IE8: Behind the 8 Ball
Microsoft started way behind in the Netscape -- dominated browser market some 14 years ago. But by virtue of it being free -- and coming with every client operating system from Windows 95 to Windows 7-Internet Explorer quickly gained dominant market share. The Netscape crew was loath to give in, however. Turning the browser code over to open source developers resulted in the increasingly popular Firefox. More recently, Google Inc. unveiled the more-or-less built-from-scratch Chrome.
IE market share, while still the majority, is falling rapidly. Does IE8 have the goods to keep Microsoft in the game? We went to the best source we could find: you, the Redmond reader. More than 50 of you responded to our queries, and we talked in-depth to a dozen of the respondents who've spent the most time with the new browser.
This article was reported throughout the IE8 development process. Fortunately, the final version of IE8 shipped just as we were going to press, which answered some key questions about stability, performance and compatibility. Where the beta and release candidate (RC) were troublesome, the shipping product is aces, say many Redmond readers. Users report few crashes and increased speed in nearly all cases, and the bulk of Web sites and add-ins work just fine.
