Comments on: IE 8 Passes Acid 2 Test

By: dkong

dkong — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:04:32 +0000

Dkong wrote:
And if you don’t believe me about Opera failing, here’s a screenshot I took. http://img405.imageshack.us/im.....cidep6.png Currently I’m using Opera 9.25, pretty sure it’s the most up to date stable build as of right now.
Oh, and the Acid 2 test is currently broken right now as someone reported over in our forum. Firefox 3 nightlies show the same result. Here’s a copy that still works: http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/#top

Well, that explains it. Also, regarding IE6....I like it better than IE7. IE7 to me is more or less a bloated POS that takes like 2-3 seconds just to open a tab. I have a computer literate friend who uses IE6 because: 1. he hates tabs (he says the ADD that comes with tabs is frightening to him) 2. he thinks IE7 is a bloated POS, etc, etc. so no, the remaining IE6 users aren't a bunch of idiots who don't know how to turn on a computer...

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 22:35:26 +0000

Dkong wrote:

And if you don’t believe me about Opera failing, here’s a screenshot I took. http://img405.imageshack.us/im.....cidep6.png Currently I’m using Opera 9.25, pretty sure it’s the most up to date stable build as of right now.

Oh, and the Acid 2 test is currently broken right now as someone reported over in our forum. Firefox 3 nightlies show the same result. Here's a copy that still works: http://www.hixie.ch/tests/evil/acid/002/#top

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 21:30:14 +0000

Lytithwyn Eldohtar wrote:

Also, why would IE8 work for XP when IE7 doesn’t?

IE7 does actually work on XP.

kiltboy wrote:

I don’t think that we’ll see any more of an increase in market share with IE8 than with IE7. I’d be willing to lay bets that the majority of market share for IE7 has come from people buying computers with Vista pre-installed, only because Vista comes with IE7. Most people using XP are probably still on IE6 because they don’t know any better.

Unfortunately that is the truth. I'm surprised that some people are able to figure out how to turn on their computers, and trying to upgrade their browser is not exactly something they would comprehend.

Inferno_str1ke wrote:

What M$ need to do is force the IE7 upgrade with the Windows Update, if not that then definitely with the next service pack. There’s utterly no reason to stay on IE6.

I definitely agree with that, but as long as they do let people roll back to the old version if they really want to. Unfortunately Microsoft has already said that XP SP3 will not upgrade Internet Explorer, but I think that it really should.

netster007x wrote:

What IE8 really needs is the basics IE7 is missing. A download manager w/ resumable downloads after restarting browser, find as type, bookmarks=manager/better add favorite form/comments field/search, undo close tab, probably more I can’t think of right now. IE7Pro’s latest beta fixes several of these, but they are basic essentials that should be built right in.

IE7Pro is an amazing add-on, and I would really like to see Microsoft take some ideas from it. Things like built-in scripting capabilities (like Greasemonkey) would be awesome.

By: netster007x

netster007x — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:07:18 +0000

At school I sometimes use IE5 (on Win2000). If I tried to update, deepfreeze would just drag it back down. The browser actually works fine on most sites. There’s really no disadvantages of IE7, compared to past IEs, though. It even keeps the menubar available.

By: Inferno_str1ke

Inferno_str1ke — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:58:15 +0000

What M$ need to do is force the IE7 upgrade with the Windows Update, if not that then definitely with the next service pack. There’s utterly no reason to stay on IE6. I reckon people would pull their finger out if pages just stopped working for them. Already if you use Gmail you won’t get the new version on IE6 – I myself no longer test my sites in IE6, I just have the PHP put in a link to Firefox if they’re using IE6 or earlier.

Incidentally the Acid test is valid, and quite a lot of browsers pass it – Safari which is the default on all Macs and the iPhone, Konqueror which is the main KDE Linux browser, Opera (no idea why yours didn’t pass, mine does) and Firefox 3 (which currently has a perfectly stable Beta out).

By: netster007x

netster007x — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 07:06:42 +0000

Nice, sounds like MS is finally getting serious in the browser realm. A beta in 2008 sounds great, hopefully it doesn’t get too delayed. To be honest, currently the Mac default browser (Safari) beats that of the PC (IE7). What IE8 really needs is the basics IE7 is missing. A download manager w/ resumable downloads after restarting browser, find as type, bookmarks=manager/better add favorite form/comments field/search, undo close tab, probably more I can’t think of right now. IE7Pro’s latest beta fixes several of these, but they are basic essentials that should be built right in.

By: Lytithwyn Eldohtar

Lytithwyn Eldohtar — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:27:09 +0000

The reason no one is downloading IE7 is because they have heard from their friends what a bad idea it is. It’s sort of like Russian Roulette. For some people, it works great. For others, it breaks half the applications on their computer.

I know. I work in a computer shop, and have fixed MANY computers by reversing a recent upgrade to IE7.

Also, why would IE8 work for XP when IE7 doesn’t?

I am happy 8 will support the standards, though. I’m tired of coming up with a nice layout for stuff on my site in Firefox, only to find that IE isn’t implementing half of the CSS properly.

By: Dkong

Dkong — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:04:56 +0000

And if you don’t believe me about Opera failing, here’s a screenshot I took.
[img405.imageshack.us]

Currently I’m using Opera 9.25, pretty sure it’s the most up to date stable build as of right now.

By: Dkong

Dkong — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:57:55 +0000

The Acid 2 test is bullcrap, IMO.

Firefox 2 fails miserably. Opera fails, not as miserably as Fx, but it still fails.

So really, at that point, who really cares if IE8 passes a test that popular browsers (at least in the geek community) can’t even pass?

By: kiltboy

kiltboy — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:44:48 +0000

I don’t think that we’ll see any more of an increase in market share with IE8 than with IE7. I’d be willing to lay bets that the majority of market share for IE7 has come from people buying computers with Vista pre-installed, only because Vista comes with IE7. Most people using XP are probably still on IE6 because they don’t know any better. The only other two groups of people I see updating to IE7/IE8 are (1) those of us who like to be on the bleeding edge and (2) the incredibly paranoid, and they’ll probably wait for the first service pack to be released before doing so.8O

While Microsoft has done a great job in getting computers into the majority of households, they have also done a great job in making computers usable by people who probably shouldn’t. I know a lot of people out in cyberspace who don’t even know that other web browsers exist, let alone that there are different versions of IE. The only way I see IE7/8 making significant gains is if Microsoft makes them into critical / mandatory updates through Windows Update.

Kudos to M$ for finally making their browser compliant. Now we just need to see if they are going to make their Sharepoint Authoring Tools compliant as well…