Internet Explorer 8.0 Alpha

[none_needed]

hopefully they can fix that memory leak that is in ie7. that is basically the only thing keeping me from using ie7. with multiple programs open like limewire or something, its a pain because after a while ie7 begins to use a lot and it lags all the other programs.

Ya Im having the same lag issue too. Only on my XP machine but not on Vista. I hope they do something about it coz I really hate to reboot everytime just because of it. :pinch:

[Koolslacker]

This does not surprise me. MS has do a lot better than IE7 to beat Firefox now.

[Skyfrog]

The IE7 icon isn't exactly new, they used the same yellow stripe back on their boxed copies of IE 3.0 I believe. :laugh:

[Aero Ultimate]

How very interesting... for many years on end they left crappy IE6 all by itself, and then there's suddenly IE7, and now they're already working on IE8. It looks like Firefox and Opera are really making fire under MS' butt :laugh:

However, they should better spend their time on useful things than doing yet another release of their crappy browser :pinch:

[caerma]

good news...

[WooSH]

i guarantee you that if Firefox and opera hadn't come out we would still be happy on our little xp SP1 machines with IE6.

we need less memory hog. add ons. and download manger.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

So, is IE "7.5" with SVG support (which MS "promised" us) dead, or is that still happening?

MS cannot just make a standard compliant browser in one version, it would cause way too many problems on the web. The change must be gradual.

The way these browsers are made, means that MS could release IE 7.1 with full CSS3 and XHTML 1.1 support tomorrow (which would be a feat, CSS3 isn't finished yet, it's only CSS2.1 at the moment), and not break many existing pages (the main issue you would see, is pages with hacks breaking)

Of course, that won't happen, MS is moving slowly but surely towards standards, but the engine will be causing more and more issues as that happens (look at full PNG support, the guy had to re-write the entire decoder just to support the alpha channels)

Edit: Ok, i screwed up with the SVG claim, it was something said a while ago that people ran with but got shown to be incorrect, not going to remove the statement though, people need to see i screwed up, and can admit it.

Edited January 19, 2007 by The_Decryptor

[Simon Veteran]

Microsoft is making a stupid decision moving towards standards compliance instead of just jumping for it IMO. They think it makes it easier for web developers, but in my experience, it's been much harder. If they continue, I'll have 7 stylesheets for each version of IE, just to get it looking good in each version; a lot more work.

[Argote]

looks promising, IE7 is certainly good enough for average joe right now... me?? i like firefox plugins, thou if completely without plugins i think Opera is the best browser out there

[ironsight2000]

IE 8.0 "code name = SP 1"

[fmxer]

haha maybe i should upgrade my 'fox. 1.5.0.9 seems alittle out of date now.

[Purple Haze]

Unless MS allows user-made extensions like Firefox, it won't matter what they do - I'll be sticking w/ Mozilla. Not that IE's awful - I used it for years, and IE7 has grown on me a bit - but Firefox leapt ahead for good.

[Matt T]

Please Microsoft, PLEASE, proper standards support and the elimination of those f***ing IE tricks that us web developers are forced to use in order to get a web site to render correctly is the most important thing that IE needs. And for God's sake, make it a compulsary update for every Windows 2000, XP and Vista machine.

[Sockie]

See what competition does in the browser arena :grin: Happy to hear IE8 is in development. I want to try it as soon as it's ready to be previewed in public.

[M118LR]

For those wondering who will test and give feedback for IE8, users who tested Vista and currently Server will have access to this. Invites will be sent out if you opted out of the server beta, as well to be in SP1 for Vista. Following that, a public beta will be launch. And yes, there will be a IE 7.1... This summer is looking bright ;)

IE7.1 ? In the IE7 Beta Chats the IE Team clearly said there would be no IE7.X, they were moving on to IE8.

EricLaw[MSFT] (Expert):

Q: Will IE 7.5 be available for XP? Thank you.

A: IE7 will be available for XPSP2 and later. At the moment, there's no such thing as IE7.5.

Max Stevens [MSFT] (Expert):

Q: What are the the plans for IE7? Will there be additional version with more functionality, for example a 7.5? Or will any major addiitons not be unitl a new build?

A: IE7 will release later this month, and after that we begin work on the next version. Any new features would be done in that new version.

