[BetaWar]

As the title suggests, IE9b1 is now live. You can download it from here:
http://windows.micro...ch=b&browser=ie

It looks pretty sweet, they appear to have simplified the layout and everything and added some much needed features to the browser. I will be able to post more about it after the download actually finishes and I can see it in action.

Key new features:
Speed dial feature
Pull off tabs (finally)
Smaller address bar (now shows up next to the tabs)
Increased back-button size (smaller forward button)
No additional toolbars (like file menu, commands, etc. that IE used to have)
Warns you when addons are taking a long time to load, and actually graphs out how long an addon takes so you can disable them based on their loading times if you want to.
Download manager

Overall, I like it so far. It isn't exactly as pretty as say Chrome, but it works and offers at least some support for HTML5 (which IE8 didn't). Hopefully it will get better and have some nice new features (such as automatically reopen last session).

Word of warning - It seems to have installed over IE8, so that will be an annoyance for many I am sure.

In regards to the forums:
The quick-edit feature no longer runs (it opens, then redirects to the full-edit page).
The forums load substantially quicker than they did with IE8

[drhowarddrfine]

I always said IE9 would make a good, 2-year old browser. Looks like it did catch up to where other browsers were....in 2009. No css transforms, no transitions, no gradients, no animations, no flexbox.

Twitter feeds indicate disappointment for developers. Features in the preview platform are missing in the beta. "It seems to be geared toward consumers and not developers."

This post has been edited by drhowarddrfine: 15 September 2010 - 12:00 PM

[Dogstopper]

Hasn't IE always been directed toward consumers? Anyway, I'm digging the new design and it seems to work rather well from what I've seen. I hope to test it some more to give slightly beetter feedback.

[BetaWar]

I just find it funny that their IE9 promotional site (beautyoftheweb.com) keeps killing my IE9 (tab). I don't think that was the best thought out idea...

[Dogstopper]

BetaWar, on 15 September 2010 - 02:18 PM, said:

I just find it funny that their IE9 promotional site (beautyoftheweb.com) keeps killing my IE9 (tab). I don't think that was the best thought out idea...

For years though, Microsoft has released products too early, be it browsers or OS's.

Edit: And the spell-checker sucks/isn't there.

[Martyr2]

Congrats Microsoft, you managed to rip off the look of Chrome and steal the features of Firefox and others. Can we just get a browser from them that goes in a completely new direction? Why must they continue to build products based on features after the fact. All the developers over there with any creativity must have left awhile ago.

Edit: Corrected comment about standards, I guess IE has made some significant leaps in the last few weeks to at least be somewhat equivalent to other browsers. So +1 for that. Still a rip off of Chrome though.

This post has been edited by Martyr2: 15 September 2010 - 02:01 PM

[drhowarddrfine]

Reports of bugs in CSS selectors and SVG. I already know their SVG support is incomplete but there's bugs in what they do finally support.

ArsTechnica review says:

Quote

With each passing day, the standards compliance and performance of Internet Explorer 9 become less impressive.

To keep Internet Explorer relevant, and stop it being the pariah of the Internet, it isn't enough for Microsoft to put out one good release and then wait two or three years for the next.

This post has been edited by drhowarddrfine: 15 September 2010 - 02:54 PM

[moopet]

It looks better than the preview. At least it has an address bar now
It looks like they've taken some good ideas from other browsers. Nothing wrong with that; at the end of the day, though, it's still IE.

[BetaWar]

moopet, on 15 September 2010 - 08:57 PM, said:

It looks better than the preview. At least it has an address bar now
It looks like they've taken some good ideas from other browsers. Nothing wrong with that; at the end of the day, though, it's still IE.

I agree completely there, but there are a few of us that like IE, so I (for one) am happy that they are catching up a bit finally.

[Sergio Tapia]

Wow, a frickin' huge 39Mb download and now it's downloading "Required updates" - not a good start IE9, not a good start.

Edit 2: Now I have to restart the whole computer. *sigh*

Edit 3: Ok, I finally launched the thing - it looks really nice to my surprise. Lots of real estate for the website to render.

I particularly like the Star icon to access the favorites. One thing that I REALLY despise is that each tab results in another windows being displayed in the Windows 7 taskbar, like if you had multiple browsers open. What's with that?

This post has been edited by Sergio Tapia: 15 September 2010 - 06:16 PM

[Splatocaster]

drhowarddrfine, on 15 September 2010 - 10:17 AM, said:

"It seems to be geared toward consumers and not developers."

In my opinion, IE seems to be geared towards computer illiterate people, not just consumers in general. Despite all of its pitfalls (I can't say anything about v9, but v8-), it is a very common browser. Unless someone installed Chrome or Firefox on grammy's Microsoft computer, she's going to be using IE, because it is the default. Little does grammy know that she could have a faster browser, with a easier interface so she doesn't leave tons of voice mails on my phone because the computer is too complicated.

There are many consumers (a little more experienced with computers than grammy but not as experienced as a developer) who can make their own browser choices.

Unfortunately, M$FT will always take advantage of grammy, and that's what feeds IE.

[capty99]

tabs NEXT To the address bar is a decision that baffles my mind and defeats the purpose of tabs if you can only have two or three tabs open and have the titles /favicons be readable (on a laptop resolution anyways)

I only use IE for testing nowadays so I don't really care as long as my stuff looks decent, but there are multiple design decisions I do not like . They do things different just to be different sometimes, so they don't look like chrome and firefox even though they may be doing things the best way.

I haven't looked into it but I know my border radius' didn't render on the one page I looked at and so that pisses me off... though there could be a number of things contributing to that.

[joezim007]

I just wanted to mention to Martyr that I really don't see any resemblance to Chrome except for the little buttons off to the right, which Firefox is going to be ripping off too. Other than that, IE9 is its own stupid design (in my opinion).

[eclipsed4utoo]

I was going to actually give IE9 a chance. Don't know about it now. It will be nice when Microsoft releases a browser that doesn't require a restart.

What's up with the Back button being cut-off at the bottom? I think they were trying to get more screen real estate than Chrome. To do this, they had to cut-off the bottom of the Back button.

I also thought this was hilarious. Many of you may not remember this, but about 5-6 months ago, Microsoft chastised Google for the Omnibox, and how it sends every keystroke to the search provider. Microsoft stated that this "steals your privacy". Low and behold, what does IE9 do? same thing....though it is disabled by default where Google's was enabled by default.

http://arstechnica.c...our-privacy.ars

[drhowarddrfine]

eclipsed4utoo, on 16 September 2010 - 11:53 AM, said:

I also thought this was hilarious. Many of you may not remember this, but about 5-6 months ago, Microsoft chastised Google for the Omnibox

And what does Microsoft call it? "One Box". lol