IE 8 Flies on Windows 7

[dstrauss]

I "upgraded" a few months ago from my X60s to an X61s. The X61s came pre-loaded with Vista Business 64-bit, 4gb ram and a 320gb/7200rpm HD. I replaced XP SP3 on the old X60s with the first beta of Windows 7 (7000) with 3gb ram and a 100gb/7200rpm HD. I can't begin to describe how much faster, more responsive, and solid Win7 feels (no benchmarks - this is all personal observation only). It is even faster than XP SP3 which was a very solid solution on the X60s. What really shocked me was how much better IE8 runs on the older X60s with Win7. It loads pages, switches tabs, refreshes, searches, you name it FASTER than Chrome or Firefox on the X61s, much less IE8 which literally feels stuck in wet cement by comparison.

Granted, some of this joy could simply be the clean install of Win7 without all the Lenovo software, but after just one week, with a public beta release, I am hooked. Like too many geeks, I even jump on the "dot 0" version of new OS's, much to my chagrin (heaven help me for doing that with WinMe and Vista), but Win7 has the feel of Windows 2000, which is still the best OS release from Microsoft since DOS 4.2.

Last October, as details began to leak out, I was very jaundiced about the prospect of it being "Win7 - Vista's SP2." It is much more than what Vista "should have been" in its own right. Even so, what's wrong with that? Solid performance, stability, better interface design - all are good developments. We sometimes forget that XP, while better than Win98 and WinMe combined, was still pretty much a disappointment until SP2. In fact, SP2 was such a substantial upgrade it should have its own release. Perhaps Microsoft will steal one more feature from Apple - start using "dot" upgrades as major feature/performance enhancements, rather than renaming everything every 3-4 years. Apple has proven that users will line up like lemmings if you deliver substance with these upgrades.

Now, here's to hoping Win7 RC doesn't step backwards...

[Marin85]

Indeed, IE8 is very fast and provides very fluent browsing. Yet, it still has some bugs (I have Win 7 build 7000) when rendering internet pages. Nevertheless, promising browser, looking forward to its final release.

[dstrauss]

For me it is fairly sluggish on Vista Business 64 (Chrome and Firefox run circles around it) but on Windows 7, it smokes them both. I wonder if it's just a better marriage, or if we're in for a new round of "Windows ain't done until Chrome won't run?" (for you youngster out there, this comes from the refrain that DOS ain't done until Lotus (123) won't run). You know, the first business class spreadsheet (after Visicalc)...oh, never mind...