IE9 Beta released

[Modelworks]

The beta IE9 is released, 32 and 64 bit flavors.
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Default.html

Install was painless , it does replace the current IE 8 install and I had to reboot after install.
Speed is good, very good. FF will have to do some work here to catch up. Layout is very simple and easy to use.

So far I like it.

 

[hclarkjr]

could you run the browser test found here http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2105815

 

[Griffinhart]

I tried that test and got a bad script error in both FF and IE9. But, I did run the SunSpider test. IE9 got 890ms while the current non-beta of FF got 1780ms on the same machine.

 

[tweakboy]

Im installing IE9 beta now.

It seems like yesterday I was using IE 1.0 with Windows 95 ... dial up powned

15 years later we have IE9 , Can it beat the speed of Chrome or the design of Chrome or Firefox 4.0 well see soon, Im gonna test the speed and compare it and let you all know what I come up with.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Engadget's review seemed pretty positive. Some nifty additions to the search/url bar, and I like the pinned sites thing. I also always liked the drop-down web slices thing from IE8. I imagine that's probably improved some too.

I'll have to see for myself. I like Chrome quite a bit, especially with the syncing of everything, including extensions and preferences between different computers and, in my case, platforms...so I doubt I'll actually switch.

 

[tweakboy]

Ok, the interface is similar to Chrome, they even copied Chrome when you open a tab it shows a thumbnail of sites you visited just like Chrome.

The speed is comparable to Chrome 7 and blows away Firefox 3.6.9

It's very fast but I think Chrome edges it out in speed department and overall design.

 

[jjsbasmt]

Working nicely for me. I like the clean interface and it seems a bit faster especially on video plays. I do miss my "Favorites Bar", but I'll eventually figure out how to get that back.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Working nicely for me. I like the clean interface and it seems a bit faster especially on video plays. I do miss my "Favorites Bar", but I'll eventually figure out how to get that back.

Right click anywhere in the toolbars area. You should get the option to show the favs bar.

 

[jjsbasmt]

Thanks, Gooberlx2, works perfectly.

 

[MBrown]

So far so good

 

[VirtualLarry]

Running the demos, Psychadelic was 1759, and Hallucinagenic was 599.
On FF 4.0beta6.

Oh, and my head is still spinning.

Edit: After installing the newest nightly build of FF4.0beta7pre, 64-bit, my score dropped to 1181 for Psychadelic. So much for 64-bit being faster.

Edit: 1206 with 64-bit FF4.0beta7pre, after closing the AT forums tab.

 

[BD2003]

I'm extremely impressed by the speed and interface, but their extension support is so weak that its practically a non starter. How do they think this is still acceptable in 2010? The browser is the most important application on a modern computer, and they dont think it should be truely extensible...like oh, every other single browser that isnt named IE?

 

[zokudu]

Opera doesn't have extensions and is my personal favorite browser.

Also

 

[BD2003]

At least I was able to find mouse gestures in there that makes it relatively useful, but the whole add-on integration is weaksauce compared to the other browsers. It doesnt even seem like they auto update, and I have to install them from within windows explorer, and uninstall from the control panel? It just seems so archaic, and theyve had so many years to catch up.

 

[Deeko]

I like it so far. Way faster than IE8, that's for sure.

 

[BD2003]

Yeah, the base rendering engine is indeed very fast. But not being able to block ads easily = CPU hungry animated flash ads slowing you way back down.

 

[ViRGE]

Thus far I'm not amused. It keeps crashing on me with a BEX error, even when I start it up with add-ons disabled.

 

[trmiv]

Yeah, the base rendering engine is indeed very fast. But not being able to block ads easily = CPU hungry animated flash ads slowing you way back down.

This is what kills it for me. On clean pages, it's extremely fast, and feels faster than Firefox 4 beta to me. But for regular use on most sites that involve numerous flash ads Firefox wins out because I can easily block those ads.

 

[Qbah]

I installed it and so far it's fine. However, how can I make the tabs and address bar go to the title bar? Like in the first Engadget screenshot:

That's how my FF4 is configured now and that's how Chrome has always been (and one of the biggest reasons I was using it, no wasted space!).

Anyone knows how can I do the same in IE9?

 

[EagleKeeper]

Please confirm?
IE9 will not wortk with XP.

If so, that kills it for clients systems and I am not needing to update H/W are home to support W7

 

[MrChad]

Please confirm?
IE9 will not wortk with XP.

If so, that kills it for clients systems and I am not needing to update H/W are home to support W7

Confirmed. Vista/W7 only.

 

[pcslookout]

This is what kills it for me. On clean pages, it's extremely fast, and feels faster than Firefox 4 beta to me. But for regular use on most sites that involve numerous flash ads Firefox wins out because I can easily block those ads.

There is Ad Muncher which works on any browser even Opera. Though with no add on support I won't use Internet Explorer. At least Opera has Widgets and can support some greasemonkey scripts. I don't think internet explorer supports greasemonkey scripts at all ?

Firefox is where I am staying for now but wish I could use Opera. If only it supported Greasemonkey fully and had add ons like firefox.

 

[TheStu]

I just wish that they would let me close tabs without either selecting them or right clicking.

Also, the fact that the tab bar and address bar are on the same 'line' is a little annoying.

 

[Deeko]

I just wish that they would let me close tabs without either selecting them or right clicking.

Also, the fact that the tab bar and address bar are on the same 'line' is a little annoying.

It saves space, which is nice...but then when you're not in full screen mode, ther'es a lot of wasted space above it, which is odd. Also when you've got a lot of tabs open at once or a long URL to type, it gets kinda cramped. I'm not sure if I like that or not.

 

[Number1]

WHy isn't there a spell checker? That's an application killer for me right there. I love FF for that feature.