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 cypherstream Looking forward to the future of things. Premium,MVM join:2004-12-02 Reading, PA clubs:
1 edit | Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? Out of the 4 browsers I have installed on my laptop, IE8 is the absolute worst at rendering the acid3 browser test. It's so unbelievably horrible, that I can't fathom how IE8 was released. It doesn't even come in at 50%!
What's up with that? No wonder people complain about IE page rendering. I mostly use Chrome and Firefox, but was hoping at least IE8 would stand a chance. Nope, sorry Microsoft, I'll continue to use Chrome and Firefox thank you very much. | |
|  mike31mets
join:2004-10-30 Bronx, NY
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? Not sure why. I've actually been afraid to upgrade to IE8 on my machine. I use FireFox primarily, but on the off chance that I need to use IE I want to make sure it works so I haven't upgraded yet.
Btw I upgraded to FF3.5 and got the same score on the acid test. I would have figured it would have been higher. I assume you're using 3.0.x still? | |
|  |   cypherstream Looking forward to the future of things. Premium,MVM join:2004-12-02 Reading, PA clubs:
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? said by mike31mets :Btw I upgraded to FF3.5 and got the same score on the acid test. I would have figured it would have been higher. I assume you're using 3.0.x still? Yeah this is FF3.5. I just downloaded it and it prompted me to try the ACID3 test on all of my installed browsers.
Why is it important? Maybe so websites look like they are supposed to look? Well, doesn't matter to me, I use Chrome or FF. I rarely venture into IE unless there is some active-x IE required site. | |
|   redxii too big to fail Premium,Mod join:2001-02-26 Texas
Host: /dev/null Broadband Tweaks Suddenlink ISDN Fiber Optic
| Perhaps that's the magic of open source (Safari & Chrome use WebKit). IE's rendering engine is somewhat an integral part of Windows and some commercial software may run or require it, so they also have to keep compatibility, no other company has to worry about such things with their browsers. | |
|  |   Freddy
join:2005-05-17 Arlington, VA
·Verizon Online DSL
2 edits | All,
So, the bottom line meaning of these test scores is what?
When you score 20 of 100 in an IQ test, what does that tell you about yourself? In my view, it likely, tells you little to nothing. If such a test score would be meaningful, all we would need to do it to take a test to determine our worth. Won't happen! BTW, it tells you you scored 20 out of 100.
Here is what one person has to say about th Acid3 test:
There is more to webbrowsing than passing the artificial Acid3 test. Sure it is nice, but it does not tell us anything about the browsing experience. Is it fast? Is it smooth? Does it support handy plugins? Tabs? Does it crash? And if so, does it remember where I was? How secure is it? How easy are bookmarks, history, etc to use? And so on. There are many, many aspects that are, IMHO, far more important than passing any Acid test.
There is always more to a story than meets the eye.
Freddy | |
|  |   ScottMo Premium,MVM join:2000-12-15 Stony Brook, NY
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? said by Freddy :... So, the bottom line meaning of these test scores is what? When you score 20 of 100 in an IQ test, what does that tell you about yourself? In my view, it likely, tells you little to nothing. If such a test score would be meaningful, all we would need to do it to take a test to determine our worth. Won't happen! BTW, it tells you you scored 20 out of 100.. Not to derail the thread, but if one scored a 20 on an IQ test that tells them they're a dumb as a brick, but they probably wouldn't understand (assuming the person was honest and trying to do their best). Nearly 99% of people score over a 65 on IQ tests. A better IQ analogy would be that a 130 score doesn't mean much. It puts one in the top 2%, but can't measure all the other intangibles that go into being "smart". | |
|  |  |   james
join:2001-02-26 antarctica
1 edit | Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? said by ScottMo :Not to derail the thread, but if one scored a 20 on an IQ test that tells them they're a dumb as a brick Ok, so if I give you an IQ test in some language you don't speak, and you fail it means you're dumb as a brick? What if someone who is really smart said they don't care about the IQ test and just put random or funny answers? Are they no longer smart because of the holy test?
This specific test was designed to test one very specific thing, and idiots are claiming it's actually a "best browser in the world" test. --
said by Metatron2008 :But people who download thousands of movies and games.... Yes, they are as bad as any murderer | |
|  |  |  |   ScottMo Premium,MVM join:2000-12-15 Stony Brook, NY | Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? Did you read the part of my post where I said people were "assuming the person was honest and trying to do their best"?
