Is IE8 the Vista of Web browsers?
UPDATE: Microsoft's own tests find IE8 faster than Firefox. See links to pdfs here. Independent reports treat the company's tests somewhat skeptically. See here and here.
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I have not tested Internet Explorer 8 — the new version of Microsoft's (MSFT) industry-leading Web browser, which was released here on Thursday. And since Microsoft has made it clear that it has no intention of writing a version for the Apple (AAPL) Macintosh, I may never use it.
However, I've gone through the promotional videos and read some of the early reviews, starting with Walt Mossberg's in the Wall St. Journal, and I gather it's a significant advance over IE7 with some fine new features and none of the obvious flaws Vista had coming out of the box. But it has a fundamental problem. As Walt puts it in the last graph of his laudatory review, damning IE8 with faint praise:
"If it were faster, I would say it was the best browser currently available for Windows." (link)
Microsoft's new browser, according to Mossberg (who is backed up by independent tests — see here and here), is slower than Firefox, Google’s (GOOG) Chrome, and even the Windows version of Apple’s Safari 4. Which makes me wonder whether IE8 might do for Microsoft's dominant position in the Web browser market what Vista did for Microsoft's monopoly position on the PC desktop.
What am I talking about? Let's go to the pie charts below the fold.
