do not have to do anything.
For javascript, once I approve a page, it stays approved.
It still is annoying occasionally-- I wish it had a crowdsourced "approved" pages-- only overridden if I said to block a page. Right now everything has to be approved at least once by me-- but that's probably safe. My email is whitelisted that way.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Did anyone notice that their facts just changed? I thought facts were supposed to be universal truths. Here's the two examples I noticed, but I can tell the wording of some of the others changed too.
Manageability:
< Neither Firefox nor Chrome provide guidance or enterprise tools. That's just not nice.
> Neither Firefox nor Chrome provide guidance or enterprise tools. That's just not nice.
Developer Tools:
< Of course Internet Explorer 8 wins this one. There's no need to install tools separately, and it offers better features like JavaScript profiling.
> Internet Explorer 8 has the most comprehensive developer tools built in, including HTML, CSS and JavaScript editing, but also JavaScript profiling; other browsers have developer tools available, but either require you to download them separately, or aren't as complete.
I find this oddly similar to countries that call themselves "Democratic". They rarely are.
I don't think Microsoft wants you to know the real facts.
My UID is prime. Hah!
...get the "facts".
My UID is prime. Hah!
Standards support better than Gecko's and WebKit? That's funny. IE8 doesn't even legitimately pass Acid2. It uses hard-coded tricks that make it "pass" Acid2, but it causes sites that works perfectly with Firefox, Safari, Chrome and even Microsoft's own IE7 without any hacks break in IE8. Could it be that IE7 had better standards support than IE8 has now? ;)
And last time I checked, IE8 scored 4 out of 100 in the Acid3 test, and that rendered output looked nothing like how it should look in standard-aware browsers. Netscape 4 and Mosaic probably scored better.
Firefox lacks a Crash Recovery feature to restore tabs? Firefox could restore tabs after a crash before IE even HAD tabs. And cloning the whole multi-process architecture of Google Chrome and claiming that's a unique feature of IE8? Now that's even rude. IE was the first to have phishing protection? No sir, that's Firefox 2 again. IE8 is the most secure? Now that's really funny. Of course, ActiveX controls are such a useful and secure feature, and tying a browser to the OS and the shell is a very legitimate and secure thing to do.
I wish Google would sue them for that poo.
"Internet Explorer 8 is more compatible with more sites on the Internet than any other browser. "
Should be true if we considere the many sites that got their code screwed up with non-standard stuff to be compatible with older IE versions. It's the internet that unfortunately had to be made compatible with IE, not the opposite.
IE8 is compatible with standard web as well as with now deprecated IE6 non-standard crap. No glory...
... that we got some good weed here in Seattle.
=)
Be seeing you...