When it comes to Web browsers, I’m a Google Chrome fan. Before that I was a Firefox aficionado. I also thought though that Internet Explorer 8 was a real step forward. I’m also willing to believe that IE 9 will turn out pretty darn good too.
Based on my early play with it, I won’t go as far as Ed Bott does with his praise for IE 9, but I do think Windows 7 users will get a lot out of it. Mind you, I think they should also look at Chrome as well, and Firefox 4 as well. And, if you’re not running Windows 7–say you’re running XP, Vista 64-bit, Mac OS X, or any Linux–you’re not going to have any choice in the matter. IE 9 isn’t available on any of them. No, there won’t even be an IE 9 for Android.
In particular, it’s not now, never has been, and never will be available on XP. For some reason though I keep hearing from XP fans who are up in arms that Microsoft isn’t going to give them IE 9. Get over it already. Or, as Adrian Kingsley-Hughes put it so succinctly, “XP is dead people, time to get used to that.”
Yes, yes, we all know that most people are still running XP. Microsoft knows that too. Why do you think they’re using the IE 9 carrot to try to get people to upgrade to Windows 7?