Obviously not.
But again, I don't want to derail the topic. | |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |   brandon Some truth included in this post. Premium join:2003-03-31 Hurley, MS
·AT&T Southeast
| said by Freddy :When you score 20 of 100 in an IQ test, what does that tell you about yourself? In my view, it likely, tells you little to nothing. Aww, did someone tell you the IQ test only goes to 100 to make you feel better? | |
|  |  |   Matt Take me down to the paradise city Premium join:2003-07-20 Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? said by brandon :said by Freddy :When you score 20 of 100 in an IQ test, what does that tell you about yourself? In my view, it likely, tells you little to nothing. Aww, did someone tell you the IQ test only goes to 100 to make you feel better? Wait, wait ... it goes to 100? Damn it. | |
|   Oregonian Premium join:2000-12-21 West Linn, OR
·Comcast
| I notice from your screen shot that IE8 wants to run the Acid3 page in Compatibility Mode. I wonder if that would make any difference in its score? To try it, just click on the broken page icon (next to the "refresh" icon) in IE8 and then refresh the page. | |
|  |   cypherstream Looking forward to the future of things. Premium,MVM join:2004-12-02 Reading, PA clubs:
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? No, it's even worse! | |
|  |  |   Oregonian Premium join:2000-12-21 West Linn, OR | Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? Yikes! | |
|  |  |  SvS
join:2001-04-15 Germany
| said by cypherstream :No, it's even worse! You'll have to turn of InPrivate-Browsing and allow the MSXML3 Addon to be executed to achieve the 20/100 result.
I don't know what this discussion is about, even the wikipedia article outlines what the goal of the Acid3 test is. Some people here disable the features tested even when using a "compliant" browser. | |
|  |  |  |  Mele20 Premium join:2001-06-05 Hilo, HI
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? said by SvS :said by cypherstream :No, it's even worse! You'll have to turn of InPrivate-Browsing and allow the MSXML3 Addon to be executed to achieve the 20/100 result. I don't know what this discussion is about, even the wikipedia article outlines what the goal of the Acid3 test is. Some people here disable the features tested even when using a "compliant" browser. I allowed the addon in IE8 but still it only scored 6. You are right though that the authors of the test state that the browser must be in its default state when tested. Whose browser is in the "default" state unless just downloaded and installed? So, the test is meaningless...just a little fun. -- "The same ferocity that our founders devoted to protect the freedom and independence of the press is now appropriate for our defense of the freedom of the internet. The stakes are the same: the survival of our Republic". Al Gore, The Assault on Reason | |
|   Airwolf Merry Christmas. Shtter was full. Premium join:2001-10-30 Windsor, ON clubs: | So, don't use it then. Your choice.
I don't have a problem using it. | |
|  |   cypherstream Looking forward to the future of things. Premium,MVM join:2004-12-02 Reading, PA clubs:
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? I don't. Was just curious how a browser by such a huge organization doesn't follow web standards.
I just had a user today call with an IE7 issue downloading a PDF "Internet Explorer Cannot Download - No such interface supported". Put Firefox 3.5 on her machine and everything was fixed. End user didn't mind because they use FF at home.
Also get calls about IE freezing. FF always fixes it. Our company would go 100% firefox if it wasn't for a few activex based web applications. | |
|  |  |   McSummation Mmmm, Zeebas Are Tastee. Premium,MVM join:2003-08-13 Round Rock, TX
·AT&T Southwest
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? said by cypherstream :Was just curious how a browser by such a huge organization doesn't follow web standards. M$ makes their own "standards" and doesn't really care what anyone else does. | |
|  |  |   urbanriot
join:2004-10-18 St Catharines, ON
·Cogeco Cable
| said by Leathal :I refuse to upgrade my machines, and my client machines to IE8 as it breaks a lot websites including ones written in Java, sure you can run it in compatibility mode but it doesn't make sense to do that vs keeping IE7 installed What web sites? IE8 is the browser I use on Vista / W7 when Chrome refuses to work and I have zero problems with Java sites that the other browsers seem to have issues with...
