IE8

[johnriley1uk]

What's the opinion on IE8? Is it now stable and worth upgrading to?

[Mike]

Internet Explorer is a good upgrade when compared to IE7 especially since it now adherres to Internet Standards (previously webpages had to be made 'broken' to work with IE). More stable and faster than IE7.

The browser is still lagging behind the more advanced browsers (which is probably why it is still loosing market share). I think in order of quickest to slowest of those available I would rate them as follows.

Safari
Chrome
Firefox
IE8

I don't know where Opera fits into this mix, it is gernally well thought of but I can't for the life of me ever remember using it outside of the Wii environment.

[Mike]

Oh and because IE 8 renders web pages quicker you will feel like your internet has had a speed boost! (Firefox and Safari render web pages even quicker. . . )

[johnriley1uk]

Done and yes, it's faster. I'll let you know how it goes.

I quite liked Firefox 2, but unfortunately didn't like the over complex favourites list in Firefox 3, so it went out of favour.

Opera and Safari i know have their fans, but on the websites I frequent quite a few users experience lots of annoying glitches with those browsers. IE and Firefox seem to be universally OK.

Chrome i have no experience of.

Now, which portable interenet device am I going to go for? The new iPhone or something else? Every time I see Mike using the iPhone I want one, so it's gotta be soon!

[Mike]

Well the new iPhone 3GS is just about to be released. That would be a good one to have. Only problem for me is the price. It seems much higher than when I purchased the iPhone 3G. The £99 3G version is very tempting - Lizzie may get one of those so she can make the most of her Mobile Me account.

[Mike]

O2 iPhone 3G Prices. This is the time to pick up a new iPhone 3G before the rediculously expensive 3GS comes out. Free 8gb version and £58 for a 16gb version. That is very good pricing structure! Think about it johnriley1uk and Lizzie!

[johnriley1uk]

I downloaded Safari 4 and had a play with that.

In terms of speed it made no difference between that and IE8, and it was fine. What i didn't like was the over-flashy favourites page and the way it rendered some website fonts.

It looks like I actually prefer IE8, but all is not lost for the non-Microsoft offerings, because I also prefer Mozilla Thunderbird to Outlook Express. So I've settled on that combination for all our computers.

[Mike]

This article demonstrates that Safari is actually faster than IE 8. If they appear to be the same speed you may be being limited by the response time of the servers you are connecting to. Opera 10 is the only one missing from the comparison chart (probably because it has not been released yet!)

[johnriley1uk]

Fair enough, it looks like the limitation here is not the browser. It really made no difference whatsoever speed-wise, so the Dublin server may be the delay. Things are faster when I get connected to the Manchester server, which might not be too surprising!

[BarcelonAl]

What is Minefield? I'm concerned that as someone who is supposed to know the Internet fairly well that I've never even heard of it!

MineSweeper on the other hand I have a lot of experience with!

[Mike]

What is Minefield? I'm concerned that as someone who is supposed to know the Internet fairly well that I've never even heard of it!

MineSweeper on the other hand I have a lot of experience with!

I am glad that I was not the only one! Minefield is the code name given to Firefox 3 pre-releases. I think the report may have been sponsored by Mozilla. . . .

That makes me wonder. How does Mozilla make any money. . . . .

[nila]

Something it is a interesting sharing........