Here is something from Oct. 06

Sean [MS] (Expert):

Q: Is there a time frame yet for the start of the IE8 Beta. Will this be a stand alone Beta as IE7 was tied to Vista?

A: While we have started thinking about the next releases of IE, we haven't announced any dates. Keep an eye on the IEBlog and you'll know as soon as anyone else.

Edited January 15, 2007 by M118LR

[Nelsinho]

interesting news

[Unimatrix Xero]

ohh shimmy cant wait

[jameseuk]

Much better than the stupid yellow thing :yes:

IE9 will have a completely black look.

Aww I like the yellow thing,I'm used to it now :(

Congrats on your promotion by the way,I think you used to be just a normal member like me but contributed great news to the Neowin community.

I think IE7 is a huge improvement over previous versions, but as much as I've tried to make myself use IE7, I always end up going back to Firefox 2.0. Maybe IE8 will pull me back permanently, but Firefox 3 is going to have to suck probably.

Nice to see the IE team isn't sitting on their hands though. Keep up the good work Microsoft (Y)

Yeah IE7 is better,really love the tabbed browsing,I'm not bothered about support for feeds etc though.

I have Firefox as a backup browser incase something doesnt look right,/ails to work in IE.

Is that icon legit?

Personally I prefer the yellow.

I guess it'll take getting used too.

For those wondering who will test and give feedback for IE8, users who tested Vista and currently Server will have access to this. Invites will be sent out if you opted out of the server beta, as well to be in SP1 for Vista. Following that, a public beta will be launch. And yes, there will be a IE 7.1... This summer is looking bright ;)

Really I though they wer jumping straight to 8,thats what the main news says

hopefully they can fix that memory leak that is in ie7. that is basically the only thing keeping me from using ie7. with multiple programs open like limewire or something, its a pain because after a while ie7 begins to use a lot and it lags all the other programs.

Aha!,someone else that shares my frustration,I dont use Limewire but I use Sharaza which is another filesharing program & doesnt contain crap.

Most of the time the browser shuts itself down for me :(

i guarantee you that if Firefox and opera hadn't come out we would still be happy on our little xp SP1 machines with IE6.

we need less memory hog. add ons. and download manger.

See healthy competition makes things better ;)

Amen to we need less memory hog. add ons. and download manger,also we need a way of customising the toolbars/icons back to the IE6 look,I've read you can do this by messing about with codes but I want it a default thing not a sneaky way of acheiving it.

if I could move all my icons upto the second line,id have more room for tabs,next if I could move the file etc options along with the icons I'd previously moved upto the top &have the addy bar etc on the 2nd line I'd have the browser exactly how I want it.

Edited January 16, 2007 by jameseuk

[M118LR]

Just remember IE8 will have to be designed using the Vista Guidelines as was IE7. So if you expect an IE6 style UI, then MS is going to have to update the Vista Design Guidelines.

[Tha Bloo Monkee]

At first when I read "Internet Explorer 8", I was thinking - already? But IE7 just came out. Then I thought, and realized that Firefox 2 wasn't realeased that long ago either, so I guess it does make sense. :p I still use Firefox over IE7 but I think IE7 is a huge improvement - especially tabbed browsing - which I can't live without now... :) Man, IE6 wasn't updated for a long time :blink: - in comparison to other browsers. I think they started to change it because other browsers like Firefox (and Opera?? I don't use it, so I'm not sure) were starting to catch up...

EDIT: Meant to say wasn't updated :p

[Futurix]

maybe it will render CSS properly, but they did say IE7 would but this is Microsoft we are talking about

Microsoft never promised complete CSS correctness in IE7. They promised fixes for worst issues - and they delivered.

So, is IE "7.5" with SVG support (which MS "promised" us) dead, or is that still happening?

Where did they "promised" that?

Unless MS allows user-made extensions like Firefox...

You know, all these custom toolbars and custom toobars buttons in IE are user-made extensions.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

-bah i forgot i commented there, discussion continued a bit-

No matter which way you look at it though, Trident is far behind other engines, and needs a whole lot of work.

[[Fosters]]

I expect IE 8.0 will include a UI based on SeaDragon: http://labs.live.com/seadragon.aspx

[Crazysah]

I can't wait for it. If it competes more directly with Firefox then there must be something right.

[Koolslacker]

I can't wait for it. If it competes more directly with Firefox then there must be something right.

That's what MS said about IE7.