Not only did IE8 Beta 1 take an inordinately long time to install and required me to reboot, it rendered my computer deaf as far a playing midis on my computer or Web pages. I almost decided to scrap this article for InfoAve Premium and do a system restore, but the quest for knowledge reigned. I ended up reinstalling my audio drivers, after which I was able to "hear" midis on my computer and on Web pages.

Then, I discovered links only work sometimes in IE8 Beta. On some pages links work normally, sometimes they don't work at all - or appear not to work. For example I was on a Web site and clicked a link to a page with midi music playing on it. The page didn't open, but somewhere it was open, because the midi was playing, but no page was visible. There was not IE window open and no IE tab to click - very strange. Even stranger, there was no way to close the page with the midi playing because IE8 was not showing the page. I had to use Task Manager - Processes - End Process to close it. But, when I opened Task Manager Processes, there were at least a dozen Internet Explorer processes running. Ending one process just caused a new IE8 process to start. IE8 was running amok. I felt like I was back in 1997 when worms were running rampant and IE used to spawn dozens of Windows in rapid succession until finally all those new windows caused your computer to run out of memory and it crashed. I used to love those days - they were so challenging. But, I'm matured now, I don't think it so funny when a program runs out of control spawning new processes at will with no way to control them. IE8 was like a runaway freight train heading for the station. Stop! Stop! I was finally able to stop IE8 by closing one process after another as quickly as my little fingers would let me.

Obviously at this point I was not impressed. I had had three bad experiences with IE8 and I hadn't even gotten to use it much. I don't ever remember an IE beta this bad. But, onward I pushed, roaming about the Web with reckless abandon - in search of knowledge to share with you. My computer at risk, my sanity fading, my blood pressure soaring - I pressed on.

WebSlices

I tried some of the new "features" - one of which was an old feature that no one ever used. I guess Microsoft decided they'd give it an interesting new name and slough it off on users again - I'm thinking they want to regain some of those old IE users, like me, who opted to stick with Firefox. However, WebSlices didn't impress me. It's just a updated version of the old "channels" that no one used. Do you remember "channels" - I bet you don't. No one ever used it, but it was a "feature" in IE 4.72.

Here's how Microsoft touts WebSlices in IE8:  "Users commonly visit many websites several times a day to check for updates. The introduction of RSS feeds can make this experience easier for users, although RSS feeds requires a nontrivial amount of work on behalf of the developer.

WebSlices is a new feature for websites that enables users to subscribe to content directly within a webpage. WebSlices behave just like feeds in that users can subscribe to them and receive update notifications when the content changes. Websites are polled at user-defined intervals, similar to the way RSS feeds are polled. Website operators may also define a minimum wait time between polls to minimize requests."

If you understand all of that, great - if not, I'm not going to spend a great deal of time on WebSlices, I am not sure I understand the concept. It's the same as subscribing to a Web feed now, you have to click the RSS button to add a slice of a page to your newsfeeds. I guess I'm not smart enough to see why Microsoft thinks WebSlices is going to be next greatest thing to bread slices.

Does WebSlices sound like something you'd like? Or do you think it sounds pretty useless like "channels" were?

Activities

Another new feature I didn't grasp was "Activities". There have been add-ons for IE and Firefox that perform these same functions for years and do even more than IE8's "Activities".  I wasn't impressed, but by the time I got around to testing this, I had suffered a long install, a loss of midi sound, a driver reinstall, a couple of runaway freight trains, and much confusion over what Microsoft was trying to accomplish with IE8. Anyway, Microsoft provides this definition of the "Activities" features in IE8 Beta 1.

"Activities are contextual services that provide quick access to external services from any webpage. Activities typically involve one of two types of actions:

"Look up" information related to data in the current webpage

"Send" content from the current webpage to another application..."

Web Standards

Internet Explorer 8 is designed to conform to strict web standards set by a group of people who decided what Web standards should be. I don't know exactly who these folks are or where they go to decide these things. Web Standards are things that Internet Explorer didn't do and Firefox did. But now, according to Microsoft, Internet Explorer 8 is fully Web standards compliant. What does that mean to you, the user? Well, that and $6.75 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. It will do nothing for you but it makes the Web standards people squeal with delight. They forced mighty Microsoft to bend to their whining like a willow tree to a brook.

Here's what Microsoft has to say. Microsoft is not as colorful as I am, you'll note: "Internet Explorer 8 is designed to work in standard mode out of this box. However, Microsoft provides a way for users to browse the web in a way similar to Internet Explorer 7 by using the emulate Internet Explorer 7 button on the chrome."

In case you're wondering what "on the chrome" means, it's cool speak for "toolbar".

Everyone involved with the Web Standards thing is really ecstatic that IE8 will conform to its standards. They're like kids at Christmas over the fact that IE8 passes the so-called Acid Test (the ability to render an image that is not an image but strict coding with colored layers and other complicated stuff that someone spent a day doing). If you have Firefox or Internet Explorer 7 and you visit http://www.webstandards.org/files/acid2/test.html#top you'll see a mutilated face - that doesn't quite come together correctly. If you use IE8 you'll see this:

That picture really gets people all excited in the Web standards community.

The one feature of IE8 that I think most of you will like is the crash recovery feature. It's been a feature in Firefox for quite a while, and now it will be a feature of Internet Explorer 8 too. You know how frustrating it is when you're browsing the Web, find an interesting page, and you're reading it or doing something else with it and the browser crashes. If you didn't bookmark it, and the crash erased your browsing history, you might never find it again. With crash recovery you can get right back to where you were when the browser crashed simply by open your browser again and clicking "Restore your last session". This is a good idea and I'm glad it's going to be a feature in IE8.

I am going to include a link to IE8 Beta for all you brave souls, but first I'm warning you that if you install it, you may have serious problems with your computer - and/or - you might have only minor problems or none at all. (I would not bet on the "none at all".) I don't think IE8 Beta 1 is ready for prime-time and you certainly should never do what I did and install it on your primary computer. Now that you've been adequately warned, so you can't sue us if you ruin your computer with IE8 Beta 1 - you can read more about it and/or download it from this link. I'd turn back if I were you.

My Opinion? IE 8 Beta 1 is one of the worst beta versions of Internet Explorer I've ever tried. It's not ready for prime time, it offers nothing you can't do without. While it's nice that Internet Explorer is finally going to meet the Web Standards Council's strict Web guidelines, that means almost nothing to the people who are going to use it most - that would be folks like you.

Overall, based on the long, convoluted install, its erratic behavior, its tendency to crash and restart, crash and restart, and its lack of many worthwhile new features, I give Internet Explorer a big thumbs down and a grade of "D". Firefox is a much better browser.