said by cypherstream :Was just curious how a browser by such a huge organization doesn't follow web standards. Whose standards? When did WaSP become the consortium that dictated web standards? What about W3C? | |
|  |  |  |   geekamongus Real Slump Quality Premium,MVM join:2004-07-27 Asheville, NC
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? said by urbanriot :When did WaSP become the consortium that dictated web standards? What about W3C? WaSP is all about pushing the W3C's standards, which the Acid3 test is based on. They aren't making up their own. -- geekamongus tech blog | moi | |
|  |  |  |  |   Link Logger Premium,MVM join:2001-03-29 Calgary, AB
·Shaw
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? said by geekamongus :said by urbanriot :When did WaSP become the consortium that dictated web standards? What about W3C? WaSP is all about pushing the W3C's standards, which the Acid3 test is based on. They aren't making up their own. Is everything in Acid3 a standard, if you read »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid3 it might not be 'standards'.
quote: Controversially, it includes several elements from the CSS2 recommendation that were later removed in CSS2.1 but reintroduced in W3C CSS3 working drafts that have not made it to candidate recommendations yet.
With things like web standards evolving as they are I don't put much faith into on the edge or over the edge standards.
Blake -- Vendor: Author of Link Logger which is a traffic analysis and firewall logging tool | |
|   lordglen nothin but tater tots for dinner Premium join:2001-06-17 Marietta, GA clubs:
| as mentioned by others ie is concerned with backwards compatabilty. I use ie for just one site these days, ( yeh it's my bank's. scary huh?). No other browser will render it correctly. web standards are great, but if the web masters of a given site don't support them you are s.o.l. | |
|   cmcasey79
join:2000-12-10 Farmington, MI
·Bright House
| I always to love that "experts" put firefox on a system to "fix" internet explorer crashing or having an issue. If i took my car to a mechanic because it wasn't running right, and he gave me a different car back, i wouldn't be very impressed.
The ACID tests look for certain functionality, that is geared more towards the future than now. It would be great for IE to do better, but that's not a current goal. Even if IE8 scored 100, if websites coded with the features tested by ACID3, anyone using an older browser (firefox 1,2, IE6, IE7, etc...) wouldn't be able to see the site correctly either. If someone wanted to build a small site for themselves, that may work, but any major site has to consider what their audience will be using. Can you imagine if a site like cnn.com didn't work properly in IE7?
It is going to be increasingly difficult to get "new" web standards, because many people don't like or want to upgrade their browsers. Perhaps in 3-4 years IE6 will finally be out of the mainstream, but even then IE7 will probably still be around in relatively big numbers.
I've read MS team blogs saying IE8,5 or IE9 (whatever they call it) will focus more on new "standards", so hopefully it will score better. When you have a huge majority of marketshare though, you kind of become the "standard" that people have to code for i guess. -- - ccasey79, BrightHouse Business Class (7000/500), Farmignton Hills, MI | |
|  |   Matt Take me down to the paradise city Premium join:2003-07-20 Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? said by cmcasey79 :I always to love that "experts" put firefox on a system to "fix" internet explorer crashing or having an issue. If i took my car to a mechanic because it wasn't running right, and he gave me a different car back, i wouldn't be very impressed. Amen.
I yearn for the days when MS went at it alone and developed their own standards. I wish Mozilla has the cahones to do that and then open source their work. The web exploded and all sorts of new neat things were developed. What have we gotten since MS was smacked by the regulatory agencies? A crappier JVM, Flash everything, and a horribly slow Javascript implementation. All in the name of "standards." I wish someone would take the ball and run with it, standards be damned.
While Firefox is a great browser (and it's my primary, I detest IE7 and IE8) it hasn't brought anything new to the table. Yay, we have an alternative to IE, yay it has neat plugins, but other than that, nada. It hasn't changed the web landscape one iota and I would argue has slowed progress down. There is a reason Google developed Chrome ...
