IE8 RC1 released: The Pros and Cons
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Yesterday Microsoft made the downloads publicly available on their web site.In case you have trouble finding the files, here they are:
Windows XP and Server 2003 64-bit
Here is a close look at the features
A few good things...
1. Accelerators are cool - they provide a ton of additional functionality with just a few clicks.
2. Web slices are a great idea. Now if only there were more than two or three worth installing...
3. Smart Screen is like Linus' grubby old blanket - not overly useful, but reassuring nonetheless.
4. Visual Search previews work very well for sites like Amazon and eBay.
5. The zoom tool is still very handy, especially on smaller displays.
6. Developer tools are very solid - kind of like Firebug, but they're baked right in.
7. Memory usage has been improved over IE7.
A few bad things...
1. The RC1 download weighs in at just over 16mb, more than twice the size of Firefox or Opera.
2. Installation takes quite some time. Have-a-shower-and-put-your-jammies-on long.
3. Rendering needs improvement. GMail looked terrible, as did a few other sites I use frequently.
4. Page load times were slower than Firefox and Chrome across the board.
5. What can I block with InPrivate? But after a full browsing session it has yet to suggest anything to block on any site.
6. Still no download manager. Really? Come on now, not even a basic one?
7. Suggested sites need work. Example: Twitter. Suggested: Yahoo, Friendster, Wikipedia: Twitter.
8. Cpu usage was sometimes out of hand on Flash-heavy sites (Firefox: 21% versus IE: 54%). Whether this is IE's fault or the Flash plugin, it's a problem.
Labels: Software
