The IE 8 beta 1 came out much sooner than I expected,but I haven’t got around to actually installing it until now.First impressions of it are as follows:

-Its, SLOW (slower than FF3 betas I’ve been using)

-The scrolling is slow, jerky, and unresponsive

-The browser itself has problems with unresponsiveness. For example, I was browsing Wikipedia, and IE 8 failed to respond when I was clicking on links to various parts of the article.

-The other inexcusable problem with IE 8, is the revelation that IE 8 will break compatibility will websites coded for older versions, thus prompting Microsoft to include a “IE 7 mode” for rendering these pages safely.

Perhaps, I’ve been spoiled by FF3 (with all the improvements to it’s performance as of late) , but as a beta, IE 8 is a flop. The level of usability for it right now is poor (at best), and Microsoft needs to put a massive amount of work into it if they expect to have a finished product by years end. I suspect that Microsoft is pushing the beta out the door now to drum up support for IE (or to give the developers “something” to work with, instead of the “nothing” we’ve been getting for the last year).

On a not-so-light note, today will be hectic. I’ve got a 10 page paper due tomorrow, a senior recital for one of my friends to attend tonight, and a Programming Assignment due on Friday.

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