Anyway, here's a good comparison of IE8, Chrome and FF 3.5 and how they stack up when run through the various tests out there: »www.tgdaily.com/content/view/43050/140 (If you don't want to read it, IE8 finishes dead last in every test, and Chrome and FF 3.5 trade the rest back and forth.) | |
|  |  |  Stumbles
join:2002-12-17 Port Saint Lucie, FL
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? Mozilla does have the "cahones" as you put it... they are open source. You can wibble here to get it; »https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Downloa···rce_Code . To bad Microsoft does not have the same "cahones". The only crappier JVM you got was because of Microsoft's bastardizations, it had nothing to do with regulatory agencies. | |
|  |  |  |   Matt Take me down to the paradise city Premium join:2003-07-20 Jamestown, NC | Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? I think you missed my point entirely. | |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |   Matt Take me down to the paradise city Premium join:2003-07-20 Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? Again, this doesn't significantly advance the web in any sort of interactive way and as noted by the first response in that thread, is already offered by other extensions. I'm not saying developing this is a bad thing, but it doesn't advance the state of the web.
The new 3.5 feature that seamlessly integrates video and audio is more akin to what I'm referring to, but again they are trying to reinvent the wheel. We have other things that do that already like Flash that are in widespread use, yet they waste time reinventing it with Ogg Vorbis and Theora support. Really? Ogg Vorbis guys? Theora? I actually had to Google that last one as I've never even heard of it. Why not one of the myriad of ubiquitous open codecs out there? They picked two of the most obscure formats out there, almost as if on purpose.
I can understand that they want to focus on making the BROWSER better, but they aren't doing anything to make the WEB better. Deride Microsoft all you want, but they have done more to advance the state of the web than (arguably) anyone else to date. | |
|  |  |  |  |  amungus Premium join:2004-11-26 America clubs:
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? I'm not sure what you mean by "The web exploded all sorts of neat things were developed" Matt, but I must take issue with that.
For the most part, IE has always been behind the times and full of problems. Just because ActiveX does one thing or another doesn't make it special.
Most people still used Netscape until it got so bad that they HAD to use IE 5(5.5 to be more precise, then version 6) - Until that point Netscape could still do all sorts of things just as well as IE - video, Java, etc.
Not to burst your bubble, but the biggest thing IE ever did (esp. w/ActiveX) was open up a world of malware due to it being tied so closely to the OS. Nobody believed it would ever happen, but look where we are today - TONS AND TONS of exploits out there, mainly possible due to web browsers, and IE VERY much in particular, though also through Firefox, but MUCH less so with NoScript.
The fact that Firefox was based on the GOOD parts of Netscape is what made it/makes it popular - people remember when Netscape didn't totally suck, and kind of wish something like it existed - some bright folks did just that - and now we have Firefox (which I've been a fan of since version 0.8). It's not meant to be anything particularly "new" as much as something that does what people expect.
Chrome is neat in that they've compartmentalized some things and innovated on a few other ideas. Aside from privacy issues, I think it's a rather neat browser overall.
IE still has proprietary rendering, is tied directly to the guts of its host OS, and as evidenced by this somewhat biased test, still can't figure out how to handle well documented, open standards that other browsers are pretty capable of handling.
As for how they've made the web better, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts...
I always thought the web got better when Apache came along, then Firefox came along, and now we have more open standards than ever, more open source software and developers (developers developers developers as Balmer once opined about;) ) and less proprietary, closed source, freedom inhibiting, DRM based crap... Maybe some would rather have more restrictions and hidden code, I prefer freedom 
Glad IE is trying to catch up, don't get me wrong, but I just don't see how MS has made the internet all that much better...
One can claim IE is "mature" but that's misleading - it's only starting to grow up as it tries desperately to do things more correctly (standards). One can call it fast, which is partially true, but also misleading as it's directly tied into its host OS to this very day. One can call it robust, and I find that funny because it seems like it's still catching up to how well other browsers can use add-ons.
