Microsoft Internet Explorer 9: the worst browser on the scene

Microsoft has released its Internet Explorer 9 to much fanfare at SXSW. I’m really not sure what the fuss is, because it appears, as usual, the browser hasn’t been tested.
   Here it is on my Asus laptop, running Vista.

IE9

That’s apparently my company’s home page. Looks slightly different to how Firefox, Chrome and Opera display it:

Firefox

   I might dislike Chrome but at least that browser shows something other than pitch black with a few tiny details.
   Let’s go to the most well known website in the world. Surely IE9 can display that and that its beta testers must have been to Google. Unless Google is banned at Microsoft and everyone uses Bing. Here’s what Google’s home page looks like:

IE9

I knew Microsoft was aiming for a minimalist look, but isn’t that taking it a bit far?
   You won’t see it on the screen shot above but there is a blinking cursor. You can begin typing, but nothing echoes on the screen. On pressing ‘Enter’, you do get a search page, and, lo and behold, it resembles the usual Google results’ page—kind of.

IE9

   What if I scroll down?

IE9

   Conclusion, based on one machine that can run every other browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 is a load of cobblers. I managed to crash it twice on the first two web pages I visited, within the first two minutes. The rest, you see above. I couldn’t be arsed doing more with it.
   Mr Gates, if you want to come back to me when your team has actually tested your browser, I will be happy to give it another shot.


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15 thoughts on “Microsoft Internet Explorer 9: the worst browser on the scene

  1. I just hope this browser doesn’t catch on too quickly amongst the “what’s a browser?” set (i.e., the slight majority of the people on the Internet). About 50% of the visitors to my sites come by way of some version of IE; the remaining half by the rest of the big 5, primarily Firefox. I make my living on the web, so I naturally had to run the update for IE9 to see just how horribly Microsoft was going to decide to render code. Lo and behold, completely different than IE6, 7, or 8, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or Opera: Overlapping text, unrendered images, overlapping ad units, blah, blah, blah… I can’t wrap my head around where Microsoft gets off forcing webmasters and designers to optimize to whatever latest garbage edition of IE they’ve pumped-out. Oh yeah, IE comes with the computers that most people buy. Grrrrrrrrr…………..

  2. Microsoft. “If it ain’t broke, break it!”

    I just got IE9 today. It works, sort of, but it sucks. Info that used to be available on the status bar, e.g. which zone (Internet, Trusted, or Resticted) is no longer there. MSFT thinks it’s OK to hide info and reshuffle controls — as if every new car you bought had the brake pedal in a completely new, non-obvious place, and the only way to find it was to search it out. Why the eff do they do that EVERY DAMN TIME???

  3. Follow up to the above: IE9 works, but just barely. In addition to MSFT’s usual games of “hide the controls” and other perversities (e.g. “The site’s title isn’t in the top bar any more. You’ll get what fits in the tab, and like it!”), too many websites didn’t work right with it. I uninstalled IE9, and good riddance.

  4. Hi Al, thank you for popping by. I love your analogy of the pedals in the car shifting. I removed the program as well: since it displayed nothing for me, I never got as far as figuring out if the zones were still there. Annoying to learn that they weren’t, since they are pretty important in this day and age.

  5. My Internet Explorer 9 SUCKS. The Display doesn’t work right AT ALL. Like it’ll show parts of the website but not the others.

  6. I support engineer intern at a major software company, and everytime we get tickets where customers have “browser issues”, 9 out of 10 of those tickets have the word IE 7-9 in it. To make matters worse, the customer always says, “This works fine in FF/Chrome/Safari, but they don’t make the righteous decision to use a new browser! Away with IE!

  7. With FF, Opera, Avant and Chrome I can open many tabs with very little or noticeable slowdown on my PC. However with IE9 with 10 or more tabs in one window I notice a significant locking up of my PC. This happens whether Windows 7 UE has been running for months or only hours after a fresh install. 16GB Ram, i7
    3.2Ghz cpu, 1TB HDD for OS only – I have had 270 tabs open in Opera before a significant PC lockup, 194 tabs in FF, 97 tabs in Chrome, 296 in Avant and 328 in Orca. IE9 continually disappoints me with its mediocre rendering of websites even with the latest MS and flash updates. Even though the other browsers have their foibles they don’t amount to the many that IE9 have! If IE10 is the new browser for Windows 8 then it will have to do a bloody good job convincing the many who have been disappointed with 9!

  8. IE9 The worst browser ever… period! Its clunky, unstable, weak, slow, freezes, exasperating to work with. I saw a MS commercial about how IE9 is the best browser? Why does MS even need to have a commercial for that when its in windows. Guess they are trying to defend IE9 from all the complaints. Its well deserved. I pretty much use Firefox exclusive.

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