Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

One more issue in the RC1

alamfour — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:52:56 GMT

There is one last issue. or should I say two.

Firstly, I have rss feeds coming thru on the favourits bar and 7 out ten times when I hold control and select the article I want to view the tab crashes.

Secondly, there are still some issues with browser rendering, however this issue is new to the RC and was not evident in Beta 2. Go to www.ninemsn.com.au and select the news tab and then select an article to read. In the top Left corner there is a slideshow showing the most read articles. The text in the heading does not render properly. Try this link for an example http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/751510/shark-attacks-man-at-bondi-beach

However the rest of IE8 is fine.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Snowknight26 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:40:18 GMT

One of the things that has puzzled me a tad was why the submission of bugs on the Connect website is by invitation only.

Having found one or two bugs myself (that haven't even been fixed, let alone acknowledged [such as crash/memory corruption issues], mind you) to find out that the only place to post about them is a newsgroup/forum thats often overlooked is dismaying.

But I digress. Congratulations to the testers/IE team... I think.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

dirk — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:55:02 GMT

Does anyone know any information about the final release, when it will take place?

Furthermore, I'm interested in all information about the X-XSS-Protection security filter, because, now I can add a response header X-XSS-Protection: 0 but I assume this functionality will be disabled in the final version, so if anyone can point me such information, I'll be glad to hear / read about it (dirkpennings at hotmail dot com)

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

hAl — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:52:31 GMT

I found that the feedback from Microsoft on the submitted bugs was sometimes below par and almost always very slow.

The connect site is better than nothing but still leaves a lot of room for improvement on this area.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Philip Rhodes — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:35:32 GMT

ok now every time we go to our web site or myspace.com or even Friendster all our computer shut off no power then have to reset the power supply and some of the games that our kids please same thing happens ok now what is going on with IE 1 month ago we did not have any problems but now it’s all ways happening 2 computer running xp home sp 2 with kaspersky 2009 and IE8 ok so now what is going on Microsoft want to explain what is going and

I am the Vice President for operations

Philippines National Fire & