News - Microsoft releases IE9 Platform Preview 7

[HEXUS]

But browser courts controversy over benchmark results.

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[Irien]

Synthetic benchmarks FTW... erm...

[Botia]

Sounds like a valid optimization to me. The benchmark needs to be updated if this type of optimization should be excluded.

[TheAnimus]

So he is complaining that they have tuned their optomiser for a specific type of test?

Well how about making a better test then, that is more real world, I mean this wasn't a test from MS afterall.

Or you could make your browser into something other than a leaking creaky old thing that gets worse with every revision.

[usxhe190]

Sayre doesn't need a synthetic test to tell him about this. He already has lots of people who actually uses Firefox in numerous forums and journals and blogs to tell him to get his act together on Firefox. So he should just stop wasting time on this.

[dangel]

Sounds like a valid optimization to me. The benchmark needs to be updated if this type of optimization should be excluded.

I agree - there's a very good article on this at Ars:

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/new...-sunspider.ars

I think I side with this - if the benchmark isn't properly constructed (i.e. has dead code) then optimising it out (so long as it's not specific to this particular benchmark) is absolutely valid. And to be frank Mozilla have plenty of optimisation of their own they need to attend to (and hence the delay on the next FF no doubt).

[Grey M@a]

Sayre is kicking off as the switch has finally flipped and he's realised Firefox is a bloated bit of crap these days. Also I think it's just sunk in that Firefox as it stands now in tests is about to become the lowest rated browser out there. MS have got a browser that's decent and he is kicking off.

I can say that IE9 beta is faster than the Chrome build I use daily, but with Microsoft's cycle, it will be outdated in a few months anyway of it's release compared to the others that release updates monthly. Would be interesting to see how IE9 would be if it was on the same release times as other browser instead of a few years here and there.

[Mattus]

I'd be interested to know if any of you guys bashing Firefox have actually used the latest 4.0 beta 7, or know anything about the improvements coming in Firefox 4? Becuase if you did, you'd know that it's nearly as quick as Chrome in the SunSpider benchmark, and still much quicker than IE9 in Google's V8 benchmark.

Or is it just cool to bash Firefox now, just like it used to be with IE?

[dangel]

I'd be interested to know if any of you guys bashing Firefox have actually used the latest 4.0 beta 7, or know anything about the improvements coming in Firefox 4? Becuase if you did, you'd know that it's nearly as quick as Chrome in the SunSpider benchmark, and still much quicker than IE9 in Google's V8 benchmark.

Or is it just cool to bash Firefox now, just like it used to be with IE?

Troll much?

Seriously, people on here are pretty objective - I myself spent quite a bit of time trying each browser for extended periods of time to make an informed choice (and opinion) not so long a go. In the same light it's hard to ignore the fact the IE9 is looking very good - this is in no way a 'bad thing' for other browsers. In fact, it's giving them all a kick up the backside because IE remains the dominant browser in the market (and that's not going to ebb away if it gets as good as it's currently looking).

I haven't tried the FF beta - but as I said "and hence the delay on the next FF no doubt" I do acknowledge their working on it - that doesn't detract from the fact that FF (release) today is pretty bloated, has a horrible UI etc. So it makes sense that FF4 will correct those issues - good to hear it's shaping up well.

FYI I'm an Opera user - but as a developer I take interest in other browsers (and as a user I end up using IE at some point or another anyway). I switched from Opera (9) to FF (3) for six months, then tried Chrome and Opera 10.5x and ended up sticking with the latter. I've no interest in 'converting' anyone - it's just a browser.

[usxhe190]

I'd be interested to know if any of you guys bashing Firefox have actually used the latest 4.0 beta 7, or know anything about the improvements coming in Firefox 4? Becuase if you did, you'd know that it's nearly as quick as Chrome in the SunSpider benchmark, and still much quicker than IE9 in Google's V8 benchmark.

Or is it just cool to bash Firefox now, just like it used to be with IE?

We just bash Firefox because at the moment it's crap. If it's cool now to bash them I guess that's a bonus?

Btw, I use all four browsers (i.e. IE, Chrome, FF and Opera) for various things.

My main brower is actually FF.

And no, I don't use beta browers because of previous crap experience (i.e. can't uninstall properly etc). That experience was with Opera.

[aidanjt]

Sayre is kicking off as the switch has finally flipped and he's realised Firefox is a bloated bit of crap these days. Also I think it's just sunk in that Firefox as it stands now in tests is about to become the lowest rated browser out there. MS have got a browser that's decent and he is kicking off.

Firefox isn't particularly bloated TBH, most of Firefox's problems extend from inherent memory management flaws from whence it first became Firefox, and never got fixed, either through incompetence or indifference. Either way it's biting them on the ass, now.

[Grey M@a]

I'd be interested to know if any of you guys bashing Firefox have actually used the latest 4.0 beta 7, or know anything about the improvements coming in Firefox 4? Becuase if you did, you'd know that it's nearly as quick as Chrome in the SunSpider benchmark, and still much quicker than IE9 in Google's V8 benchmark.

Or is it just cool to bash Firefox now, just like it used to be with IE?

Tried the FireFox beta and that thing crashes as much as 3.6 did so will try FF again when it goes gold. Moved to Chrome a long time ago as it does the job and never once had a random crash because it decided to have a fit over memory leaks xD Either way, use the beta at work currently and I am not a fan, pretty much a Chrome carbon copy with the extra features it has packed with it, not surprising really as Google fund around 80% of mozilla xD

Firefox isn't particularly bloated TBH, most of Firefox's problems extend from inherent memory management flaws from whence it first became Firefox, and never got fixed, either through incompetence or indifference. Either way it's biting them on the ass, now.

That memory leak is what pushed me to move on to Chrome, was sick of the constant crashes from FireFox.

[dangel]

Startup time did it for me (well by proxy as the wife complained it was much slower than Opera) - death knell for FF combined with Opera 10.5x being really very good.