back to article Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 planned for 2009

The "standards-compatible" next edition of Internet Explorer has been bumped into 2009 by Microsoft. A third Internet Explorer 8 beta will now be released in the first quarter of next year and be followed by a final release, IE general manager Dean Hachamovitch has blogged. Hachamovitch did not give a date for that final …

COMMENTS

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  1. Glenn Gilbert

    And the news is...

    So, the news is that "Microsoft will be releasing a browser that works, just like all other browsers"?

    As in Firefox: just works. Safari: just works. Microsoft IE7 doesn't work. Microsoft IE6 <spit> doesn't work. Microsoft IE for CE doesn't work...

    Ah, I see, there's a pattern developing here...

  2. David Kelly

    Standards

    Will IE8 drop crappy JScript and do proper Javascript? Will they render CSS attributes like opacity instead of M$'s dumb filter attributes? Will it handle SVG? No, we'll still be writing a load of extra code for each website to make IE8 work like other browsers.

    The situation is getting better but by the time IE8 is released they'll still be far behind in terms of CSS3, passing Acid3 etc.

  3. Neil Greatorex
    Gates Horns

    Nah!

    "Our plan is to deliver the final product after listening for feedback about critical issues," Hachamovitch said. ®

    Nah.

    They've never done it in the past, with ANY product, they're not going to do it this time either. It will be a complete dog for the first two years...

  4. Matt Bradley
    Gates Horns

    "standards compatible"

    ...not "standards __COMPLIANT__" then?

    Sigh. ANOTHER broken browser to test in then. I can't wait to be rid of IE for ever.

    With so much money, why can't Microsoft get this right. Are they hiring chimpanzees in the IE dev team or something?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Beta Feedback?

    well I've been playing this for a while and noticing 'issues' such as the underlining of all links carried over into Outlook, for instance, and bookmarks with an ampersand turning into keyboard shortcuts, but there's no easy way (apparently) for Joe Public to leave feedback on such things.

    Paris, because I may well have Missed The Point

  6. Dan Silver badge
    Gates Horns

    Oh dear

    They wouldn't be having problems updating their creaking rendering engine, would they?

  7. Dave Webb

    Many issues with second beta

    I've been using the second beta and have so many performance issues - lots of sites with lots of content stop responding for up to minutes at a time. Mainly MyEbay, iStockPhoto, FaceBook, Easynews (global search). Hoepfully these will get ironed out by the final release :)

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Oh that's nice

    for those that care. The POS is far too intertwined with the OS to be allowed to go out roaming on its own. Much more looking forward to FF3.2 by then.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meh.

    That is all.

  10. William Old
    Flame

    order(cart, horse) -> reality

    "We want them to test their sites and services with IE 8, make any changes they feel are necessary for the best possible customer experience using IE8, and report any critical issues (e.g., issues impacting robustness, security, backwards compatibility, or completeness with respect to planned standards work)."

    No.

    Change to...

    "We want them to test their sites and services against open standards, make any changes they feel are necessary for the best possible customer experience, and report any critical issues (e.g., issues impacting robustness, security, backwards compatibility, or completeness with respect to planned standards work) so that IE8 can be made standards-compliant."

    There. Much better.

  11. Adrian Midgley

    maintain broken website writing?

    It sounds more like a way of encouraging people to carry on writing websites that require IE 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 than like a way of encouraging standards compliant or compatible website development.

    Why would anyone want more sites to be developed that only work in IEx?

    But if they do, presumably having a new browser that makes those sites look as if they are written right would be handy for anyone who still wanted to fragment the Web into a maze of proprietary channels all unlike, and for anyone who wanted to persuade people that stanrds compliant web browsers had something wrong with them.

    "Well it must be OK, it renders correctly in IE8".

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @Glenn Gilbert

    "Safari: just works"

    AAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    *pauses to catch breath*

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    What are you smoking because I want some.

    Safari and working should NOT be in the same sentence.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Listening to users ?

    "Our plan is to deliver the final product after listening for feedback about critical issues,"

    I don't think so - I have just spent the day listening to an MS reseller trying to tell me a daft bug that was in Microsoft Business Systems GP Version 7.5, (circa eight years ago) was "fixed in V9 SP3" but is apparently back as it used to be in Version 10 SP2. What a load of nonsense!

    Listening to users is NOT an MS trait.

  14. Pierre
    Gates Horns

    Fine,

    Another broken browser that I will be glad to disdain then.

    Also, "the release candidate will be final product".... heh, you have to stress the stong points of your product. I think he might have added that the browser is expected to be compatible with most recent versions of Windows, and could even allow the user to browse the Internet.

  15. David Kelly
    Thumb Down

    @AC 18:38

    " Safari and working should NOT be in the same sentence. "

    Strange, all four of my home Macs and the the ones at the office where I'm consulting are working just great with Safari, and guess which rendering engine is the only one to get a perfect Acid3 score?

  16. zenkaon

    index.dat??

    I wonder if IE8 will still use index.dat to store every single url you ever type?

    It'll probably use the Content.IE5 directories as well....or in a revolutionary move call them Content.IE8 maybe. Not expecting much more innovation than that in IE8

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Safari

    It is admittedly infinitely better than IE (not hard), but definitely not as good as Firefox or Opera.

    @ David - Safari doesn't yet, at least not the publicly released versions. It scores 4 higher than Ff but 10 lower than Opera.

  18. Jim
    Stop

    Listen to who?

    Who did they listen to? Certainly not the Beta testers, Take a view at the IE8 blog, the best Microsoft could is to say, "NO" So much for all the PR Bull Stick that Microsoft has put out that they have changed, that Windows is "Lift with out Walls." IE 8 will fail like Vista, and Microsoft will still be saying, "We don't understand, Why do you love us?" Hey Dean you might want to try a mohave experiment For IE 8, so that way your Bosses can say see everybody really loves us, it just the news media and the beta testers being negative... Now the real question is what will IE 9 be called?

  19. Dave
    Gates Halo

    @Neil Greatorex and @Jim

    I think you misunderstand.

    Microsoft will listen to the feedback. They have a whole department that does that. Nothing but that. That department never passes on the feedback. Other departments never act on that feedback.

    But they do listen.

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