IE9 Public Beta Release Today

http://www.fastcompany.com/1689097/microsoft-brings-apps-to-windows-7-with-internet-explorer-9

by moserware • 16 years ago

30 37 16 years ago

fastcompany.com

joshfinnie3• 16 years ago

Is it available for linux?

niyazpk• 16 years ago

No. It is not even available for Windows XP.

robryan2• 16 years ago

Weird, it feels like they are missing out on such a large market not supporting XP when all their competitors still do. Seems like for the purposes of better integrating a few features they have decided to ignore the many improvements they could provide to someone on XP currently using IE8.

It just becomes another reason for people to make the switch, and I doubt they will win them back when they finally do decide to upgrade to windows7.

eru2• 16 years ago

Strange, that Microsoft concentrating exclusively on Windows is still such a dogma, that you get downvoted to oblivion.

Although Mac support will probably come before Linux support, if ever. The Microsoft Office suite is available for Mac.

I just found out that IE used to have Mac support (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_for_Mac).

knuckle_cake• 16 years ago

IE once was on Unix. Let the circle complete.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_for_UNIX

joshfinnie3• 16 years ago

Wow, for one, this was a joke.

Second of all, the fact that microsoft continues to decrease in market share while only releasing its browswer on one of the many operating systems available is no way to succeed. I know the linux community isn't large enough to draw much notice from microsoft, but is the coding that windows centric that it can only run on windows (no, since there will be a mac version... maybe).

I understand that not everyone enjoys this comment... Oh well.

joshuacc• 16 years ago

While interesting, the article perpetuates the myth that any cool new browser feature is somehow due to HTML5. Pinning apps to the taskbar is nice, but not related to HTML5 in any meaningful way.

caryme2• 16 years ago

Neither is SVG support, which is touted in this release.

hotmind2• 16 years ago

You can download ie9 preview here: http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

caryme2• 16 years ago

The 'platform preview' is not a real beta. It doesn't have any components of the new UI, just a frame that renders a page with the new IE.

hotmind2• 16 years ago

My mistake. It's here: http://www.beautyoftheweb.com

stuaxo• 16 years ago

Pinning to the taskbar is sneaky as I guess that'll always launch IE.. and people will be even less aware of the browser than they already are.

DavidBishop• 16 years ago

I'm a Microsoft developer who has switched to Mac at home and is running Chrome at work. I really don't care about IE9.

Someone please enlighten me (this is not sarcasm... I'm asking): what is the value of IE9 over everything else on the market?

eru2• 16 years ago

It will eventually ship with Windows?

It's probably better than IE8, and if you just use a standard Windows PC then Microsoft Update will perhaps give you IE9 automatically? (Sorry, I don't use Windows enough to know whether browser updates are automatic.) So the common non-computer savvy user will benefit.

Timmy_C3• 16 years ago

Browser updates from Microsoft have ALWAYS been opt-in and that is the reason you don't see the same adoption rates like with other browser manufacturers.

As a web developer, it's my biggest gripe with Microsoft.

silvestrov• 16 years ago

The value over the previous versions of IE is that IE9 implements a huge number of html/css/JS fixes, so it is much more like FF/Chrome/Safari than IE8.

For FF/Chrome/Safari users this means that it becomes much more likely to see web-sites use html5 technologies and leave IE6-8 behind.

So if you create intranet web-sites, then a huge amount of pain is gone when the company upgrades its IE install base to IE9. Personally, I'm looking very much forward to this, and I'm able to tell my customer that this will save valuable time for me (i.e. money for them).

gruseom• 16 years ago

The key phrase in your question of course is over everything else on the market. The value of IE9 is that it will get more people off IE6, 7, and 8. Certain types of web app will be much easier to produce once (eventually) they only need to support IE9+.

melling• 16 years ago

The least common denominator has been increased. In a few short years, hardware accelerated HTML5 will be expected. 95% on ACID3 will be taken for granted. Really fast JavaScript, ... you get the idea.

Sure some people will hang out with IE6 for another 5 years, but most sites can now be optimized for much more functionality.

Finally, for those people(companies) that will only use a Microsoft browser, they now have a really good HTML5 browser.

cpr3• 16 years ago

It's interesting to watch the tension at Microsoft.

The IE team has to embrace standards (HTML5/JS/CSS) as much as possible to be thought of as a serious competitor in the browser wars. (Since the browser is the new OS.)

The rest of MS has to push Silverlight as the way to build applications, or else Windows itself is endangered, if there's nothing Windows-specific about future app development. (Hoping the browser isn't the new OS.)

Seems like both Microsoft and Apple are trying to figure out where to go in the post-PC era. Apple's clearly betting on mobile (which is a good bet), but MS is tied to their Windows/Office/Exchange legacy, and falling behind horribly in mobile. (We'll see if Windows Phone 7 does anything for them.)

contextfree• 16 years ago

The IE team is part of the Windows division, Silverlight is part of Server & Tools. If anything IE is more about selling Windows than Silverlight is. Silverlight is cross-platform (Mac, Nokia) and is about selling ... servers and tools.

cpr3• 16 years ago

Then the tension is even more poignant, since making IE better makes Windows less relevant.

zaatar• 16 years ago

The action begins at 10.30 AM Pacific guys - definitely, keep an eye out for http://blogs.msdn.com/ie

Timmy_C3• 16 years ago

Pinning these "immersive app-like experiences" to the task bar sounds like one step back in terms of UI innovation. Having different webpages available from the task bar looks exactly like what I had with IE6 and multiple windows.

rlivsey• 16 years ago

If it's anything like Fluid.app [1] on the Mac then I'm a big fan.

I have numerous web-apps setup as dedicated applications using Fluid and find it much nicer than having them as tabs in the same browser, or in their own browser windows. It means I can launch them with Spotlight easily, they have their own icon in the dock and start up without the address-bar or any other chrome.

At any one time I'd say around 75% of the apps I'm running are Fluid.app instances.

[1] http://fluidapp.com/

lovskogen2• 16 years ago

Live stream over @ http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/presskits/internetexplore...

Needs Silverlight to watch. Kinda blows they didn't do it in HTML5, or even YouTube's live stream hip stuff.

lovskogen2• 16 years ago

Anyone want to join my IE9 beta launch party à http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyas7BrbUFY ?

IE9 Public Beta Release Today

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