Internet Explorer 9 (abbreviated as IE9) is the upcoming version of the Internet Explorer web browser from Microsoft. It is currently in development, but developer previews have been released.
One piece of good news is that after it is brought to beta-version, and it can be tested and used without the limitations, which is deliberately introduced into the test versions, designed mainly for web-developers and designers. There is no doubt that there will be plenty willing to try, in fact already Platform Preview 4 shows good results in various tests of performance and compatibility with current standards.
“The IE9 platform is nearly complete,” wrote the platform’s general manager Dean Hachamovitch in an official blog post.
As the company promises, IE9 offer users full support for the latest standards: HTML5, CSS3, SVG, DOM, ES5; addition, it will be more secure and safe than IE8, as well as offer the possibility of hardware acceleration through integration with the processor, video card and RAM at the OS level. All visual tests are now available on the website ietestdrive.com.
The new preview version of the browser, IE9 Platform Preview 4, is still a pretty minimalistic software package. This latest update adds a new Javascript engine and increased performance.
Microsoft first debuted plans for its newest browser in March, and after this most recent update it is almost ready for general testing. A downloadable beta should be available next month.
After years and years of losing market share, Internet Explorer is actually back on an upswing. Alternative browsers like Firefox have started showing more problems as their audience began to grow, causing some to retreat back to Microsoft’s browser, which still holds a majority of market share.
Computerworld reports that the IE9 full beta version should be available around September 15.
