Are you still using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8.0 (IE 8)?

If your machine runs Windows Vista or the currently shipping version of Windows 7, chances are you still are, as it is the browser that usually comes with these two Windows versions.

Heru Tjatur, who looks after product development at detik.com, said Detik kept tabs of the browsers its visitors used to access its websites. He found most people didn’t care which browser they use. Thirty percent still use IE 7.

“Some of the browsers they use are so old they can’t even be identified,” Tjatur said.

Perhaps it is because most computer users don’t know about alternative browsers such as Firefox from Mozilla, Chrome from Google, Safari from Apple and Opera from Opera Software. Others might be too scared to replace the browser in their computers with a non-Microsoft product. What if it messes up the whole computer?

Now, if you are still married to IE 8, what do you think of this?

Like me, I bet you find yourself cursing this browser’s sluggishness and feel like smashing your computer. It runs slower than Jakarta traffic on a rainy Friday afternoon. In my case, it also hangs quite often, forcing me to reset my PC and lose my work. In addition, the viewing space has been substantially reduced by all the bars and other bells and whistles, such as visual and search suggestions. A smaller viewing space means I have to do more scrolling. The screen also looks cluttered.

The clutter and the lack of speed are perhaps the top two complaints made about IE 8. But these are very important for a browser, since some of the other browsers, particularly Firefox, excel in these two areas.

But now the good news is out. Today, Redmond will officially launch Microsoft IE 9. so you will be able to download the release version from Microsoft and other websites free of charge.

Some of you may have already downloaded the Release Candidate (RC) version that was available on the web recently.     

Last week I had an exclusive preview of the real McCoy given by Norman Sasono, an architect and development advisor at Microsoft Indonesia. I learned how IE 9 is significantly better than IE 8.

Norman told me Microsoft promises three things with the new browser. “It is fast, clean and trusted.”

This prompted some questions. First, what have they done to make the new browser faster? A couple of things, apparently. To begin with, they have added more support for HTML 5, the language people use to create web pages. They have incorporated a new JavaScript engine called Chakra. Chakra compiles the script line-by-line in the background using one of the cores instead of just performing interpretation and executing the script. So, the next time the browser has to run the same script again, it only has to call the compiled script. In addition, as exemplified by the new engine, IE 9’s speed improvement comes from the use of multi-core processors.

“IE 9 is hardware accelerated,” Norman explained.

Norman claims that, at least for today, IE 9 is the fastest browser on the planet. He said it was the result of a comparison test using industry-standard Webkit SunSpider JavaScript benchmark.

Let me remind you, however, that the difference between one and the next in the browser speed race is not as significant as between IE 8 and Firefox 4.5. Besides, as Norman also admitted, IE 9’s competitors are also close to launching their next versions, which may also be faster.

Secondly, with all the bars hidden by default during the installation, the browser page becomes less crowded. Microsoft applied the minimalist approach when designing IE 9. We can still make the bells and whistles appear if we prefer to, with right mouse clicks.

What makes IE 9 look more beautiful is that it takes advantage of Windows Vista or Windows 7’s transparent graphical user interface. The truer colors and smoother videos are the result of IE 9’s ability to use the faster and richer graphics CPUs.

Some of the security features already existed in IE 8, but others are improved and new ones have been added. For example, if you look closely at the address box you will notice that the domain address, such as www.thejakartapost.com, is always highlighted. This will help the user avoid being tricked by phishing sites.

There are hordes of other improvements in addition to the speed and neat look, such as download manager and easier search and tracking protection, but unfortunately we do not have the space to elaborate on them here. Just download it if you are already using Windows Vista and Windows 7. As I mentioned before, it is free.

Why only these two Windows versions? Because IE 9 will not run on Windows XP.    Heru told me that detik.com, which always leverages technology to stay the top news portal in Indonesia, will incorporate many of the features of IE 9 in their websites. This means that in the near future you will have to browse with IE 9 if you want to enjoy the best experience while visiting detik.com

Popular

Retail sales, consumer confidence ease as Idul Fitri boost dissipates

Students to rally against Prabowo amid economic pressures

State budget injection into Danantara could raise fiscal risks