[MillCreek]

From 11Alive's website (3-7-08)

Microsoft Releases IE8 Beta

SEATTLE (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. gave early testers their first glimpse of its next-generation Web browser Wednesday, and said Internet Explorer 8 will adhere to the same standards as competitors' programs.

Microsoft's browsers, including the current Internet Explorer 7, gained notoriety among Web developers for handling Web page code differently than Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox, Apple Inc.'s Safari, the now-defunct Netscape Navigator and others.

For the most part, major non-Microsoft browsers and outside developers who built Web pages worked with agreed-upon technical standards, while Microsoft was accused of adding proprietary code to those standards. The result: Web pages that looked good in Internet Explorer but broke on other browsers, or vice versa.

At a Web developer conference in Las Vegas Wednesday, Dean Hachamovitch, general manager for Microsoft's Internet Explorer division, made light of Microsoft's past spotty standards and pledged to do better.

Hachamovitch said that in early Internet Explorer 7 days, his kids would hear about broken Web sites and ask, "Daddy, did you guys break the Web?"

"And most of the time I could honestly say, 'No.' But, you know, Web developers might answer that question a little bit differently," Hachamovitch said.

He elicited a laugh, but developers have sometimes had to build Web sites from scratch a second time to devise a version that worked with Microsoft's browsers.

Remainder of Story Here

[Celeste]

Firefox here. Don't like all the Microsoft "spying".

[A Former Geek]

I use Firefox 99% of the time. However, IE7 was a big improvement and I believe that Microsoft is "headed in the right direction" by using the accepted standards. Firefox currently has a new version in Beta as well.

[Go BLUE!]

Can you buy Firefox? I hear nothing but good things about it....sorry but when it comes to this sort of thing I am clueless. I pretty much use what comes in the box with the PC.

[A Former Geek]

Nope. You can't buy it. It's free. Get it here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox

[Go BLUE!]

Nope. You can't buy it. It's free. Get it here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox

AHHHl, now why couldn't the guy at Best Buy tell me that when I bought my new PC? Thanks, I'm going to give it a try.

[A Former Geek]

Let us know what you think after giving it a try.

[PUBBY]

for what it is worth, I actually like Opera too.

Fact is I'm surfing in Opera as we speak.

pcom, BTW, looks fine.

ps: Opera is free too http://www.opera.com/download/

[Mark (Paulding Networking)]

No love for Konqueror or K-Meleon I see

[Mark (Paulding Networking)]

Also, I don't give Microsoft any credit for IE7- it took them 5+ years to get the kind of functionality Firefox has, and now that the biggest gripe about IE is it's adherence to standards, they are trying to go that route. They play way too much catch-up to be a worthwhile software vendor.

[A Former Geek]

for what it is worth, I actually like Opera too.

Fact is I'm surfing in Opera as we speak.

pcom, BTW, looks fine.

ps: Opera is free too http://www.opera.com/download/

Another good one.

No love for Konqueror or K-Meleon I see

They are both too hard to spell.