EV>This message was from ED VANCE to ALL,
EV>originally in conference WindowsA
EV>and was forwarded to you by ED VANCE.
EV>                    -------------------------
EV>Does anyone in the echo use IE9?

EV>I'd like to read your comments about it, please, thank you.

This form the Internet:

Together, Firefox and Chrome have captured somewhere between 30 and 40%
of the browser market, depending on the market research source.
Microsoft was able to halt the bleeding with an expensive and, in my
opinion, somewhat deceptive commercial campaign for IE8, but it is IE9
that will have to defend Microsoft against its rivals. Whether it will
be able to do that mainly boils down to the fact if it can shed the
rather negative perception of IE8 and whether it is good enough in
comparison to Firefox and Chrome, its key rivals that have their
crosshairs targeted at IE.

Whenever Microsoft comes out with a new browser, it has become a
tradition here to what would be the most useless new feature in IE.
Microsoft often invents new features that turn out to be baggage no one
cares for. That baggage may be Pin Tabs in IE9, which lets you treat
websites like applications. If you will, it goes a bit beyond the App
Tab concept in Firefox and Chrome. Google has played with putting
websites into applications icons back when Chrome was first released and
no really has cared about it since.  No one will care about it now.

Where Microsoft clearly dropped the ball is OS support and migration
flexibility. IE9 is a very moody and picky browser. Aside the fact that
Microsoft has no upgrade path for Windows XP users - which still account
for about 60% of PC users out there - IE6 remains a big barrier for IE9
to capture market share. Microsoft likes to still say that IE8 is still
the fastest growing browser in terms of market share, but IE8 is now 18
months old and it should have transitioned its user base a long time
ago. Stating it is the fastest growing browser isn't really a compliment
in that view.

My personal experience was not especially pleasing as IE9 strangely
refused to download under Vista and required a Windows 7 installation.
Microsoft has still a lot of work left to do and it would be clearly
well-advised if it extended the platform support of IE9. If there is a
downside to IE9, then it is this issue and it is extensive enough to
prevent IE9 from becoming the widely used browser it could be.
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