Microsoft released a beta version of their latest internet browser in September 2010.  We have been testing it in house and monitoring the feedback to date before putting together this article.

What are the differences between IE8 and IE9?

User Interface - IE9 includes a better download manager which allows you to pause and resume downloads as required, it will inform you if a download is potentially malicious, it includes an address bar search, better tab management and an Add-on Performance Advisor that monitors third party add-ons, like Flash and Realtime and tells you which ones may be slowing down your browser's performance and gives you the option to disable or remove them.

Java Script - IE9 features a faster Java Script engine than IE8, referred to within Microsoft as Chakra.  Windows runs Chakra on a separate core when one is available (so multicore users will benefit).  This enables users to continue using webpages while the Java Script generates in the background.  In preliminary tests it was 10 times faster than IE8 and also outperformed the latest Firefox 4.0 pre-release.  Chakra also offers improved support for ECMA Script including support for ECMA-262

Webpages - IE9 offers improved support for DOM, CSS, SVG and HTML5.  As standard it will include add-ons for MP3 and AAC audio codecs and H.264/AVC video. 

Operating System Support - IE9 is only available for Vista and 7.  It is not being offered for Windows XP at the moment.  Given that Microsoft have extended support of XP until 2014 it is possible that it will be rolled out for XP as well but not guaranteed.

Feedback

The beta testers are reporting problems with stability (frequent crashes) but it is only a beta version and this can be expected.  They are also saying that whilst it has a much cleaner look than IE8 or Firefox it is very similar to Google Chrome.  Also Google Chrome is still outperforming it for speed when loading webpages.

Our Opinion

A lot of the features that Microsoft are raving about such as being able to pin your favourite webpages onto the Windows 7 taskbar so you can access them with one click, compatability view or tab isolation and recovery are actually already available to a certain extent in IE8 but they have simplified the process. 

There are some compatibility issues with websites and as a result not everything displays as the web designer intended but you can click the compatibility button to view it as you would in IE8.

Over all we like it.  It is a cleaner design in keeping with Windows 7, faster than IE8, a lot more user friendly and it offers better support for websites.  The main advantage is the increase in speed caused by running Chakra on a separate core but of course this won't help people accessing the internet from computers with single core processors (i.e. netbooks and low specification laptops/desktop PCs).

When Will It Be Released?

Microsoft have not given a release date yet but we would assume looking at previous Microsoft developments that they are aiming for early 2011.