As for this "acid test" ...Who knows... All I know is that I'm glad IE is catching up to the real world, doesn't suck quite as bad as it used to, and that we have some good competition and choices. As for internet innovation, I still hold the opinion that the open source/gnu people have done quite a bit more than some would like to give them credit for. | |
|  |  |  |  |  |  See 7 replies to this post | |
 |  |   BillRoland Premium join:2001-01-21 Ocala, FL clubs:
·Cox HSI
| said by Matt :Amen. I yearn for the days when MS went at it alone and developed their own standards. I wish Mozilla has the cahones to do that and then open source their work. The web exploded and all sorts of new neat things were developed. What have we gotten since MS was smacked by the regulatory agencies? A crappier JVM, Flash everything, and a horribly slow Javascript implementation. All in the name of "standards." I wish someone would take the ball and run with it, standards be damned. I'll add an Amen to that, very well said. -- "Don't steal. The government hates competition." Beyond AM. Beyond FM. XM | |
|  |  |   IT Guy Ow, My Balls Premium join:2004-07-29 Las Cruces, NM clubs:
·Comcast
| said by cmcasey79 :I wish Mozilla has the cahones cajones to do that and then open source their work. Fixed it for you. -- My time is a piece of wax, falling on a termite, that's choking on a splinter. --Beck | |
|  |  |  |   Matt Take me down to the paradise city Premium join:2003-07-20 Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? said by IT Guy :said by cmcasey79 :I wish Mozilla has the cahones cajones to do that and then open source their work. Fixed it for you. Thanks. | |
|  |  |   redxii too big to fail Premium,Mod join:2001-02-26 Texas
Host: /dev/null Broadband Tweaks Suddenlink ISDN Fiber Optic
| When MS "develops their own standards" it usually means they are trying to lock you or vendors into their software.. like they tried with their Java virtual machine. If they developed their own web standards, it's unlikely that they would open source it or allow others to reverse-engineer it without the threat of a patent or copyright infringement lawsuit. You would have to use IE, and IE is not available anymore to non-Windows OSes, and they only release new IE versions for Windows OSes that are in mainstream support, which right now is only Vista for home users; IE8 for XP was released just before XP left mainstream support in April. Not everyone wants to use IE, let alone Windows... | |
|  |  severach
join:2002-09-12 Jackson, MI
| said by cmcasey79 :If i took my car to a mechanic because it wasn't running right, and he gave me a different car back, i wouldn't be very impressed. So if you're 72 Plymouth Duster wasn't running right and they gave you next year's Porsche you'd complain?
I know I shouldn't insult 72 Plymouth Dusters like that! | |
|  |  |   cmcasey79
join:2000-12-10 Farmington, MI
·Bright House
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? Yep, if i wanted a new car, i woudl have gone to a new car dealership! People can like whatever browser they want, but to just sue that as a solution to a problem with IE doesnt make sense to me. Something in the system is more that likely still not right, so its more like me taking my car into the show because the radio si broken, and the shop just adding an external radio and telling me to use that instead of the broken one in the dash. -- - ccasey79, BrightHouse Business Class (7000/500), Farmignton Hills, MI | |
|  |  OZO Premium join:2003-01-17
| said by cmcasey79 :I've read MS team blogs saying IE8,5 or IE9 (whatever they call it) will focus more on new "standards", so hopefully it will score better. When you have a huge majority of marketshare though, you kind of become the "standard" that people have to code for i guess. I've read exactly the same stories about prospective IE7 before it was released, then about IE8, and now about IE9... I guess I know what is going to happen - nothing. They simply don't care. -- Keep it simple, it'll become complex by itself... | |
|   urbanriot
join:2004-10-18 St Catharines, ON | When other companies offer their own .ADM files for Group Policies in corporate environments that work well, maybe then I'll be concerned about Acid test results. Until then, I'll continue to deploy IE8 for clients and use Chrome at home. | |
|   chachazz Premium join:2003-12-14 | Because Microsoft is not a "standards" kinda company...  | |
|   cypherstream Looking forward to the future of things. Premium,MVM join:2004-12-02 Reading, PA clubs:
| Here's how the IPhone renders the test...
Not perfect, but still better than IE8, and way better than IE7. | |
|   XBL2009 ------
join:2001-01-03 Chicago, IL | The big question is how does this actually affect the average user from day to day?
