Dean Hachamovitch, Corporate Vice President of Internet Explorer at Microsoft, at the launch of the Internet Explorer 9 public beta at San Francisco
It may be the most popular Internet browser in the world, but Microsoft’s Internet Explorer seems to have been condemned to suffer faint praise, especially when compared to the likes of Chrome and Firefox. Well, that seems to have ended, if the absolutely ecstatic response given to Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), whose beta went public yesterday, is any indication. The beta of the new IE is sleeker, faster, has a more minimalistic interface and supports graphics acceleration (in simple words, if you a graphics card, your browser will take advantage of it, giving you a better browsing experience). For those who keep complaining that IE hogs too much space, there is a performance monitor that keeps track of the plug-ins that might be dragging down your browser performance and gives you the option to shut them, letting your browser get up to speed. There are a whole lot of interface tweaks that make the browser look better than ever before and well, for the first time in our memory (and mine goes all the way back to 1995), Microsoft seems to have got the edge in the browser wars with Google and Mozilla.
There is, however, a slightly sour note – the IE9 beta will be available only for systems runnings Windows 7 and Vista. Those using the immensely popular XP – and there is still a considerable number of those, especially on netbooks – will be left out. We will be trying out the beta and will let you know what we think in the coming days. Watch this space. In the meantime, go right ahead and download the browser here.
