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I actually wasn't mocking them, and as a web developer I too am happy to hear they are at least providing minimal support for some of these common CSS3 features

I actually wasn't mocking them, and as a web developer I too am happy to hear they are at least providing minimal support for some of these common CSS3 features. I'm also thrilled that they are putting effort into HTML5. I guess I was more looking at it from Microsoft's perspective. Are they serious about competing? If so, merely matching the features that other mainstream browsers have had for some time now isn't going to get them very far. Keep in mind that by the time IE9 is actually released, we'll probably have already seen major version releases from the other players. To me, full CSS3 support and at least an attempt at full HTML5 would be a bold way for IE to jump back into the race as a true leader, not just an also-ran contender.

Silhouette 17y ago
FWIW, I think you're being a little unfair to IE's position in the market as well. Not only does it still command the majority of the browser market by some margin, i.e., outnumbering users of all rival browsers put together, it is also a pretty decent bit of software these days. As one anecdotal contribution, I now know more people who have switched back to IE recently than switched away from it, and these are all technically knowledgeable people who are well aware of the alternatives. They're just fed up of the numerous flaws in the rival browsers and feel they get a better experience with IE8. Looking objectively, it's not hard to see why. Firefox now runs slower than a sleeping tortoise and claims more system resources than Windows Vista on a bad day. Its main strength has always been its plug-in system, but that same system also causes both stability problems and multiple obvious but apparently WONTFIX security and privacy risks. It still runs all tabs under one process, so it is laughably easy to lock up the entire browser and lose anything you were doing on other pages. Chrome has some basic rendering bugs, ironically including CSS3-style rounded corners, which have actually been getting worse in recent versions. And it, too, has its share of privacy concerns for some people, not the least of which is the name "Google" that appears before the "Chrome" part. I don't run Safari myself, but I hear cursing regularly from colleagues who do about pages that simply don't work, so clearly all is not well there either. In comparison, while IE has moved slower than the rest of the browsers, IE8 is already reasonably quick, renders the pages non-geeks read reliably, actually has better tab isolation than anyone else, etc. If IE9 does bring the same kind of performance jump for JS execution and support for the most useful CSS3 features, so it catches up with the recent trends (which, in fairness, only really took off after IE8 was out) then I'll be tempted to switch back myself.

Silhouette 17y ago

FWIW, I think you're being a little unfair to IE's position in the market as well. Not only does it still command the majority of the browser market by some margin, i.e., outnumbering users of all rival browsers put together, it is also a pretty decent bit of software these days. As one anecdotal contribution, I now know more people who have switched back to IE recently than switched away from it, and these are all technically knowledgeable people who are well aware of the alternatives. They're just fed up of the numerous flaws in the rival browsers and feel they get a better experience with IE8. Looking objectively, it's not hard to see why. Firefox now runs slower than a sleeping tortoise and claims more system resources than Windows Vista on a bad day. Its main strength has always been its plug-in system, but that same system also causes both stability problems and multiple obvious but apparently WONTFIX security and privacy risks. It still runs all tabs under one process, so it is laughably easy to lock up the entire browser and lose anything you were doing on other pages. Chrome has some basic rendering bugs, ironically including CSS3-style rounded corners, which have actually been getting worse in recent versions. And it, too, has its share of privacy concerns for some people, not the least of which is the name "Google" that appears before the "Chrome" part. I don't run Safari myself, but I hear cursing regularly from colleagues who do about pages that simply don't work, so clearly all is not well there either. In comparison, while IE has moved slower than the rest of the browsers, IE8 is already reasonably quick, renders the pages non-geeks read reliably, actually has better tab isolation than anyone else, etc. If IE9 does bring the same kind of performance jump for JS execution and support for the most useful CSS3 features, so it catches up with the recent trends (which, in fairness, only really took off after IE8 was out) then I'll be tempted to switch back myself.