I just realized this:<p>Companies totally unaffiliated with Windows manage to produce browsers that have bleeding-edge feature parity all the way from XP through 8 (not to mention two other major OSes).<p>But when the company that fucking makes Windows manages to make their (less functional) browser work with a single version of a single OS they themselves produce and support, it's a news item.
If there was a time for Microsoft to make amends for all the bullshit we, web developers had to put up with in the past 10 years or so, it is now. Hopefully they'll catch up with Firefox and Chrome.
What makes this potentially very interesting is that Microsoft is suppose to push out IE10 to most Win7 users after it's released. Within 12 months IE10 could be the most used IE browser. Hopefully, approaching 20% market share.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the browser itself?<p>I'm using it right now and first impressions are that it's (subjective..) ridiculously fast, compared to IE9.<p>Gmail, Google Calendar and Reader are really snappy, and more importantly, (imho) the biggest UX annoyance has been dealt with: a new tab opens up and is ready for use instantly.
Hearing mixed messages about this.<p>Does IE10 allow itself to software update?<p>If we could just have a proper implementation of that, it might mean avoiding a rerun of IE6 lingering for several years?
Fascinating. This is another way for them to send a clear message to the hundreds of millions of xp users out there who looked at 7 and rejected it: "We don't care about you, use the latest Chrome if you must".<p>And then they keep wondering why ie's market share is dropping like a rock.