The first thing that caught my eye and bugged me was the very annoying and rather long initial setup wizard. There were many many questions in it, but you could skip out of most of the questions. But doing so is a bad move; it means that you have to accept the defaults! The defaults are terrible for anyone who likes their privacy. Their 'porn mode' does prevent the browser from keeping a local cache while activated - but your information is still sent to microsoft. It's probibly not a bad thing, I guess; all the other major browsers do it (not sure for Safari, though). And you can choose to opt-out, of course. However, Internet Explorer is called from within applications, often embedded into the application itself, using the global settings. That means that your information will be sent to microsoft even if you don't use it as your default browser.
Really, though, the biggest problem with the initial start-up wizard was this:
WTF, man! Why in the world would they do that! There hasn't been a graphics card that supported 256 colors as it's maximum color range for over a decade! What the hell was Microsoft thinking! It's just an incredibly stupid thing to do - no other browser, nor any other application, really, uses a 256-color image for images requiring gradients. I may be being picky, but really, why would they purposely degrade their project?After you finish removing the default options in the wizard, the next annoying thing is the browser controls:
Click! Note that this actually is not the toolbars as seen when you first install IE8. I unchecked the 'lock toolbar' option, so it has handles which actually pad it out more. Plus, there are different tabs then the first run has, and I changed the default search engine. But it still seems so cold and empty. It does, however, have a nice touch added; the domain name of the URL is highlighted. It doesn't make a difference to me, but it is different.
Microsoft loves to say that they're the best, and in such, they say that IE8 is the best browser. Like every other Microsoft that they claim is the best, IE8 isn't. One aspect that IE8 is 'better at then any other browser' is that it's compatible with more web standards than any other browser. This is complete and utter bullshit. IE8 is, however fully compliant with CSS 2.1 and passes the Acid2 test. FINALLY! It only took them MORE THAN A COMPLETE DECADE AFTER CSS2 WAS RATIFIED to implement it. Other than small improvements in their Javascript implementation (which was mainly done for speed), this is really the only thing that actually became up to standards. However, IE still doesn't have any support for most HTML5 elements, most notably the video tag, nor does it have support for SVG, which has also been around for more than a decade.
What Microsoft doesn't tell you is that IE8 still isn't compliant with the de-facto plug-in archetecture pioneered by Netscape. Created in 1996, it's even older than a decade. Microsoft's lack of compatibility is demonstrated by this screenshot:
Yes, it may be while visiting a Mozilla website, but that doesn't matter, since Mozilla actually does care about web standards. IE has historically rejected the Netscape plug-in system, creating a need for plug-in developers to learn two different architectures in order to keep their product ubiquitous: one for IE, and one for all the rest. I've already installed Flash, but IE8 can't run it because Microsoft just loves And don't even think about video support.
But there's more to life than standards. Does IE8 fare well in rich internet appliances? I tested it out with eyeOS, an open-source project to bring a desktop environment to the web. I seem to recall eyeOS working even in IE6. But not with IE8.
You may think that it's still loading, but no it's not. eyeOS didn't even work in compatibility mode.Speaking of lack of standards support, how does it fare at Acid3? Not well, I'm afraid:
And, for your reference, Firefox 3.5RC2's results:
Worse, IE8 STILL has problems rendering even simple images! Just look at Google Maps:
Note the problems with transparency on the bottom right.Isn't it pitiful? It didn't even get to the 20/100 score at first; it lagged at 12. That "FAIL" written in the top left describes the browser very well. All the other browsers get at least double that score - and that's not even counting the beta versions. Microsoft, once again, proved that they are still capable of producing quality bullshit.
Microsoft also claims that IE8 is very customizable, perhaps even more so than Firefox. They try to prove it by linking to the gallery of add-ons they have. If you visit that gallery, You'll find that nearly all the add-ons are Web Slices. Here's their briefing: Web Slices are simply snippets of HTML code, originating from large web pages, such as Yahoo's content-packed website. The idea is that you can isolate a web application and run it without the full web interface, which often includes ads, links to other sites, etc. This is hardly a new idea; pretty much anyone with a Google account knows that iGoogle's gadgets work exactly the same way, and Mozilla had the idea covered even before Google implemented it online, in the form of WebRunner, now named Prism, which is a separate application from Firefox/SeaMonkey/Thunderbird/whatever, which is a better implementation because of it's integration with the desktop; thus, web application becomes a little bit more literal.
