http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/internet-explorer/products/ie-9/welcome-upgrade2 (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/internet-explorer/products/ie-9/welcome-upgrade2)
I decided to give the IE9 RC a try instead of just condemning it out of hand. It seems to be a vast improvement from IE8 so far. I'm mainly an Opera user, with a seconday favor to Chrome,and Firefail trailing 3rd for specific pages only.
IE9 Pros:
+ Zippy. Faster than Firefox, on par with Chrome and Opera.
+ Improved security options, including direct control over toolbars and addons.
+ Compatibility View to see pages rendered for IE7/8
+ InPrivate Browsing, cookies are stored in memory only, and cache is flushed on exit. (InPorn browsing)
+ Lightweight, the download was 2.5MB, and the install directory is under 6MB. It seems to use a LOT of registry hacking.
IE9 Cons:
- Importation of bookmarks from Opera VERY POOR!!!11eleven! (Bookmarks were neatly sorted before, and a massive jumbled mess after.)
- Many Opera shortcuts don't work the same, ditto with Chrome.
- Untested from a security standpoint.
- Promised GPU integration for graphic/video seems to be disabled.
- Flash (Youtube) is buggy, doesn't seem to run properly.
- Install required a reboot because of all the registry hacks added.
The jury's still out for me. The light-weight install, and increased security is a very good start, and I can see it making major in-roads on netbooks and tablets because of those reasons.