Download the new beta 2 Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2.

They have introduced some great new features like color coded tabs that are grouped together. That can be done in firefox with some extensions, but it's built-in to IE8.

Improved search.

Hummm, Firefox is still the best with a wide extensions availability.

I like the InPrivate browsing mode which doesn't bother to cache any information about browsed pages - very handy if borrowing someone's PC briefly without relogging.

The real SLD is also highlighted in the address bar, which is great for visual security (further protection against phishing).

The find-as-you-type feature I love - this was pretty much the only reason I installed IE7Pro, so that's gone from my system now.

Opening a new tab also allows you to reopen tabs closed in the current session, which is nice as I asked for that feature in 7.0 and missed the boat.

I'm liking this a lot so far

IE8 still has some annoying features that are present in IE7.

One that I can't stand is when copying text from a code box, if you "triple-click", then it selects the whole box and not just the line like in Firefox.

IE8 beta 2 is turning out to be great but I'm not sure if I can give up Firefox and the extensions of firefox make it so much more easier to use.

If you like the colored tabs in IE8 and want the same functionality in Firefox, try this extension: Tab Kit.

Namely support for ActiveX & BHO stuff (thanks, but no thanks!)


I sure can't. Their browser is slowly catching up to the basic barebone Firefox browser (e.g. finally starting to support old established standards half-decently), but I definitely couldn't live without my extensions as they make a world of difference. Not so much a question of easy to use, as "advanced" functions.

Edit: well, I won't be wasting time trying beta 2, looks like is resource intensive to say the least... Like 3x the RAM usage of Firefox and using hundreds of threads.

IE will never beat FF imho but thats me!!! I will use IE8 once it is released properly and then slipstream it into my instaill dvd

Stoner81

Just installed IE8 on Vista.
heres my pro/cons list vs Firefox/IE7

Pros

• Translucent header and address bar themed to match Aero
• Zoom feature has nice status bar % indicator in FF i have to use View->Zoom->Reset to make sure im back at 100%
• didnt change my homepage when installed
• PDF was displayed outside of browser. Unfortunately, this is probably not the way adobe will make future versions of their reader work.
• domain highlighting is good
• reopen closed tabs is cool but not as awesome as undo closed tabs in FF (which remembers form data, scroll position etc)
• status bar seems to stay turned on unlike IE7
• Porn mode is a good idea. I hope i can force it to be always on with a GPo for public terminals
• IE8 tried to save the session i had open when i used "End Process" to simulate a crash. but it crashed trying to restore them (ill leave this as a pro cause this is a beta)
  Click to view attachment
• even after the crash "open last browser session" is available on a new tab after restarting
• Bravo! The ability to disable all "Accelerators" in the setup wizard is a beautiful thing and not something Ive come to expect in a MS browser
• it seems to have the ability to read my mind. its picture worthy:
  Click to view attachment

Cons

• I had to reboot to install a browser. C'mon we've reached the point where i can reinstall almost every driver on the system without a reboot but i cant testdrive IE8 without a reboot?
• IE7s search provider was Google before the install. can you guess what it was after IE8 was installed?
• tabs still looked look like they were "Pasted on" by 5th grader with MS paint when used with any theme that isn't a Microsoft approved shade of blue
• OK i take back what i said about the ugly blue tabs because they are now a fugly green for some unexplained reason (ok i figured out that was grouping but its still fugly)
• Zoom feature seems a lot "jumpier" than FF
• No extension support -but i assume if i use it long enough it'll just accumulate toolbars like ive seen IE7 do

I tried this out. I installed it, and it ended up hosing up my explorer where it would crash every now and then. The search feature didn't work at all and I kept getting occache.dll errors in the event viewer. I had to reinstall it and so far I have no errors but we will see how it goes. All this and I haven't even tried to open it yet!

Given that explorer.exe and iexplore.exe share DLLs and addons in either will be loaded in the other, I would guess an extension problem.
I had IE7Pro installed at first and there were quirks with the search box flashing and IE8 crashed once - given that the main features I like of IE7Pro are in IE8, I uninstalled it and had no problems after that.

Yep I am not having any functional problems anymore. The only issue is that it seems to reject any legit security certificate it comes across. For example, the one used by our Trend Micro webinstaller intranet site. Our IE7 clients accept it but IE8 outright rejects it, although it does allow you to proceed. Since its a beta I can forgive it.

Wow! I didnt know IE8 Beta 2 is out. I'm going to go download it now sounds like its much more better than IE8 Beta 1.

I just got it it looks nice and there are a few new features which i will have a play with but to b honest I still prefer Firefox.

For a corporate environment with primarily Windows XP/Vista PC's, I still can't find anything better than IE. Why? Group Policies. IE8 improves on IE once again in this area. If someone can point me to a centralized administration tool for Firefox that has the degree of configuration that Group Policies for IE allows for, I'm all ears.