Windows 7: IE8 Officially Becomes World’s Most-Used Browser

active x is one of the main reasons ie is so slow. microsoft had had plans for rewriting their browser without active x. they should have stuck with those plans.

- I can understand if a page loads slow with Active X on, but pages should be able to load normal if Active X is not used.

We're not going to see ActiveX go away for awhile. So many businesses and websites utilize it right now.

I don't think this is true. IE8 is a solid browser. Not sure what the "informed" users are looking for in a browser. After reading through this thread, sounds to me like the "informed" users are just looking for a browser that's not IE so they can say that they don't use that browser, that browser comes pre-installed, only a member of the clueless masses would use that browser.

Get real. FFox has it's pro's and con's and Chrome isn't even available in 64bit and, I'm sorry, but no one should be running safari on a PC. I'm not saying that IE is the best (that would be clueless and mindless) but it's equally clueless and mindless to say that FFox or Chrome or any "open source" browser is better than IE because it's not IE. This kind of tautology is pretty common among "informed" users and I don't get it.

If you had actually read the thread, there is actually benchmarked proof that IE is the worst performing browser on the market.

In all reality, no matter which way you cut it, Firefox and Chrome are better than IE.

I agree. I use IE8 to download Firefox.

LOL Ditto.

- Without proper Flash support, IE isn't even an available browser in 64bit.. A 64 bit browser would be nice, but there really isn't support for it, hence why we don't see FF 64 yet.

- I completely agree, unfortunately, we will still need IE

IE8 is the biggest crock there is. MS changing the way it handles even SIMPLE HTML and forcing the world to redesign, and debug over 50% of the sites on the internet to its standards. MS thinks every person in the world needs to follow their standards. Linux, Unix, OSX, Solaris, all have equal rights to web code and MS forces them all to change.haha

What sucks is the browser is riddled and SLOW. I am on an i7, 8gb of 2000mhz ram, and I can't tolerate how slow it renders pages. WOW top browser...more like bogus.

There is benchmarked "proof" that MS DOS 2.1 boots tremendously faster than Windows 7...'ya just can't beat the facts, right?

I occasionally use FF, have tried Chrome on my netbook, and have seen nothing that makes me want to ditch IE8. FF only seems faster until I add the extra functionality that brings it to do the same things I have in IE8...at which point, it runs no faster than IE8...oh, gee...

In all honesty, I do not live for "nano-seconds", so I make no statement that "X is faster than "Y", because unless my perception is that one is noticeably faster or slower than the other, it just doesn't matter...

Faster can certainly be benchmarked as an absolute, but "better" is another story. I use IE8 because like it or not, in terms of compatibility, it is still the gold standard...I can not speak for anyone else, but for myself, that widest range of compatilbility makes IE8 the "best" browser for my usage...

i use to, it's great browser