[LarryE]

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. How boring. Same old trolls saying the same old thing. They probably use IE 8 faithfully, but just like to see their names in print. Such a waste of time. I have 8 browsers installed on my computer, IE 8 being one of them and I use it all the time, along with Firefox 3.5, Opera 10, Safari 4.0, two iterations of Maxthon, Google Chrome and Flock. They all serve their purpose and I don't feel the need to promote one over the other. As others have said. Don't like it, don't use it. Bashing it and Microsoft isn't going to make it any better for you.
And to all you "anti-Microsoft" everything, why did you even bother to download it?

[DEHos]

Information is the solution not the problem. Ignorance is the problem not the solution. You need access to more information not less like who is accessing information about you, Big Brother, an enemy, etc.. All censorship is bad and opens the door to deception. Let's shine a light on everything and deal with those things that truly cause physical harm.

[WinTard]

Yet Another Silly Article from an incompetent author. Sensationalism and vitriol pure and simple. No info whatsoever. And they are called journalists? As for the title. Vindictive and mean spirited. Just the norm at PCWorld. So what? It is so ridiculous, it's a joke!
For the record, I am using IE8 since its inception, and find it superior in every respect to Firefox 3.0x, and Chrome. I have ZERO problems with it. Websites that don't display properly on IE8 are programmed by amateurs and losers.... The fault lies on the server side.
I reserve judgment to Firefox 3.5, all prior Firefox version are CRAP! With the distinction of being the MOST VULNERABLE of all applications both in 2008 and 2007 as per the NVD, secunia.com, and other reputable sources of security info.
And that's the way it is.
PCWorld, you are simply wrecking your journalistic integrity by continuing to approve and support BULL and BIAS. Just to increase readership I suppose?
I’m here to set the record straight… But I get most of my info elsewhere. At least in these forums, there are tons of reasonable and educated members, to learn from, and share with... But most of your articles are a joke! Technically speaking... And who comes up with these stupid mean spirited titles? The authors, or PCWorld?

