Thoughts on IE8
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 2:13 am
Well, with all the buzz surrounding IE8, and in particular Microsoft's claims as to its speed, these are my thoughts, and I was wondering about yours.
1. What is Speed?
Of all the browsers, IE8 has a HUGE advantage when it comes to pure rendering speed. Firefox has to have a non-accelerated canvas portable from Windows, to Linux, to OSX. Same for Opera. Safari uses KHTML/Webkit, and is the same. When it comes to drawing something on-screen, IE8 can safely use any and all of the available benefits that Windows could offer, because it doesn't have to worry about being cross-platform. Yet even in Microsoft's own tests, it only renders websites fastest a weak majority of the time. We're not even talking about JavaScript, or otherwise. Just pure and simple display of HTML elements. If they want an interesting challenge, they should try comparing against Konqueror. Try loading the rather horrid http://www.havenworks.com/ in FF, and then in Konqueror. The difference in rendering speed is amazing... yet Konq is still cross platform! Sorry Microsoft, but as far as I'm concerned, this still indicates some seriously lacking performance in draw speed.
2. Slices
One term for ya, Microsoft: RSS.
3. Accelerators
Here's another term: Plugins.
4. "Porn Mode"
If you really need to be off the record, there are already Firefox extensions, and really, is it such a big deal? I could always just clear my history using "Clear Private Data".
5. Speed as in "Memory"
As per http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/ ... ?artc_pg=2 which is one of the few memory tests I can find so far, IE is still a memory hog.
6. JavaScript
Please, Microsoft. Dismissing it as such a small thing when it is so widely used? As Google's JS engine becomes more widespread, and competition increases, Microsoft needs to get on the ball.
7. Gooey GUI
Still not a fan of the IE8 GUI. My Firefox has been customized. Konqueror is sleek enough to not need to be customized. IE8 seems a little strange, like it doesn't necessarily use the host operating system's GUI toolkit. (?)
8. Separate Processes
It's a good job. Done after Chrome, after Konqueror, and slightly before Firefox (3.5). Not bad. I will give Microsoft a lollipop.
9. Security
Still part of explorer.exe, so I'm sorry, but still very much lagging behind everyone else.
OK. That's about it. What say you all?
1. What is Speed?
Of all the browsers, IE8 has a HUGE advantage when it comes to pure rendering speed. Firefox has to have a non-accelerated canvas portable from Windows, to Linux, to OSX. Same for Opera. Safari uses KHTML/Webkit, and is the same. When it comes to drawing something on-screen, IE8 can safely use any and all of the available benefits that Windows could offer, because it doesn't have to worry about being cross-platform. Yet even in Microsoft's own tests, it only renders websites fastest a weak majority of the time. We're not even talking about JavaScript, or otherwise. Just pure and simple display of HTML elements. If they want an interesting challenge, they should try comparing against Konqueror. Try loading the rather horrid http://www.havenworks.com/ in FF, and then in Konqueror. The difference in rendering speed is amazing... yet Konq is still cross platform! Sorry Microsoft, but as far as I'm concerned, this still indicates some seriously lacking performance in draw speed.
2. Slices
One term for ya, Microsoft: RSS.
3. Accelerators
Here's another term: Plugins.
4. "Porn Mode"
If you really need to be off the record, there are already Firefox extensions, and really, is it such a big deal? I could always just clear my history using "Clear Private Data".
5. Speed as in "Memory"
As per http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/ ... ?artc_pg=2 which is one of the few memory tests I can find so far, IE is still a memory hog.
6. JavaScript
Please, Microsoft. Dismissing it as such a small thing when it is so widely used? As Google's JS engine becomes more widespread, and competition increases, Microsoft needs to get on the ball.
7. Gooey GUI
Still not a fan of the IE8 GUI. My Firefox has been customized. Konqueror is sleek enough to not need to be customized. IE8 seems a little strange, like it doesn't necessarily use the host operating system's GUI toolkit. (?)
8. Separate Processes
It's a good job. Done after Chrome, after Konqueror, and slightly before Firefox (3.5). Not bad. I will give Microsoft a lollipop.
9. Security
Still part of explorer.exe, so I'm sorry, but still very much lagging behind everyone else.
OK. That's about it. What say you all?