This week Microsoft released the latest generation of Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 9.   So far it has been downloaded nearly 2.5 million times although this number will rise significantly once it is added to the Microsoft Update system on 21st March. 

Internet Explorer 9 is only available to users with Windows Vista or Windows 7 on their PCs and there is no intention to make it available for Windows XP or other operating systems.  The reasoning given by Microsoft for this is that Microsoft wanted to take internet browsing into the future and designing the program to work within the constraints of XP, a 10 year old operating system, would not have enabled them to do this. 

How well has IE9 been received?  Well, most serious programmers and webdesigners recommend Firefox or Google Chrome for speed and security anyway and they are all looking forward to the release of Firefox 4.0 later this year. To them the release of IE9 is a bit of an anti-climax.  Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, have already spoken out against some of Microsoft claims saying that the tests where Internet Explorer outperform Firefox and Google Chrome were actually written "in house" within the Microsoft Corporation and that in unbiased testing IE9, although better than IE8, is still not as good as Firefox.

Who should you believe and should you download it?  Ultimately the choice is yours and the opinion you should go with is your own.  We would recommend that you download and try it, if it is not for you then you still have the option to go back to IE8, use Firefox, Chrome or Opera.