IE 9 Beta Strips Down For Speed

CWmike writes "Those who have written off IE as being slow and old-looking are in for a surprise. The just-released Internet Explorer 9 beta is dramatically faster than its predecessor, sports an elegant, stripped-down interface and adds some useful new features, writes Preston Gralla. Even more surprising than the stripped-down interface is IE9 beta's speed. Internet Explorer has long been the slowest browser by a wide margin. IE9 has turned that around in dramatic fashion, using hardware acceleration and a new JavaScript engine it calls Chakra, which compiles scripts in the background and uses multiple processor cores. In this beta, my tests show it overtaking Firefox for speed, and putting up a respectable showing against Safari, Opera and Chrome. It's even integrated into Windows 7. One big problem: It will not work on Windows XP. So, forget the performance and security boost, many enterprises and netbook users."

Comments

No cross platform support either

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry Microsoft, but it isn't 1997 any more. These days many companies use Macs and a good number even use Linux. No basic cross platform support for the myriad of platforms means that IE9 will be behind Firefox and Chrome right out of the gate.

Re:No cross platform support either

[dotancohen]

That is because IE is a vehicle to get people INTO the latest Windows, not a tool for Windows users to use. There will be XP lusers who will see this as the reason to upgrade to W7, and there will be Macunts/Ubuntards who will now perceive IE as "safe" enough to go back to Windows.

Re:No cross platform support either

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think any sane person would expect an IE on Linux or Mac (not since 5.01 anyway); but the XP omission sucks.

Re:No cross platform support either

[pthisis]

Closer to 10%.

Most estimates put Linux at around 1.5% of the web browser market (about 1.2% traditional and 0.3% Android usage), traditional Macs at around 6%, and iPhone/iPad/iTouch around 1%.

Windows (aggregated) is about 89% of the web browser market, with the difference being mostly other handheld/phone devices (Symbian and Blackberry being the next largest blocks after those mentioned).

That's just the straight usage numbers--it establishes an upper bound on your market. If you don't run on Linux/MacOs, you can't get that 8.5% of the market at all. Real-world factors push the exclusion higher (e.g. corporations that mostly run Windows, but only want to support one browser across all desktops and hence are limited to thinking about Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or some other non-IE browser).

Re:No cross platform support either

[dsavi]

Uhh, that about Mac and Ubuntu users moving back to Windows because of IE...

Could you be more wrong?

Re:No cross platform support either

[gmuslera]

Thats exactly the advantage of a cross platform browser. You don't tie your browser to a particular OS and viceversa. As the cost of upgrading every OS there is high, you are still using a browser so unsafe that even Microsoft acknowledges that is a security hole, and probably for browsing the net, making mostly worthless any layer of security you set up there (firewalls, antivirus, etc). In the other hand, moving to Chrome, Firefox or Opera, dont forces you to change right now the operating system, and have more freedom choosing to which OS move next, all the organization or just a few sectors where another could fit better in their needs, along with a good improvement in security, speed and compatibility with what internet is turning into.

Re:Here's to hoping

[tepples]

In other words, they are throwing more hardware at the problem (graphics cards AND multiple processor cores) instead of actually producing a faster or more resource efficient browser. Anyone else read that the same way?

The resources present in a PC that can run Windows 6.x Aero include multiple cores and an integrated stream processor (also called a GPU). So yes, IE is being more efficient by using the resources that are there instead of ignoring them.

Re:integrated into Windows 7

[spamking]

The US DOJ and EU Court will soon be knocking on Microsoft's door. Users are supposed to be able to choose their browser, and never need to use IE.

Some parts of SharePoint won't work on anything but IE. Specifically the Project Server 2010 Web App . . . I've tried to use it in Firefox but can't until I switch to IE.

Re:Here's to hoping

[cybrthng]

Nope.

I've had a multi-core CPU and dedicated GPU for nearly 10+ years now. Its about time the web browser takes advantage of such.

In fact, I would suggest the opposite of what you say. The work required to scale up the application using all available resources makes a more robust framework to build upon which is better for the long run.

Re:So?

[Anonymous Coward]

knee jerk, close minded, predetermined opinions are a cancer to this site...

Oh mod me a troll BUT

[SmallFurryCreature]

Somehow I am not impressed when someone goes from absolute last to second last. It STILL is beaten by Opera, Chrome and Safari... so it beat Firefox which is the browser best known for its extensibility rather then speed by stripping itself down... So it becomes Chrome rather then Firefox, but then looses to Chrome.

oh, and it only work with hardware acceleration, only on windows and then only on recent versions of windows. ALL its competitors run on Windows XP with no trouble AND do it faster. So MS can't get a fast browser on its own OS THAT IT STILL SELLS!

My god, is our opinion of IE really THAT low that we find this impressive?

Oh and cue all the MS fanboys who will explain that IE9 can't run on XP because it needs X and yet all its competitors can do it. And run on Linux and OSX to boot...

IE is that special kid in class, who wins a price not for coming in first, but because everyone is special in their own way. Even if they eat the chalk.

MS, if you want to change the perceptions of your crappy software, do a FORCED upgrade on ALL your still used OS'es to IE9. Stop hiding behind excuses and repair the damage you did to paying customers with IE6. You got plenty of money to do it, so there are no excuses. Rid the world of IE6 and I might even buy an xbox... Nah

Re:what's so stripped down about that?

[Lord Byron II]

All of the wasted space at the top where the title bar should be is annoying. Imagine all those pixels gone on a netbook.

Re:Here's to hoping

[tepples]

Does it mean websites can now exploit bugs in the Ring-0 graphics driver as well as all those other things?

How would this be the case any more than 2D web sites could exploit bugs in the 2D graphics driver?