IE8 Is Excellent (For Me)

[quandam]

Having used Firefox for around 18 months or so, I enjoyed the experience, but around two weeks ago I gave IE8 a go simply out of curiosity to see what it had to offer. Was loathe to change back to IE and, as I thought, take a step backwards.

Well, I have to say that it really is crisper than FF and all navigations do seem to run very smoothly and quickly indeed. My Wife who is PC illiterate (she will admit to it willingy) was using her laptop (Vista) after I had downloaded IE8 without her knowledge and said to me "this is running a lot quicker than it used to".

I should add that my PC and laptops are all running XP and all are running 'crisper' than whilst on FF.

I post this simply to tell it as I find it. I know others will come in and say that they find otherwise but for me it is a step forward.

[Gary]

I find IE8 to be a good browser, the safety features etc seem great and its fast on my laptop (Vista ultimate) FF I still use, its just habit for me I like its use of tabs better than IE,  but it is a memory hog, hopefully addressed finally in 3.5, only time will tell.

[quandam]

I find IE8 to be a good browser, the safety features etc seem great and its fast on my laptop (Vista ultimate) FF I still use, its just habit for me I like its use of tabs better than IE,  but it is a memory hog, hopefully addressed finally in 3.5, only time will tell.

Gary

I suppose the crisper feel is doing it for me, FF has some excellent points but the sharper navigations with IE are most enjoyable

[Gary]

Gary

I suppose the crisper feel is doing it for me, FF has some excellent points but the sharper navigations with IE are most enjoyable

I Noticed pages loading well in IE8 maybe net coding for MS but if you have loads of tabs open it uses tons of memory, as each tab is a separate process I think, like Chrome. Now that's a snappy  browser, shame its google.

[quandam]

I Noticed pages loading well in IE8 maybe net coding for MS but if you have loads of tabs open it uses tons of memory, as each tab is a separate process I think, like Chrome. Now that's a snappy  browser, shame its google.

I tried Chrome, it was fast, but my PC and laptops soon threw a wobbly and things gummed up fairly soon. IE8 so far has not caused that wobbly. A neighbour of mine tried Chrome and came knocking at my door asking for help as things on his PC had 'gummed up'. Solution, remove Chrome, he is happy again. Probably now advise him to give IE8  a try

* Simon sorted smiley code.

[Dopamine]

I agree that IE8 is an excellent and fast browser, but it can be a bit of a memory hog if you often have a lot of tabs open, because of the separate process nature of each tab. Avant browser is built around the IE engine, so is just as fast, completely compatible with everything Windows, and uses a lot less memory for multiple tabs. As an example, IE8 with 9 Google.co.uk tabs open uses 220mb of memory on my XP machine, whereas Avant with the same number of tabs open uses just 35mb.

I always recommend Avant as being worth a try for anyone that likes IE, especially those using older machines with limited RAM.

http://www.avantbrowser.com/

[Sebby]

I'm sorry, but Internet Explorer is the worst browser out there. For webmasters, it's an absolute pain as it doesn't comply with anything. It scores extremely badly on the browser compliance test (Acid3). Firefox 3.5 nearly scores something like 93/100, Safari 4 scores 100/100, and I believe Opera does as well. IE scores something like 18/100. Even Safari on my iPhone achieves 97/100! I really can't understand why anyone uses it, other than it being bundled with Windows and not knowing that there are alternatives out there. That said, IE8 is the best version of IE to date.

[quandam]

Dopamine,
Had a quick look at Avant. It is fast but first impressions give the feel of a 'basic' programme. Doesn't have the user friendly feel of IE8. Will monitor Avast over the coming weeks, thanks for the info

[quandam]

I'm sorry, but Internet Explorer is the worst browser out there. For webmasters, it's an absolute pain as it doesn't comply with anything. It scores extremely badly on the browser compliance test (Acid3). Firefox 3.5 nearly scores something like 97/100, Safari 4 scores 100/100, and I believe Opera does as well. IE scores something like 18/100. Even Safari on my iPhone achieves 97/100! I really can't understand why anyone uses it, other than it being bundled with Windows and not knowing that there are alternatives out there. That said, IE8 is the best version of IE to date.

Maybe you have hit the nail on the head. If you are a webmaster then IE8 doesn't do the bizzo. However, Mr & Mrs Average don't have that requirement they just want a sharp & quick page turnover to satisfy their needs.

I would include myself as Mr Average and think that FF is/was great but have found something that makes the internet a little more enjoyable. I do think to describe IE8 as 'the worst browser out there' is a tad strong.

It could well be described as that if you are a webmaster but if your demands are less then IE 8 more than fits the bill

[Sebby]

I take your point. For the majority of people, IE is probably the best option. I still maintain that it's the worst browser out there, though.

[JohnH]

I still maintain that it's the worst browser out there, though.

I have to agree.FF 3.5 RC2 flies in comparison to IE8 

[Simon]

I tried Safari for Windows after you mentioned it before, Seb, and there seems to be no way to import cookies and passwords from other browsers, so it fell at the first fence for me.

I've also tried IE8, and found that it took several refreshes to get all of the images to load on here, and other forums and web pages.  I still haven't found anything to convince me to move from Sea Monkey.

