Portfolioso.com Blog

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

Whaaaaa? Microsuck just released IE7 and you mean to tell me there already is a public beta for 8? Yep, and I have the “privilege” (rolls eyes) of ruining my computer by testing it. I will give you a full review of it below. Warning: while I try to post in plain English, I may use some terms unfamiliar to you non-techies such as CSS, XHTML, Acid2 etc. Use Google and learn something.

What’s the deal with IE 8? Let’s start with the graphical interface. Microsoft did not really do anything with it. Everything looks just like IE7. the only thing I noticed is that it looks like they finally got favicon support right. Also, i. There is also a bug where there is no text select cursor and you only get an arrow. For a complete listing of features according to these morons, go here.

And here is the part where I simply slap my head in shame. IE8 was claimed to be released to pass the Acid2 test and be standards compliant. Yes, IE8 does pass Acid2, but that is not the point. What good is passing a stupid CSS test, if it renders many other pages WORSE than IE6 does. That’s right folks, they broke it big time. Let me put it nicely. The developers pissed, shit and puked on the page rendering engine before slapping it in a browser and hastily releasing it to the public. Portfolioso.com’s main page (not the blog) is XHTML strict and renders properly in Firefox (1,1.5,2,3), Safari, Opera, IE6 (kind of – no transparent PNG support), IE7 and probably other browsers – yet looks like ass in IE8. Once again, Microsoft added support for web standards, and we have a website using valid CSS and valid XHTML Strict, still displaying improperly. “Oh but cut them some slack, it’s just a beta.” NO! They don’t get any slack. This is a rich company that has been working on this for months. They should do a half decent job before releasing it to the public.

I have a couple of screenshots of how poorly webpages look in IE8.

• Portfolioso.com Home – Look how badly the menu is spaced. This is CSS and XHTML Strict Compliant
• EVAC Website (HTML 4 Transitional) – No idea what happened here. IE8 wrecks it. Take a look at EVAC’s site in your current browser and then look at that screenshot… Also note that this site is HTML 4.0 Transitional and follows W3 standards, displays the same in all browsers, but not IE8

The quick and dirty: This is a very poor release and Microsoft should be ashamed of themselves. Ever with the exception of Windows XP, every product released after that is pure garbage, and IE8 is living up to those standards. I’m assuming these rendering problems will be fixed in future IE8 beta releases, but we shall see. Firefox 3 (I test betas of that, too) is kicking serious ass. Firefox 3 is amazing – I cannot say enough about it. When it is finally released, everyone NEEDS to get it for many reasons (another post). The only thing Firefox 3 lacks that IE7 has is a thumbnail view of all tabs. But that’s just eye candy. When it comes down to solid performance, Firefox wins.

Internet Explorer 7 Sucks

Since IE6 is such an inferior piece of crap, the fools at Microsoft decided that its time to release a new version of Internet Explorer. A few days ago, Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 was released and I got a hold of it somehow. They added useless features and utter ugliness.

Microsoft decided to add tabs but at first, they were skeptical. Here’s a quote from IE product unit manager Dean Hachamovitch: “Some people have asked why we didn’t put tabs in IE sooner. Initially, we had some concerns around complexity and consistency–will it confuse users more than it benefits them? Is it confusing if IE has tabs, but other core parts of the Windows experience, like Windows Media Player or the shell, don’t have tabs?”

This ignoramus works for Microsoft? What’s he on crack? What the hell does he mean that Windows Media Player or the Windows shell does not have tabs? Go into the options in Windows Media Player or any other M$ product like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, even the IE6 options – they all are tabbed. And if you are not counting the options dialog boxes, then if you want tabs go into Excel and look on the bottom – Sheet 1 Sheet2 and Sheet 3 – TABS. So tabs are part of the shell and widely used.

And here’s my other complaints about IE7:

• The quick search in the top-right is stolen from Firefox
• The organization sucks: The only buttons on the address bar are forward and backward. All other useful buttons like home, stop and refresh are scattered elsewhere. You need to look all over the place for them.
• The address bar is locked at the top of the screen. You can’t move it. Traditionally, the File Edit etc… menu should be there. In 99% of other programs the menu is on top not hidden under other ugly toolbars. Firefox is customizable – you can change its looks to your liking.
• The tabs show up regardless of whether or not you are using tabbed windows.
• EVERYTHING IS UGLY! (The tabs suck, the open new tab button is an ugly gray block etc)
• It’s even uglier if you have the XP theme off and have the Windows Classic Theme on.
• MS has you paranoid about phishing (faking legitimate sites and trying to steal your information). Every time I got to a site it attempts to do a phishing check, which takes a long time. I disabled automatic phishing check but it still puts an exclamation on the bottom saying it doesn’t trust my site (portfolioso.com)…
• Favicon support stinks (the icons on the tabs/in the address bar) For some reason, if you check out my screenshots below, the google favicon is displayed on the tabs but the portfolioso favicon is not. Firefox never has any favicon problems…
• RSS Feed support… It’s decent but Firefox has a better idea with the live bookmark feature.

This is only beta 1, but it sucks. If IE7 is anything remotely like the beta, then I’m still using Firefox. Actually, scratch that. I’ll ALWAYS use Firefox, no matter what M$ does to IE…

Screenshots: