Internet Explorer 8 launch fails to dent Firefox

http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/03/20/ie8.launch.stats/

by tl • 17 years ago

9 14 17 years ago

ryanvm• 17 years ago

I would say Firefox better watch it's back. Chrome, IE8, and Safari 4 are now all far more responsive browsers.

Savvy users may still avoid IE8 because of the mono-culture infection risk, but I think the only thing keeping people off of Chrome is the lack of a plug-in framework.

ROFISH• 17 years ago

Agreed. With Chrome supporting it's multi-process security and Safari/WebKit exploring the world of ACID3, HTML5, CSS3 and many other advanced "we'll do it later" technologies, the only technical reason why Firefox is still relevant is it's extensions.

(Of course there's more social reasons like Safari for Windows lagging, my guess is that it's too "Mac-based" with the custom windowing and font-aliasing.)

bep3• 17 years ago

The Firefox 4 beta uses Windows font aliasing. And tries to use the default windows theme, with not so great results.

truebosko• 17 years ago

This is how I feel about Firefox now, but Firefox 3.5 (previous Firefox 3.1 IIRC) is looking pretty impressive. Many features you'd find in Chrome, plus an improved Javascript engine.

I'm a Firefox loyalist at the moment, and will stick with it until 3.5. At that point, if it fails to impress I may have to fall back on something else but as a Linux user, my options for Firefox rivals are limited.

run4yourlives• 17 years ago

I use chrome primarily. I used to be a firefox user, but when 3 was released I was really turned off by both the bug with the profiles that caused it to be the slowest thing I used in years, and the general emacs-ification of what was once a fairly light browser.

It was easier to download and give chrome a try than to try and figure out how to fix FF3.

LostInTheWoods• 17 years ago

I stuck with IE thru 6 and 7. I then downloaded 8, and after one day, I made the switch to Firefox.

The thing that pushed me over the edge was the "compatibility" button in IE8, that a user is expected to push when their favorite website won't load. After struggling to view some google sites I frequent, the insanity of it struck me.

Then there is the equally insane meta tag, that I now need to put on my site, to ensure IE8 users view my pages in IE7. IE8 seems to struggle with complex Javascript sites.

And lastly, then I looked up benchmarks for Browsers. IE8 is far behind the Firefox. IE8 is supposedly 35% faster then IE7, but that is little incentive to stay with it, considefing Firefox is something like 5X faster.

dmix• 17 years ago

The people who use IE don't care about launches. They change when:

- Windows Update downloads it for them

- Coporate IT depts get enough validation that it will be a safe download

The early adopter crowd is for the most part using Firefox.

sheatsb• 17 years ago

I'd expect IE is filter through for the next year as corporations and consumers update.

More importantly, education. Millions of PCs will get this browser, and as Firefox continues it's long hike towards being resource intensive and leaky, Google Chrome and others will seem an even better idea.

bep3• 17 years ago

I really think that as soon we see it in Windows Update, IE7 will leave room for IE8. The people who is running IE6 won't care.

buugs• 17 years ago

This is pretty much exactly what I was thinking, why would IE8 make a dent in firefox if it doesn't make a dent in IE6/7 I mean really those are the people who use IE browsers, not the majority of the firefox crowd.

chaosmachine• 17 years ago

Was anyone really expecting a big percentage change less than a week after IE8 launched?

aardvark• 17 years ago

No surprise. Someone using Firefox is not going to switch back to IE, just like someone who has a favorite text editor is not going to switch to the next version of Microsoft Notepad.

zealog• 17 years ago

How exciting to have yet ANOTHER version if IE to test against!

Internet Explorer 8 launch fails to dent Firefox

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