?:| X-(
~~~~~~~~~~~
Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
~ Henry David Thoreau
Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
~ Helen Keller

[mikedgolf40505]

Win, well stated as usual. I do like Firefox 3.5 pretty well. Of course I use it primarily on a Mac.

[tremp101]

ie8 is the king of all browsers with 90% of the us market. Who cares what Cringely and the European bureaucrats use

[jmkray]

I checked the article referred to in this article on the comparison of IE8 and Firefox. Guess what? It's a good browser. I have it installed on four machines at my home....3 XP's (all Dells) and 1 Vista Premium (an HP). No problems... and I have Chrome, Firefox and Iron (a version of Chrome done in Germany that doesn't allow Google to use search info) and my browser of choice is IE8. It is faster on every machine I own than Firefox (Version 3.5)! It has "Micorsoft" in its name and, therefore, is despised. Lots of knee-jerk reactions in PCWorld magazine.It's what sells magazines. God forbid that they actually say something positive about Redmond. And, by the way, my Vista version beats the pants off any XP edition (1 home and 2 professional edittions) I have running. The reviews are suspect to me. Crashes....nope! Slow file transfers....nope! Smooth operation...yep!

[peeskieeskie]

At the end of the address bar is a little white icon that looks like a torn piece of paper. After typing in you banks URL, click the icon and you bank will be added to the the compatibility list. The reason for the compatibility function is because like you, mosat of the world is so far behind MS that MS must make provision for the the less up to date programs and users. Every tried a new version of FireFox and watch as it tries to load and lists all of the add ons that won't function with the new version? What is so different with that and MS. Ever watch rerun news casts about the idiots who marched in protest against the war? They had no clue but the masses were doing it and thats all that seemed to matter. People without a clue await the latest fad or gimick looking for acceptability. How sad!

[peeskieeskie]

Beat a dead browswer? You gotta be kidden' me! Cnet, Pc World, Download Squad dot com all run articles about Chrome, FireFox and Opera ad nausium. I can't imagine those with so little to do that they sit around counting nano seconds between browser load never once taking into consideration the amount of traffic at the time, whether it be on their line or how many are trying to log on to the browser all at once. How many add ons the browser is trying to load or how many apps are trying to load or run in the back ground. Anyone taking into account the way a normal person surfs would under stand how useless the stastistics are and get down to comparing something more meaningful like the difference in taste between one brand of chewing gum and another and then try to push one out on to the public because they were getting paid to write and "un-biased" report on Bubble Gum Manufactuarers. Youi'ld be better off writting on the weather. At least that way you would have to give an honest opinion, albeit wrong, because no amouint of money can influence the outcome.

[kitsune17717]

to the average user, such as most of us here, would not care about the difference about IE or FF or Chrome. Not even I care that much, I think IE is a decent browser.
There seems to be some validity in these "tech journalists" bashing IE however. I read and hear from countless software programmers or web designers (many of them I know personally) who cringe about how IE is so inconsistent with HTML or java or whatever, and it's so hard to get consistent results when working with IE. Kinda sad seeing how Microsoft is a software company full of highly paid software programmers.
That being said, if you don't want to bash IE, don't. But also don't bash the bashers because most of them have valid reasons towards this behavior.
...just my cent and a half worth.

[Rocklin]

IE8 isn't perfect for sure - I use FF 95% of the time - but Cringely has been airing his hatred for anything MSFT for many years - it has gotten so old and he has no credibility whatsoever. MSFT could put out an absolutely perfect piece of software and he would call it garbage - guess MSFT denied him a job back when - now he is relegated to living in squalor - sad.

[oboedude]

I am a loyal user of both Firefox and Google still. I did download IE8 and tried it with general success, but was not impressed enough to make the switch permanently.
My main issue with Microsoft's development of IE is that the main thing that changes from version to version is the interface, not the features. Most new features have already been implemented in Firefox.

[hysonmb]

Seriously, how long is the "I'm so cool 'cause I bash Microsoft" train going to be running? You say it's a dead browser and that the ads are false, dispute them with facts. The linked article starts off with the author stating that he dropped Firefox altogether for IE8 before FF3.5 was announced. It was written before the browser was launched but, long after the MS ads which compared Firefox 3.0- the version available when IE8 launched.

This comment is an example of overglorification: "spewing projectile vomit all over the kitchen in full living technicolor, like Ozzy Osbourne after three days of nothing but beer and bat heads." Yes, it's a bit much the way she's spewing but it's nothing on the magnitude of what I excpected based on your words: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0uIWQftdXk

I use IE8, Firefox 3.5, Chrome 2, and Safari 4 each to certain extent at home. I don't have any dramatic differences between them that would make me not want to use one or the other and I wouldn't go nuts without any of them. One of the major differences, however, is hit on in the linked article by J. Peter Bruzzese. You can't secure Firefox with Group Policy unless you use a third party tool. Not all of us have that option on our domains, so, no .adm = no Firefox in the office. This alone make IE the only option and keeps it very much alive.

[HighSierra]

It seems most people missed the point of this article. It wasn't about what is the best/worse browser. It was only about how Microsoft seems desperate in its promotion of IE.



I do agree that the article's title is misleading.

[Fatcat]

I agree there wasn't much substance in the article, but who is being "mean-spirited?" ...silly ... incompetent ... sensationalism ... vitriol ... ridiculous ... joke ... CRAP ... amateurs ... losers ... BULL ... stupid ...

[akhileshsingh]

Dear Writer..

Were you got paid by Opera or Google or write this article?

I am curious, how did you self-conscience allowed you to write this?

Till date, there is not even a single thing about Opera, FireFox or Chrome or Safari that would make me stop using IE.

Additionally, FireFox, Chrome and Safari are the biggest memory hogs after 5+ tabs, where as IE8 seems to very stable and LESS memory hungry and let me operate my laptop at much ease.

Why in this world would you ever ever call IE - a dead browser?

[Wingnut]

I don't understand why people beat up IE8. I've been using IE from MS ever since it first came out and I find it to be a very good browser. IE8 is the best yet. What I don't like is that if I don't want to update or upgrade anything in Windows, it should my choice and I shouldn't be forced to do it. ie, Windows Live.
Keep in mind; everybody says their browser is better than IE8. IE8 is still the standard that they all try to compare to. I just wish MS would follow the K.I.S.S. standard; (Keep It Simple Sir!)

[gmann]

IE8 works just fine if you know how to configure the security settings. Don't rely on the default settings!!! Thats how IE gets it's bad rap.

[Evildave]

akhileshsingh said:

Dear Writer..

Were you got paid by Opera or Google or write this article?

I am curious, how did you self-conscience allowed you to write this?

Till date, there is not even a single thing about Opera, FireFox or Chrome or Safari that would make me stop using IE.

Additionally, FireFox, Chrome and Safari are the biggest memory hogs after 5+ tabs, where as IE8 seems to very stable and LESS memory hungry and let me operate my laptop at much ease.

Why in this world would you ever ever call IE - a dead browser?

Wow. You know when Micro$uck has been caught again and again engaging in exactly the behavior that you're describing, and astroturfing, and various other dirty tricks, well, it's just interesting to hear the tireless defenders of their steamin' hunk of crap products swoop in and make such accusations.

I wouldn't call IE 'dead'. It's lurching along like a diseased animal that even the predators won't touch for fear of catching what it has. Death would be a mercy for that crawling abomination, but Microsoft keeps the pitiful thing alive. But hey, do enjoy having ActiveX exploits keep adding your computer to botnets 'for you' automatically. It's obviously the behavior that M$ Windoze users prefer.

I'll stick to the universally code-reviewed open source browsers like Firefox for my browsing. Though for this particularly broken web site I use 'Safari' because the 'Plain Text' editor comes up by default. Yet another site that was ONLY tested under IE, instead of standards-compliant browsers.

You can stick with the browser that has nasty internal system links into everything in your OS, which has historically contained Microsoft authored SPYWARE. Forgive and forget. And forget, and forget, and forget, and Micro$uck seems like a 'good company'... instead of a bloated monopoly-exploiting abomination. I wonder how many blows to the head with a hammer it would take for ME to 'forget' and then decide that anything made by Microsoft is 'good'? Well, what the heck, probably too many. I'd have to lose those IQ points you get for breathing on your own and being able to swallow food without a tube. Fortunately for some, such minor handicaps as having enough living brain matter left to eat and breathe on their own is no barrier to participation in forum discussions.

[Wingnut]

I use firefox too every once in a while. I've tried just about all of them. I read about this being better than that so I have to check it out. I've always returned to IE from MS. I won't try Chrome because of what I've read about it. I've tried Safari and opera and I think they both and far below IE8. Firefox is good but I am still undecided as to which I like the best so I use them both.

[Muchenjeri]

This article was written from a point of very serious ignorance.