My post about problems with IE8 ("Thinking about upgrading to IE8? Think twice") inspired passionate responses from folks on both sides of the fence, including some who wanted to tear the fence down and come after me with fondue forks and Bic lighters.
Moments after I posted my screed, the Microsoft fanboys came out like mosquitos after the first spring rain. I and/or InfoWorld was called "an idiot," "moron," "liar and not to be trusted," and "the Fox News of IT Journalism."
[ Find out how Microsoft is pushing the IE8 upgrade -- and Cringely's take on it | Stay up to date on Robert X. Cringely's musings and observations with InfoWorld's Notes from the Underground newsletter. ]
Welcome to the Conversational Web. Don't forget to wear your Kevlar undies.
The e-mails I received, however, were mostly the opposite -- about two to one against IE8. Many people had problems with plug-ins and Web site display (yes, even in "compatibility mode") and several had downgraded back to IE7 -- or wished they could. Like this one from reader D. L.:
About 8 months ago MSN prompted me to change to IE8. Actually it wouldn’t let me off the screen until I said "OK"; at that time it was a beta product. I lost the ability to actually get my MSN mail on the computer and if I did get into the Hotmail portion of the site I couldn’t open up any of my email without “error on page.” I cannot access Facebook, certain business related Web sites including Dun & Bradstreet do not support IE8 so therefore do not work.... IE8 has been a nightmare to use. I have been onto the Microsoft Web site to try and downgrade, when I go through the install of IE7, it tells me at the end that a new version is already installed that it cannot downgrade....I just want my IE7 back.
It wasn't all bad news. T. S. counters with the following:
No tales of woe here. I’ve done about 30 IE upgrades so far over a half dozen laptops no problems so far. The majority have been on systems running XP some XP-64 and a few Vista. As far as the comment about people needing to update Flash or Java well there are good security reasons even the average person should try to keep those plug-in up to date if more people would keep them up to date there would be a lot fewer exploited systems in the world.
Of course, you don't have to upgrade to IE8 if you don't want to. Right? Well, not necessarily.
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Download now »Firefox also isn't immune to performance problems or crashes by any stretch of imagination.
Where I work, with the latest FF releases, several of us have been noticing a tremendous downgrade in performance. I wait for a link to become active so I can click on it... 2, 3, 4, event 5 seconds. And, worse, when I am typing into a text field, where are all the characters I have typed? They start to show up a few seconds later. On Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu. Unacceptable.
My local Public Library is upgrading to IE8. Compared with IE7, I noticed very little difference. Rendering of web pages was unaffected, but page loading and some graphics may have been a bit faster. The InPrivate Browsing option is a real help at public computers.
At home, I just upgraded to Firefox 3.5, which is now out of beta. I find only a little speed improvement, and with my security programs, initial startup times are hard to judge, as there are security pop-ups to respond to. Page and image rendering seems to be the same or a bit better now.
One thing did go wrong: Infoworld.com was not loading, transitioning, or allowing me to log in for a couple of hours (mid-afternoon today, Central USA Time). Other sites (PC World and PC Mag) worked just fine, so I assume this was not a problem with the upgrade. FF3.5 seems a bit faster, but not much else seems very different.
The Private Browsing features in IE8 and FF3.5 do not work at all web sites. Infoworld.com is very cookie-dependent, so links and page transitions and log ins need to take place without the Private Browsing features enabled. Kind of a pain, but it's no worse than having to pick through a few dozen NoScript elements to enable only those which are necessary for site functionality.
So far, I find both IE8 and FF3.5 perfectly usable, and about equally convenient to use. At home I prefer Firefox due to its NoScript and ad blocking plug-ins. Otherwise, I think both browser upgrades are headed in the right direction, and I find no problems with my favorite websites or PBS QuickTime or You Tube Flash videos playing as they should. Your mileage may vary, of course.
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