Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 to be available August 20
By Jonathan Schlaffer
The next version of Internet Explorer is well on its way to being finalized but that may not do much to help its market share. Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 is currently available for download and it does offer a few enhancements over version 7 but not enough to dump Firefox.
Microsoft is hoping that the new features and speed improvements present in IE version 8 will help it gain back some of the ground it lost to Firefox and it may but that’s not likely.
The earliest version of IE 8 beta 1 was unstable and constantly crashed itself and took Windows Explorer with it. This issue seems to have been fixed and it is now at least usable as a browser with all the feature enhancements promised but some are not completely finished, yet.
It is faster than version 7 if only by a bit but it’s no match for Firefox 3 RC1 and it will be no match for Firefox 3 (final). Partly because Firefox 3 is simply faster out of the box and partly because of the vast library of extensions that are available to Firefox users.
Internet Explorer 8 will have to offer something vastly superior in the way of features/addons or speed to Firefox in order to get those that dumped Microsoft’s browser or those that were sick of the security holes back on board.
It’s not clear what exactly is in store for the future betas of IE8 or even the final version but The Register says beta 2 will hit August 20th which is a summer release just like Microsoft promised. That’s what it says now, let’s see if it does indeed make that date. In other news, pigs learn to fly, film at 11.
[UPDATE:] We’ve received information that IE 8 beta 2 will not be available August 20. Instead, the release is slated for some time in August but no specific date has been discussed at this time. We just got our wires crossed (and so did our source).
I’ll still believe it when I see it.
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