Microsoft’s Vista at the outset got kid glove reviews from many of the tech and business sites. See here for a symptom analysis. So PC users had to endure what was a beta-kludge update of Windows at higher costs for nearly two years. And as always is the case with Redmond … just wait until Windows 8 … uhhh Nth arrives. Well so far it looks like the IT Press is eating and repeating the Redmond PR take on IE9. See here for a rundown on IE9 reviews to date. And see the GigaOM /NYTimes review of IE9 for a ” close as in horsehoes” take which admires the big improvements over IE8 but misses all 3 gaps noted below.
Now IE9 has made big speed and graphics improvements to IE – but all the other browser vendors are “been there, done that, and motoring down the road”. Most of the IT Press reviews of IE9 miss 3 big gaps:
1)No mention of the fact that IE9 does not run on Windows XP which still commands more than 50% of Windows usage. Also no noting that buying into the IE9 feature set means no portability to other OS like Mac, iOS4, Android, Linux, WebOS, Blackberry OS [even Windows Phone 7 for the time being] which all of the other browser vendors but Apple’s Safari support.
2)No serious look at how well IE9 meets HTML5, CSS3, DOM and JavaScript 1.7 compliance. The bad news that IE9 is about 1/2 of the way compared to other browsers just seems to slip through the cracks in the first IT Press reviews.
3)No attempt to put IE9 in perspective on the innovation curve versus what is being delivered by all 4 other major browsers.
Now this may change as Firefox 4, Chrome 7, and Opera 11 get released this Fall and the gap between these browsers and IE9 becomes even more pronounced. Meanwhile, the kid gloves are on, so caveat emptor on finding frank IE9 browser reviews. And as a “kid glove” antidote, try this review of IE9.