2 Responses to “IE8 not what it’s cracked up to be?”

1. Don Says:
   June 20th, 2009 at 8:05 pm

   Oddly I did not post the above … Franki are you me? On the other hand, IE8 thus far has involved all sorts of unpleasant behavior. First it installed — or started to install — without giving the usual message as to what the update was. Second, once it finally got uploaded it wanted to restart my machine. The choices were now or later … but not next time I restart. The message kept popping up over and over and over until you finally have to restart. Third, it gives warnings about incompatible plug-in’s and those come up every time you start … there again is no ignore. Lastly it really tries hard to force MSN search on you. Do you know anybody who uses MSN search when Google and several others are available?

   I’m no fan. On the other hand I probably haven’t used IE 7 more then five times when I wasn’t coding a web page, so my lack of enjoyment of that browser family is nothing new.

2. Franki Says:
   July 11th, 2009 at 11:33 pm

   sorry.. I must have made myself you when I was editing the database to reset my password.

   My complaints with IE8 are pretty simple.

   1. Looks like they are pushing it out as an important update, so if you just do an express windows update, you get IE8..
   2. Windows 8 breaks the Webmail work and several other web apps (but not Microsoft Sharepoint oddly enough.)
   3. They’ve chopped and chosen which bits of the new standards they’d support with the result that we still can’t design one site and have it look and function identically on all browsers and are still totally reliant on plug-ins.

   As a web developer, that last one is the hardest to live with. We designed roads so any sort of car can give the same experience to users, why must commercial companies always try to co-opt the standards and hold back actual advancement for their own benefits?

   Case in point…. A man called Doug invents the mouse…. It’s a huge improvement and ends up being used by all for nothing. That’s the good bit. Years later, Microsoft who are riding on Dougs back like everyone else, decides it’s time to “innovate” and so they patent timed mouse clicks (like double clicking) That is the bad bit.

   How big would Microsoft be today if they’d not been riding on the shoulders of the people and companies like Doug (the mouse) Xerox (GUI interface) Tim (Web) and so on.

   All the really big innovation is happening outside Microsoft, they come in, make some small change and call it “innovation” but they didn’t invent the hardware, the platform, the Internet or just about anything else, they just extended it all, usually in proprietary ways that tie customers into their products for the long haul.

   Anyway, end of rant for the day.

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