IE9 might have seen great reception, but Microsoft is not resting on its laurels. On top of previewing new Windows Phone 7 features at MIX 2011, the company also announced the platform preview of Internet Explorer 10. Yes, your copy of IE9 is so last month; IE10 is the place to be!
But here’s the catch: just like how Microsoft left Windows XP users in the lurch for IE9, IE10 will not support Windows Vista. It seems like Microsoft has finally learnt its lesson after IE6 overstayed its welcome.
What’s new in IE10? As far as we know, it’s an evolutionary upgrade which will refine the core features of IE9, which includes hardware acceleration and better standards support. Of course, IE9 is already a superb browser, so why fix something that ain’t broken?
The browser, however, is still sorely lacking in one feature: extensions. As a diehard Firefox extension user, I didn’t switch to Chrome until a solid collection of extensions were in place. It’s a good sign that IE9 attracted a lot of attention with its speed and simplicity, but to truly attract power users, a well-maintained ecosystem of extensions must be present.
This release is actually more exciting than it sounds, because it will most likely be shipped with the next version of Windows. If past practices hold, the stable release of IE10 should be released in about a year’s time, so we can probably expect Windows 8 a couple of months after that!
If you want to give the IE10 platform preview a shot, download it here. It’s aimed solely at developers and hardcore geeks though, so peasants like me can’t really do much with it except play some paintball and render lots and lots of fishes.
How is everyone enjoying IE9 so far? Let us know in the comments!
Hi, I have tried Installing I.E. 9 twice now, and have had to uninstall it both times, Lots of buggy issues while playing ZINGA games, Mostly “FARMVILLE” Anyone I have talked to, thru the chat feature, on Facebook, have had similar issues!! So, until these issues have been resolved, I have to stick with I.E. 8 for now!
Hi Guys
I have to Use IE becuace of the Server I log into for work
Its muck Quicker than IE 8
I can see all the Hype about Crome and firefox
IE 9 is a fast unit but it has crashed a couple of times on Newspaper sites on Video But this is not a Deal Breaker
All in all Very Happy
Doesn’t matter. Only a minority uses Vista anyway and Vista will continue to decline. Personally, I only use Internet Explorer for testing purposes and if I need to log-in to an alternate account in a certain website (I hate logging out and logging in).
Just like you said, it lacks extension. But having the latest version with advanced functionalities is still good especially for an average users who doesn’t even know what an extension is.