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Internet Explorer 9, developer preview -- speed, graphics and HTML5 demos within
"The IE9 platform preview has just been released. If you've downloaded it, you can now run a bunch of tests on the 'Test Drive' site to see just how fast and neat the new browser is. Incidentally, IE9 doesn't seem to work on Windows XP -- gasp! Will the final version work with XP...?
Looking at the HTML5 tests, Opera has some serious competition for HTML5 support. In the keynote, Microsoft talks about HTML5 speeding up the current web, using hardware acceleration. It sounds like, from the keynote, that HTML5 is going to be the main feature of IE9 (along with the new, faster JavaScript engine). A lot of emphasis is being put on performance in its entirety, rather than 'just' executing JavaScript faster.
Microsoft's answer is not simply to speed up JavaScript execution, but how it's executed -- on separate cores! In parallel with your actual IE9 rendering/networking processes.
Anyway, get HTML5 installed, and go give each of the tests a go: the t-shirt demo is impressive, and for fun check out the 'SVG-oids' (Asteroids) clone."
Further developments at downloadsquad.com as they are updated.
XP users won't like it! It seems clear IE 9 will not run on XP from the early indications.
A little notation from the COMPUTERWORLD article at IE9 proves Microsoft is back in the browser battle, says analyst"Microsoft has lined up some very experienced engineers" for the IE team, McLeish said. "It's really a crack team."
The renewed emphasis shows that Microsoft is taking its browser, and the competition in the browser market, seriously. "You want that real estate," McLeish said, adding that IE is important to Microsoft, something others have questioned. "It's important from a pure visibility and branding angle. The browser is the way to promote search, for Microsoft that means Bing, and of course Microsoft has an interest in creating the best experience it can within Windows."
Microsoft may not believe that only its engineers can create the best Windows browser, but it certainly thinks they're up to the task. As proof, McLeish noted the hardware acceleration Microsoft's touting for IE9, which doesn't run on Windows XP.
IE's build tag usually matches the host operating system...
Windows 7 RTM: 6.1.7600.16385.090713-1255
IE8: 8.0.7600.16385
IE9: 9.0.7745.6019
I can only assume Windows builds have been progressing :)
How about CSS3 support? Does it display text shadows, border rounded corners and alpha channel (rgba();)?