[JohnH]

I still haven't found anything to convince me to move from Sea Monkey.

It's a good browser, but FireFTP isn't yet available as an add-on, which is what makes FF number 1 for me.

[zappaDPJ]

I'm reading this while trying to get a website I'm writing to resolve correctly in IE8. I think you can take a good guess at what I'm thinking at the moment 

[Sebby]

I tried Safari for Windows after you mentioned it before, Seb, and there seems to be no way to import cookies and passwords from other browsers, so it fell at the first fence for me.

I've also tried IE8, and found that it took several refreshes to get all of the images to load on here, and other forums and web pages.  I still haven't found anything to convince me to move from Sea Monkey.

In all honesty, I'm not a massive fan of Safari. I think it's technically a great browser, but Firefox has too many features to stop me from using it.

[Gary]

I'm sorry, but Internet Explorer is the worst browser out there. For webmasters, it's an absolute pain as it doesn't comply with anything. It scores extremely badly on the browser compliance test (Acid3). Firefox 3.5 nearly scores something like 93/100, Safari 4 scores 100/100, and I believe Opera does as well. IE scores something like 18/100. Even Safari on my iPhone achieves 97/100! I really can't understand why anyone uses it, other than it being bundled with Windows and not knowing that there are alternatives out there. That said, IE8 is the best version of IE to date.

To most though Sebby the Acid test is a something to do with a book about hippies your average pc world type buyer does not know about alternative browsers, so in that respect IE8 is great, Safari 4 seems promising but Apple like Mozilla seem to have issues with security, but they seem to get patched fast, which is why I stay with Firefox, Opera is for me to bloated and for some reason I never really got on with it, and its new features just make it more of a suite than a browser, Firefox works fine for me, it does eat Ram but I have 4Gb so that fine, hopefully as said 3.5 will change that  , All browsers are vulnerable, seems though that IE8 is the least so at this time on Vista and Windows 7 So when it comes to security who cares about acid test 3 or coding websites, to the causal user being secure without thought is what is needed straight out of the box. Running Sandboxie or Returnil is simply not going to happen, so as you say its the best version of IE and thats what we should remind ourselves of about browsers sometimes, not the technological minority but the Happy surfing ebay using majority, who have no clue as to what is going on as far as security. After all that's why Norton exists  

[Gary]

In all honesty, I'm not a massive fan of Safari. I think it's technically a great browser, but Firefox has too many features to stop me from using it.

I have never spent a huge amount of time with it Sebby, I think porting it to Windows may have lost something in translation if you know what I mean. Its best on Macs from what I can see 

[Sebby]

To most though Sebby the Acid test is a something to do with a book about hippies your average pc world type buyer does not know about alternative browsers, so in that respect IE8 is great, Safari 4 seems promising but Apple like Mozilla seem to have issues with security, but they seem to get patched fast, which is why I stay with Firefox, Opera is for me to bloated and for some reason I never really got on with it, and its new features just make it more of a suite than a browser, Firefox works fine for me, it does eat Ram but I have 4Gb so that fine, hopefully as said 3.5 will change that  , All browsers are vulnerable, seems though that IE8 is the least so at this time on Vista and Windows 7 So when it comes to security who cares about acid test 3 or coding websites, to the causal user being secure without thought is what is needed straight out of the box. Running Sandboxie or Returnil is simply not going to happen, so as you say its the best version of IE and thats what we should remind ourselves of about browsers sometimes, not the technological minority but the Happy surfing ebay using majority, who have no clue as to what is going on as far as security. After all that's why Norton exists 

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that most people couldn't care less what score a browser achieves on the Acid3 test, but it highlights how non-compliant IE is. That aside, it's slow in comparison to something like Firefox, plus is feels very bloated.

[Sebby]

I have never spent a huge amount of time with it Sebby, I think porting it to Windows may have lost something in translation if you know what I mean. Its best on Macs from what I can see 

I agree with you 100% there. There's little point in using it on a PC. Tbh, I don't even feel that compelled to use it on my Mac.

[Gary]

I agree with you 100% there. There's little point in using it on a PC. Tbh, I don't even feel that compelled to use it on my Mac.

I think with its extensions Firefox offers a great vanilla browser or one you can adapt to fit your needs Sebby, I would be lost without simple things like the dictionary, its just so easy to try things out and see what fits your needs

[Gary]

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that most people couldn't care less what score a browser achieves on the Acid3 test, but it highlights how non-compliant IE is. That aside, it's slow in comparison to something like Firefox, plus is feels very bloated.

Oddly it does not seem slow on my pc  there seems not much in it tbh but I have not spent hours and hours using it to be fair. I am not to worried about how fast my browser opens or is it renders a page a nano second faster than another,as some of the chrome heads seem to be, I do though think that the alternative browsers have made the net a better place as far as standards are concerned, IE/Microsoft cannot now so easily dictate what it should look like, which has to be a good thing. 

[john]

I've tried several other Browsers such as Firefox, Opera and Safari but I still prefer IE especially IE8 as it works best for me. I couldn't detect any difference in speed between any of them anyway and prefer the look and feel of IE.

However I might move to this