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Why Internet Explorer 8 is shaping up to be another IE6
Posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 under browser news, web standards by Dustin Brewer.We all know the blood, sweat and tears we have put into countless hour of development specifically for Internet Explorer 6 since August of 2001. Now it looks like we may be coming to battle with another problematic browser from software giant, Microsoft. The IE8 team is deliberately making up their own rules again and now adhering to the organizations involved with standards even though they are (seemingly) active members of the respective groups. You would think that with the budget that the team has to develop a decent browser that they would be able to product something worth-while. Unfortunately for the rest of the world that because IE comes pre-installed on Windows machines most consumers don’t know the difference.
So we are stuck with a sub-par browser that everyone is forced to use, therefore we inevitably have to support it and develop strange and peculiar methods to get the browser to render pages properly. At any rate, lets go over all of the things I have found (some with the help of others) that the browser fails to support, or tags and code that the browser is trying to invent outside of the proper channels.
Internet Explorer 8 team lied to us?
Thats right, we all heard the news about Internet Explorer 8 passing the acid2 test. Unfortunately we were all lied to in order to drum up hype for the forthcoming browser from Microsoft. The beta release of IE8 does not pass the acid2 test, it is close— but no cigar. We were told back in December that the browser had passed the acid2 test with flying colors and that IE8 would be standards compliant. It’s not, and it is actually going backwards from being standards compliant.
Microsoft and IE are making up markup again?
It looks like they are at it again, trying to even the way the web works on there own without the support of millions of developers and the standards organizations that we all strive to adhere. They have added their own new tags into IE8 such as adding additional methods to make HTML5 asynchronous, such as begin() and commit(), and also adds clear() and remainingSpace. They introduced even more incompatible text/html parsing rules in IE8[1] that differ from the way that browsers such as Firefox and Opera parse html.
They have also announced today that they plan to implement a meta tag that allows developers to opt-out of standards mode. Incase it is too difficult? I’m not sure what this move is supposed to signify but after all of these years I think we would all like to see a standards-compliant browser be pre-installed on consumers’ computers so we can all get just a little more sleep.
Check out the IE8 release notes yourself to find out more about this beta release of the “Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit.”
Looking beyond just web standards in IE8
Despite all of this the browser itself is still nowhere near the level that Firefox, Opera or Safari are when it comes to speed, flexibility and features-set. The browser runs incredibly slow (even slower than IE7) and generally seems like it should still be in alpha. I have had numerous sites appear broken on it, including this site, CNN, HP, Newsvine, MSNBC and even Digg was looking a little odd on IE8.
Hopefully they get their act together and realize that in order to regain the confidence of web designers, developers and programmers everywhere that they need to adhere to the standards coming from the HTML Working Group, WHATWG and the W3C. They need to actively work on security measures that don’t prevent usability and building out features in the browser that make it worth using as an alternative.
Update: It appears that IE8 does in fact pass the official acid2 test, when I was writing this article the official test was down due to server strain with the release of IE8. I know it is beta, not a release candidate or the final version. I’m fully aware of that fact. You know who else has a browser in beta? Firefox. If IE8 wasn’t ready to be released as a beta to Developers then they shouldn’t have released it.
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62 Responses to “Why Internet Explorer 8 is shaping up to be another IE6”
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About Dustin Brewer
Dustin Brewer is a freelance web designer based out of Oklahoma City, OK passionate about web standards, and beautiful web design. Dustin Brewer has been in the web design industry for over 8 years through freelance and professional experience. If you are interested in hiring Dustin Brewer please visit the web design services page to find out more information. You can also checkout the web design portfolio.
Well, I hate to disagree Ryan, but I’m afraid I have to. IE, in general, is bad. You can feel free to read my own blog at our corporate site where I express my opinions more in depth, however, I would submit to you that Microsoft would be insane to create a standards compliant web browser. If they did such a thing they’d lose their current strangle-hold on the market.
Now, I’d love to see a truly standards compliant IE as much or more than the next developer… but I seriously doubt it will actually ever happen.
IE has always been a pain in my ass. I can’t wait until the day that I don’t have to add hacks to my code just to make Microsoft’s crappy browser see it the way all the other browsers do. I won’t hold my breath. I know each browser is slightly different in the way it renders pages but IE always takes the cake for being so difficult. Yes, you’d think that such a HUGE corporation would produce a better browser but they simply haven’t. The browser wars ended when FF was released (IMHO). Microsoft could learn something from the Mozilla team. If IE wasn’t such an intericate part of Windows they just might make a better browser. This is just my opinion.
Why Internet Explorer 8 is shaping up to be another IE6…
Why Internet Explorer 8 is shaping up to be another IE6 | web design…
What were you smoking?
Let’s put this into perspective. IE 8 is in beta, correct. IE 8 although in beta should have the current rendering engine that Microsoft has been developing for god only knows how long now. It’s slow because Microsoft deliberately make all of their beta’s slow and buggy, Windows Vista was a perfect example of that.
IE 8 does pass the Acid2 test, correct. Does it really even matter if it passes it if IE 8 is going to be plagued by the same or even worse, newer bugs? I doubt it.
I’m reserving my final judgment for near the end. Maybe an RC copy which by release candidate standards be basically feature complete and bug free, then my words will come down on the browser.
We all know that IE 8 won’t be fully standards compliant, that’s a fact. Microsoft should obtain a license for the Mozilla framework (they can afford it), and then make a browser based around it.
Microsoft just give up, Firefox is slowly, but steadily taking hold of your market share.
Dwayne,
Some great points all around, but really, as the rest of the programming world understand it, “beta” SHOULD be feature complete. If a single programmer chooses to ignore the naming convention, that’s one thing, but a company like Microsoft? if we see bugs, that’s ok, however you’d imagine that if they’re going to go around an tout their acid 2 compliance, that they’d eliminate the infamous double margin bug that IE in general is so well known for… they haven’t. Enough said, we still have to hack it.
To be honest, I’m GLAD it doesn’t obey standards to the strictest letter of the law.
Whilst I am a software developer, I am also a user.
And as such, I’d like to still see 80% of the internet.
Switching to a strictly standard based browser will just make the web a big mess.
When all web “developers” and their tools stick to standards, then microsoft should (as they have no reason not to).
Until then, I am glad IE is capable of displaying websites in what it thinks is the right way, when other such as firefluff render them in a totally unusable manner.
So good on your Microsoft.. keep it up!
Pligg ftw, the new version really rocks but themes are so hard to find…
I installed it today after avoiding for some time now. I saw it on a friends machine and thought it could be no worse than 7, right?
Now, I installed it with the options turned off to avoid backwebby stuff. However it is sluggish now on pages I know are fast. It doesn’t seem to be caching or its being filtered somehow it seems.
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The labels (or tags) or whatever you call the mouseover text that appears with alt=” ” HTML code won’t appear on my website now with IE8.
I designed it in Office Live using IE7. Note: the mouseover text works on the home page because I used the “custom footer” module to make the images pop up.
Great post! I bet you put a lot of research into it.