Continue reading »]]> Well, it looks like the wait is over and that today Microsoft will finally release Internet Explorer 8 RTM for download from its web site.

The expected time for this being available is 4pm GMT in order to conincide with the second keynote at MIX 09.

IE8 boasts much better web standards support, and now that Microsoft have released a beta of SuperPreview, allowing you to test your web sites in multiples versions of IE, Firefox and Safari, you don’t have to worry about not having IE7 on your system for testing.

The download should be available from the main download centre and the Internet Explorer 8 web site.

Will you be downloading it today?    What do you think of the improvements in this version?

Technorati Tags: ie8, ie8 rtm, internet explorer 8

Continue reading »]]> Microsoft have now released the release candidate of Internet Explorer 8.

You can get the new version from the IE8 web site.

Mike Ormond has said that he had a seamless install with the IE8 RC 1, but does give the good advice of checking the Internet Explorer Blog for details of the upgrade for details specific to your platform / environment.

This release is now apparently feature complete, which means what you experience here, should be what you would experience with the final release.  There have also been improvements in performance, compatibility and reliability as well as some further security enhancements.

Apparently Internet Explorer 8 RC 1 does NOT work with Windows 7.

I have not had a chance to install this yet, but if you do, please post a comment and let everybody know what your experiences are.  I had a lot of feedback on my post with some problems with previous betas, so lets hope we have a better time with this release.

Technorati Tags: ie8, ie8 beta, ie8 rc1, internet explorer 8

Continue reading »]]> UPDATE: MARCH 19TH 2009 -  The final version of Internet Explorer 8 should be available today from 4pm GMT from the IE8 web site.  It is expected that this will be announced at the second keynote at MIX this afternoon.

UPDATE: Internet Explorer 8 RC 1 is now  available for download.  This is the version you should be installing as it is feature complete, more secure with increased reliability . You can get Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 from the IE8 web site.

Usually, I am always pretty keen to start using beta software when it becomes available, and I suppose that this is why I currently have the Firefox 3 beta (which I am writing this from at the moment), Expression Web 2 Beta and the subject of this post, the Internet Explorer 8 beta.

With previous IE betas I have always tried to put up with any small issues with the software until final release, because the gains have always out-weighed the problems (for me at least), for example, the tabbed browsing in IE 7. This time though, I am having to throw in the towel with the Internet Explorer 8 beta, at least for now. Since I installed a few days ago, the small but annoying problems started to surface. They started with two tabs opening when you only requested one. Ok, so you have to close an extra tab, I can deal with that.

But, unfortunantely, since then it has only gotten worse. I am now experiencing an increasing number of JavaScript errors on numerous different sites and the full app is crashing at least once every 10-15 minutes (I am using Firefox 3 now, because IE 8 crashed 5 times in as many minutes!).

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know this is beta software and I have no problem with the fact that it has issues, of course it has issues. But I cannot help thinking that Microsoft have simply rushed this release of Internet Explorer to keep up with the ever-present threat of Firefox?

Anyway, maybe it is just my laptop config, maybe it is in fact just me. As I don’t know anybody else using it at the moment, I haven’t had any other comments yet.

Have you tried the Internet Explorer 8 Beta? If you have, leave a comment and lets get a list together (positive and negative) of user experiences.

Technorati Tags: beta, ie8, internet explorer 8, microsoft internet explorer