Probably not much. | |
|  |  |  |  |  Mele20 Premium join:2001-06-05 Hilo, HI
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? I hadn't done the test in ages so I did it on all browsers on my host XP Pro machine and on my virtual XP Pro machine. If I was to think the test was important to my enjoyment of the net via different browsers then I would have to be using Safari4 for Windows. It is the only browser I have that scored 100% instantly...no animation which is a bit suspect. Firefox 3 scored 69 slightly better than Fx 1.5 at 52. Opera 10 scored 96. IE6 scored 12 and IE8 (using compatibility view which I have to use for all sites otherwise IE crashes constantly) scored a whopping 6!!!! It scores one-half of what IE6 scores. That is dismal, but as for the scores on the other browsers I don't think it matters much because all the browsers except IE7 and 8 are fine when I am surfing so I don't think the test means much for the average user. -- "The same ferocity that our founders devoted to protect the freedom and independence of the press is now appropriate for our defense of the freedom of the internet. The stakes are the same: the survival of our Republic". Al Gore, The Assault on Reason | |
|  |   Leathal Premium join:2002-02-09 Toronto, ON
| I refuse to upgrade my machines, and my client machines to IE8 as it breaks a lot websites including ones written in Java, sure you can run it in compatibility mode but it doesn't make sense to do that vs keeping IE7 installed )
Leathal | |
|   ztmike Mark for moderation Premium join:2001-08-02 Michigan City, IN | I can't even remember the last time I used IE ..I think it was back when it was IE 6, but only because it opened itself up for me to check my Hotmail through MSN Messenger. | |
|  UnnDunn Premium join:2005-12-21 Brooklyn, NY
·Optimum Online
1 edit | The Acid tests are largely symbolic tests used to bully Microsoft into supporting what "they" feel are the "standards" Microsoft should be supporting.
Unfortunately for "them", Microsoft actually conducts its own research into how real people use IE and what they want from it, and Microsoft builds IE based on that, not what a handful of Microsoft-haters think.
Don't get me wrong, I make websites for a living so I, too, bemoan IE6's broken CSS support, and I, too, want Microsoft to support all the latest whiz-bang standards and concepts, including Acid3. But as the song says, "you can't always get what you want."
In my view, IE8 is the best day-to-day browser there is. It is the only browser that is at once fast, mature, robust, stable, secure and compatible with nearly everything on the web today. It doesn't excel at any one thing, but it does everything well enough. Every other browser focuses on one or two things at the expense of everything else; Chrome and Safari are fast but immature, Firefox is highly customizable but gets slow and bloated, and Opera is just weird.
If you want me to switch to another browser for day-to-day usage, show me one that hits all the marks. For a while, when IE was horrible, Firefox was that browser. Now IE8 is good enough that Firefox is no longer needed. | |
|  |  Mele20 Premium join:2001-06-05 Hilo, HI
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? said by UnnDunn :Unfortunately for "them", Microsoft actually conducts its own research into how real people use IE and what they want from it, and Microsoft builds IE based on that, not what a handful of Microsoft-haters think. In my view, IE8 is the best day-to-day browser there is. It is the only browser that is at once fast, mature, robust, stable, secure and compatible with nearly everything on the web today. It doesn't excel at any one thing, but it does everything well enough. Every other browser focuses on one or two things at the expense of everything else; Chrome and Safari are fast but immature, Firefox is highly customizable but gets slow and bloated, and Opera is just weird. If you want me to switch to another browser for day-to-day usage, show me one that hits all the marks. For a while, when IE was horrible, Firefox was that browser. Now IE8 is good enough that Firefox is no longer needed. If Microsoft cared about all internet users, it would have proper accessibility for IE8. It doesn't though and I cannot use any IE version if I need to type in a text box like this one I am typing in now. IE zoom feature is worthless because it does not enlarge the font inside a text box. I can't read that tiny font. Yes, I could get a SLIGHT enlargement by making all other text on the page extremely gigantic. Then I can't read the thread above the reply box, etc. On any other browser that I use I can set a minimum font size and that font size is used in a reply box as well as for the rest of the text on the page. IE (all versions) does NOT meet Accessibility standards. Firefox and Opera browsers do. Opera is magnificent in this regard. It has fit to page feature which Fx desperately needs for Accessibility.
IE8 has to be run in compatibility mode for ALL sites or it crashes constantly. I don't see how that is an improvement. IE8 on Vista has horrible GUI problems and Microsoft (after repeated calls and many hours of troubleshooting) told me to revert permanently to IE7 on Vista. I don't see how that makes IE such a great browsers. I had no way on IE8 on Vista to change anything in the Security tab or Advanced tab. On XP, the GUI on those tabs is all wrong but I discovered I could make changes by clicking or doubleclicking on the item but then I can't see what I changed it to.
