I was really inlove with the IE8 beta 2 (internet explorer) when it was released, and it was actually quite fast. Also i loved how the tabs, and smart URL bar worked within it. I randomly used it during beta, but still kept using firefox 3 as my main browser.
So i waited a while for ie8 final to be released, and as soon as it was I switched over to it full time. I’ve actually uninstalled firefox completely. Mostly due to randomly files/links on my machines continuing to open in firefox although ie8 was my default browser. (I know there are ways to resolve this, but i was lazy and figured I’d only be using ie8 anyways).
IE8 was the first, and only time ever that I’ve actually wanted to use IE. Even back in my first net days in 1998, i still chose Netscape over Ie, so to me this was something huge. I was hoping and it seemed that Microsoft finally got it right with IE8.
As soon as i started using it, i noticed that they still have NOT incorporated a real time spell check into the browser, which makes no sense at all. All standard browsers have this anymore. With blogs, forums, and email being one of the top reasons people get online, you’d think they’d have this built into ie8 as well. It’s a pretty standard feature. However IE8 lacked this feature in any form.
I tried getting the Windows Live Toolbar, thinking it would bring some spell check features to IE, but again it failed. At least i couldn’t find this features anywhere in the options, buttons, and on the toolbar itself.
I remember back in the firefox 1.5 days and before that i would use the google toolbar for its spellchecking, and it worked well. Of course i quit as soon as firefox came with this feature (years ago). SO i tried it with Ie, and it actually kinda sucked. It wasn’t real time and i had to manually push the “check spelling” button.
This lacking of a very important feature to me was enough to mark the browser as unusable. I use many forums, and type many emails. I can spell alright, but usually I do it in such as peed and i hate proof reading anything i type ( as you may have noticed 
), so i really needed this feature.
I read that IE7Pro, works with IE8, and that it came with a spell checker. So I downloaded it. And disabled all of its options BUT the spell check, and wallah! i had a pretty good real time spellchecker. It had some bugs, but pretty much it worked over all, and i was happy with IE8.
A very annoying bug i found with IE8 is that if anything happens to your computer, or the instance of IE8 running, and it shuts down, you will lose all of your cookies, and other memory type items, which made things very annoying. I hate having to re-login to sites over and over again. Especially sites that I use so often.
Another annoyance I’ve noticed with IE8 may not even be its fault. It could be a lacking another feature type thing, but mostly due to lame webmasters who feel that its okay to spam their members and make it almost impossible to navigate, or visit the webmasters sites. I am talking about ads. Using Firefox3 with adblock, i forgot all about this annoyance, and never worried about it ever. However with ie8 it happens all the time, even on sites that i visited regularly on firefox, and never noticed that they even had these types of ads.
So is it the lame ass webmasters? Or IE8 lacking a usable ad blocker similar to what you can get with firefox 3 as a addon FOR FREE (There is a adblock for IE, but you have to pay for it.).
I do love alot of things about IE8 though. Such as how lightweight and fast it seems. It takes less than a half second to load up after i click the icon. Firefox takes a few seconds to ever load up for me.
I love the way the tabs work. If you open multiple taps from one sit,e they’ll automatically be grouped in a certain color. Also the loading colors are pretty cool. Which is a new feature with buttons on the taskbar in windows 7.
I also love how each tab seems to have its own process. So if something crashes you can close that tab only, and not lose all the other tabs.
I also liked reliving some of the special effects that only work in Internet Explorer. such as cool mouse and other dhtml,java effects.
So after using IE8 for the past month, and wanting to love it, i fear that its just not right for me yet. It hasn’t reached its time again. It’s far better than IE7, and way better than IE6, but its just not there yet.
I find that my time using firefox is easier, and involves less stress. I have many features that i need that are built into the browser. And others i can easily get an extension for.
I know you can get addons for ie8, but I’m not even 25% sure how they work, and if you can even do major things with them as you can with extensions for firefox, but i do know that its been really hard for me to find any usable ones. if you can do incredible things like addon new components to ie using its addons, then I’m sure users will create them and in a few months I’ll have all the tools i need to be comfortable with using IE8.
I really hope Microsoft beings to listen to its user base and give us features that we need, and want. Maybe they think we should use their live mail desktop application, and live writer, so we don’t need these tools built into the browser, but we do. It’s a spell check!
I’ll check in again in a few months, but tonight I’m switching back to firefox.
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By the way , I’m not a firefox fan. I choose it over IE, but i actually dislike the firefox management, and the entire thing they pulled against Microsoft at the recent EU Commission thing. I think it was wrong and very childish. I actually didn’t even dislike firefox until they pulled this stunt.
I use roboform to manage all my passwords and logins. It seems to only work with these two browsers. Or else i would’ve stopped using both Firefox, and Ie, and started using Opera.
So right now, firefox is really my only choice since i do not want to give up my roboform.