Once you realize that most add-ons for IE8 are Web Slices, it's hard to believe that it's more extensible than Firefox. Truth be told, IE8 doesn't really have an extension system, only a plug-in system, so if you want to write a simple scripted application, you're out of luck. For comparison, Firefox actually does have an extension system, which is made much easier to program for thanks to the implementation of technologies such as XUL. In fact, firefox's extension system is so versitle, not only second-party programs are made in it - the entire interface uses it. So if you wanted to, you could run a browser in your browser. For Firefox users: copy and paste (links to chrome address are disabled for security) this into your address bar: chrome://browser/content/browser.xul
Who needs Photoshop when you've got XUL?Perhaps the worst thing about IE8 is that it's not a complete product. Anytime you type something into the address bar, you get nagged. If you look up at IE8's rendering of the Acid3 test, it's asking to install more software. Why should I install more software, when Microsoft brags that it has all the features you need preinstalled. Furthermore, IE8 is still a 32-bit browser. Yes, on 64-bit windows system, you do get a 64-bit browser, but that version is crippled.
WTF is wrong with Microsoft! Seriously; is it so hard to keep up with new technology? It took long enough to get a 64-bit Windows, but having vital components running in legacy mode is a serious problem for modern computers. And x86_64 has been around for quite a while now, so what's the excuse? At least IE won't nag if it's not the default.Now let's take a look at IE8's options. I've always believed you can judge the quality of a program by it's options. After all, more options means more features and/or more versatility. Let's see how different IE8 is on the inside. First stop: security settings.
You'll notice that there's no 'low security' option available for the oversimplified security level slider bar. Don't worry; IE8 is still the same insecure browser as always, and even sliding that up all the way won't insure IE's impermeability. ActiveX, the single biggest security hole ever invented, is still there, and still enabled by default. To make matters worse, some of the security options are very vague, and to enable some features you'll need to disable the disability of them:
Some options are so obscure, perhaps only IE developers can understand them. I didn't take a picture of those options simply because I couldn't be bothered to crop more screencaps.Then there's the problem with fonts. IE8 uses an entirely different font rendering engine than the rest of the OS does. It's not really that much of a problem, since Windows' font rendering engine is total crap, delivering hideous and occasionally unreadable lettering. The font rendering is improved, and optimized for LCD displays, much to the chagrin of higher-resolution CRT owners. However, the new engine is essentially uncustomizable.
There are many web pages that only request a type of font instead of a specific one (serif, sans serif, mono-space, etc.). Firefox allows you to select those default fonts. IE8 uses statically-set fonts. So you're restricted to the hideous defaults except on the rare page that doesn't specify a font, or one single universal font, which will make formatting difficult if there's separate bold and italic fonts.Note that blue underlined phrase in the bottom. This font selection screen isn't the only place where you have to refer to special directions and rummage around for an option that should be right in front of you. Setting up IE8 is about as convoluted as setting up the registry. Oh, and did I mention that you actually do need to edit the registry to get to the advanced options?
It's kind of sad, really. No other company can get away with making such an inferior product like IE8. While I agree, it is better than IE7 and shiploads better than IE6, but that really isn't saying much. The only promises that Microsoft actually kept with IE8 are better CSS rendering and a faster experience. It's JavaScript interpreter is slightly faster than Firefox 3.5RC2, but what's the point if it still can't even do simple transparency or play videos?
All in all, IE8 is an OK browser. That would probably have done well in the 21st century, before broadband came into the picture. But now that there are much better browsers available for free, IE8 is the leper of them all, the one that only bad programmers touch. After all this reviewing, I feel sorry for Microsoft. They had to write an entirely new JavaScript interpreter and rendering engine for this release, and even after all that effort, they still couldn't pull off a decent product. Poor, poor inept Microsoft.
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