IE8's address bar is unreadable because I cannot bold it. Another reason why I cannot use IE8. I could go on and on about the myriad of problems with IE8 but I'll stop.
Firefox is not a slow browser. Fx3 is very fast. 1.5 is a better browser but it is slower than 3 particularly when loading a bunch of tabs. Fx3 can load 95 tabs in less than 60 seconds and it does not use excessive memory even with 95 tabs open. Fx is far more accessibility conscious than IE8 although I read that 3.5 is not but I have not tried 3.5 yet so I can't say if that is correct or not. Users are saying the lack of "fit to page" on Fx is causing major problems in 3.5 for those needing larger fonts but I have not seen this for myself so there may be a way around Fx 3.5 creating gigantic horizontal scroll bars since it lacks the essential "fit to page" feature for those needing larger fonts and who use a Windows DPI of 120.
As for Opera, how could you say it is weird? That is currently the best browser available. Opera 10 is outstanding and with Opera Unite it is a major winner (once they get the bugs out of Opera Unite). Opera has improved tremendously in the last couple of years to where I now use it as much or more than I do Fx.
Safari and Chrome are horrible and should be totally avoided although Safari has one feature that is better than in any other browser. Safari has an outstanding font rendering engine designed for LCD monitors using Clear Type. Microsoft's Clear Type for LCD monitors is far inferior to Apple's version. -- "The same ferocity that our founders devoted to protect the freedom and independence of the press is now appropriate for our defense of the freedom of the internet. The stakes are the same: the survival of our Republic". Al Gore, The Assault on Reason | |
|  |  |  UnnDunn Premium join:2005-12-21 Brooklyn, NY
·Optimum Online
| Re: Why is IE8 the absolute worst at the acid3 browser test? said by Mele20 :If Microsoft cared about all internet users, it would have proper accessibility for IE8. It doesn't though and I cannot use any IE version if I need to type in a text box like this one I am typing in now. IE zoom feature is worthless because it does not enlarge the font inside a text box. I can't read that tiny font. Yes, I could get a SLIGHT enlargement by making all other text on the page extremely gigantic. Then I can't read the thread above the reply box, etc. On any other browser that I use I can set a minimum font size and that font size is used in a reply box as well as for the rest of the text on the page. IE (all versions) does NOT meet Accessibility standards. Firefox and Opera browsers do. Opera is magnificent in this regard. It has fit to page feature which Fx desperately needs for Accessibility. IE8 has to be run in compatibility mode for ALL sites or it crashes constantly. I don't see how that is an improvement. IE8 on Vista has horrible GUI problems and Microsoft (after repeated calls and many hours of troubleshooting) told me to revert permanently to IE7 on Vista. I don't see how that makes IE such a great browsers. I had no way on IE8 on Vista to change anything in the Security tab or Advanced tab. On XP, the GUI on those tabs is all wrong but I discovered I could make changes by clicking or doubleclicking on the item but then I can't see what I changed it to. IE8's address bar is unreadable because I cannot bold it. Another reason why I cannot use IE8. I could go on and on about the myriad of problems with IE8 but I'll stop. It sounds like you are having atypical problems with Internet Explorer. IE is the only major browser that fully supports Speech Recognition in Vista and Windows 7 (as an example of accessibility support.) All other browsers use custom UI controls which are incompatible with Speech Recognition. I can't speak to the other problems you refer to. | |
|  |  |   Grail Knight Who Dares Wins Premium join:2003-05-31
·Verizon Online DSL
| quote: IE8 has to be run in compatibility mode for ALL sites or it crashes constantly.
IE8 does not need to be run in compatibility mode on any of my computers nor has it crashed. Ten to one your Proxo and VM Ware as well as user error that is causing the problems.
Your issues are as usual your issues that I have yet to read others having. You would think if the issues you have were widespread more people would report them.
quote: Opera 10 is outstanding
Sure it is once they fix rendering issues and the more then occasional freeze then crash issues. YMMV
quote: I could go on and on about the myriad of problems with IE8 but I'll stop.
And the Earth sighs and thanks you for that. -- "Facts not FUD!" | |
|   David No,there is another. Premium,VIP join:2002-05-30 Granite City, IL clubs: | opera gave me a 85/100 and told me fail. | |
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