Internet Explorer 8.0 released - tech
(hx) 11:16 PM CET - Mar,19 2009
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The Internet Explorer 8 product page
now offers downloads of Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 .A number of new
features have been added since IE 7, along with a multitude of
optimisation to the way the browser handles functions such as page
rendering, JavaScript and privacy. Visually it's similar to
its predecessor, and significantly faster at rendering Web pages and
JavaScript. Although scoring 5,995.6ms in the SunSpider suite of
JavaScript benchmarks during our tests, means Safari 4, Google Chrome,
Firefox 3 and Opera 9.6 still handle JavaScript more efficiently. The
first review can be found on Paul Thurrott 's
Supersite.
In any event, if you're used to IE 7, IE 8 is more of the same from a
user interface perspective, and will be quite familiar territory. If
you prefer the bare-bones browser chrome found in browsers like Firefox
and Chrome, IE 8 may seem a bit busy, especially if you dutifully
installed the entire Windows Live Essentials suite (see my review) and
its bundled browser toolbar. Before you dismiss IE 8 entirely on the
basis of UI clutter, I'd offer up two thoughts. First, give it a
chance: You may discover that the padded upper portion of the IE 8
application window can actually be used in quite productive ways.
Second, even if you don't find that to be the case, know that the IE 8
interface is pretty malleable. You can remove virtually all of the
top-end UI and come away with a very Spartan looking browser. In fact,
stripped bare in this fashion, it reminds me of Microsoft Word 2007
when you hide the ribbon. In other words, IE 8 can pretty much be
whatever you need it to be.
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Updated:10:44 AM CEST Sep,20
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