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Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 9 RC
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate. The new RC build includes a Tracking Protection feature, which gives users the option to control what third-party site content can track them when they're online, as well as a new ActiveX filtering option, which allows users to turn on/off ActiveX plug-ins. Best of all, Microsoft has addressed what was arguably the biggest complaint with the new version: if you want your tabs on a separate line from the address box, there's now an option to turn that on from the right click menu at the top of the browser. At the same time, IE9 RC is significantly faster than the beta version. Furthermore, many site rendering issues have been fixed, although we can't say that it's working perfectly. Last but not least, the new build includes hundreds of bug fixes."
...OGG and VP8 out of the box now?
When will I be able to get the final version? I'm not normally a Microsoft fan, but I use IE a lot at work and I am legitimately excited about the prospect of a new version. I wish they would release a Mac version.
There are two strategies MS can play:
I don't think the first strategy will work anymore. People learned what IE6 really costs in the long run. That leaves strategy two. But why bother? It a huge investment development wise, and I don't see them gaining anything from it without the vendor lock-in. So is this just "we want a browser too", or what?
My UID is prime. Hah!
Canvas.globalCompositeOperation works now!
Ok, I read the fucking article, and it's supposed to be available mid-April.
From the article: "The new RC build includes a Tracking Protection feature"
Does this preclude my Google search habits?
I understand that MS wants users to move off of XP, but given that means new hardware for most of the people still using XP, and the economy being where it is, and businesses still having internal stuff tied to XP & IE6, do they really think that IE9 abandoning XP will actually give people an incentive to upgrade? I hope they're not foolish enough to believe that. Anyone on XP who wants a faster browser will just use Chrome, Firefox, or Opera (sorry Apple, Safari on Windows is not competitive in speed unless you're only comparing to FF3.x and IE6-8, and it doesn't have anything to recommend it over the faster browsers).
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
Power users may not want it, but that is not important. What is important is that average users at home now have access to a secure and well performing browser. No more shitty toolbars or Active X crap, just a fast browser that works.
I don't like the limited space for tabs, but people who use IE are generally not the types to have a large amount of tabs open at once.
Mention should also be made of the security aspects. IE and Chrome are the two most secure browsers by far. They are the only browsers to fully support WIC and to make use of ASLR and DEP. Firefox 4 has support for DEP but not ASLR or WIC, nor does Opera.
People are going to bash Microsoft because they are Microsoft, but they have really done a good job here.
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
I know I'm being overly optimistic, but wouldn't it be nice if we could get an OSX version if IE9? I have to run XP in Parallels just to test in IE. Dropping Windows for good would be so nice. :)
I do not see why should Microsoft make a convenient and fast browser?
MS made IE9 so fast as a prank on all slashdotters - right now its pretty much the only browser can render slashdot threads smoothly. So cruel.
Full list IE9RC features
All that I care about is SVG.
It was promised in IE 7, then pulled at the last moment. They said it would be in IE 8.
IE 8 came out, and it wasn't included. They said it would be in IE 9
Finally, it looks like most SVG features will finally be available. Half of that document is about SVG. It's a shame that SMIL isn't included, but considering it's MS, and especially considering it's something free from MS, you have to have low expectations.
Free unix account: freeshell.org
That page is full of BS. They test a lot of things they shouldn't, including redundent and even deprecated drafts of standards, and penalize you for not "supporting" them.
Go to the source, with W3C. According to them, and their compatibility tests, IE9 is doing fine - it's actually ahead of most of the competition on each part of CSS3, for example.
It's also worth noting that IE9's pre-release versions are very careful about supporting non-standard stuff with "standardized" names. For example, IE9 actually does support WebSockets just fine, but because the standard isn't finished, they use a "draft" extension on the name (websocket-draft). This causes sites like caniuse to claim IE9 can't do web sockets, which isn't accurate - other browsers are just implementing a "standard" that isn't.
Ironically enough, this is the kind of behavior that people got so pissed off (quite rightfully) at IE6 for. Just because it isn't MS, does that mean it's now OK to make uup your own standards when they arent' actually standardized yet?
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Slashdot itself uses border-radius. It has worked just fine for months now. Admittedly it was somewhat annoying that /. used to feed old-school CSS that didn't include the rounded corners when it detected IE, but you could trick it into sending the right code and now everything works. Since the recent "facelift" IE9 gets the right CSS by default, and yes it includes CSS3 things.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Sorry, you're wrong.
Web 2.0 was pretty much explicitly defined by Microsoft, albeit by accident. AJAX itself a technical underpinning of 2.0 was initiated by the XMLHttpRequestObject that shipped with IE5. This was then adapted by other browsers.
Have a look at the history section here.
As for why Microsoft should release a new version of IE? Well, what else would they do, give up?