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IE9? or not? Just yet anyway 1

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stduc

Programmer
Nov 26, 2002
1,903
GB
What do people think of IE9? Update from IE8 now or leave it a bit longer? I could use a bit of advise to help me decide.
 
If you're more interested in the browser's capabilities and performance, upgrade now. It's better than IE8 in every way.

If you're happy with the performance of IE8 and like the way you have everything laid out (toolbars, favourites etc.) then stick with IE8. Microsoft have moved a lot of stuff around, hidden other stuff and generally made the browser look and behave like a completely different application (which it is). This bugs a lot of people.

Nelviticus
 
What do people think of IE9?

>> It's OK..

Update from IE8 now or leave it a bit longer?

>> as per Nelviticus's post...

seeing that I haven't touched an IE in ages (FF user), except for that one or other website that does not like FF (and here I use IETab2 add-on), I don't miss it at all...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
 
IE 9 is alright once you get use to some of the minor differences, I use it and don't have any problems at all.
 
I use it a few times a day, it's much faster than IE8 but I do have an issue with losing focus to the tab loading in the background - middle-click a URL and I have to click back on the foreground page to continue scrolling.
 
Some websites that employ older technologies (or old versions) don't work in out-of-the-box IE9. IE9 has a "compatibility mode" that makes those sites work--it's not always so pretty in "compatibility mode," but it will work.

I use IE9 and I like it.
 
I know I will have to make the move sooner rather than later. It seems to be a bigger change than 7-8 was too. If I really hate it (doubtful) how easy is it to go back? Is it just a case of uninstalling 9?

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]
 
IE 9 will be a Windows Update, so you just uninstall the update as per usual.

IE 9 is pretty easy to be like IE 7 or IE 8, you just make sure that the Menu Bar is available by right-clicking anywhere up the top of the Browser and selecting it. Google Searching etc. is done from the Address Bar (not a predefined Search Box) but must be preceded via a Ctrl E (which inserts a ? and Space before the search terms) to make it search properly. Downloads of files are handled a bit (only a bit) differently but you'll soon get used to that.

It might take you 5 or 10 minutes to get used to IE 9.
 
Windows has already pushed the IE 9 update, at least it has on my machines, through its auto update feature. From tests, it looks like the 32 bit version is ok, but 64 bit is slow. FF 4, and Chrome 10 are faster and more secure,still.

But like everything in computing, it is personal choice. Since it is only available on Windows 7,and Vista, XP users or Linux are left out, so if you are looking for a consistent browsing experience in a mixed environment, I would choose something else. Personally I like FF 4, and the share bookmarks automatically between my desktop and my laptop, is brilliant.
 
> faster and more secure

I don't know what reports you have been looking at, but that isn't the consensus (except on anti-MS sites) that I've seen. Sure, IE9 isn't the very fastest browser in all tests, but it is right near the top. And security? I don't think you've got a long enough track record to comment on this as yet (IE9 is not an evolution of previous IE codebase, it is a complete rewrite - for example it is not susceptible to the pwn2own exploit that took down IE8 back in March)
 
several benchmark sites.


Any victory in any of the tests by IE9 are on the 32 bit version, and in some cases they don't even test the 64 bit, as the tests were conducted on a 32 bit OS.

I agree that most people wouldn't be able to see any difference running any of the browsers tested with the exception being IE9 x64, at least until it gets the new Jit compiler used by its 32 bit counterpart, and yes it's true that IE9 has done a lot to make up for it's security features that were lacking in previous versions, I still feel that vulnerabilities in IE9 will show first, because if your a hacker, why do something that will only effect 29% or less, when you can effect 48%.
 
Am I right in thinking that there is no 64bit version of Flash yet either?

You are absolutely right about hackers only targeting popular software. For obvious reasons. If the situation was reversed and say Ubuntu and Firefox were the most popular with IE and Microsoft being the minority then IE and Windows would be the 'safest' - LOL

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]
 
I'd argue that it's pretty difficult to actually end up using the 64bit version of IE9 (and Microsoft do vaguely document the many drawbacks of doing so, and prevent it being the default browser even if you do manage to install it). So for the majority of users we really only need consider the IE9 32bit performance, and almost all the sites you link agree that there is very little to choose between the top 3 performers (Chrome 10, Firefox 4, IE9) in real world usage. And secondly I'd argue that JavaScript benchmarks are hardly the final arbiter of real world performance (and it is hardly suprising, for example, that Chrome should do well on V8 or that Firefox should do well on Kraken)

> I still feel that vulnerabilities in IE9 will show first, because if your a hacker, why do something that will only effect 29% or less

Might I suggest that you visit a browser agnostic site such as VUPEN Security ... a quick peruse shows 5 new exploit advisories for Internet Explorer (all versions) since Jan 1, representing 13 exploits. Chrome (versions 8 thru 10) is subject to 12 advisories for the same period, representing 85 exploits.
 
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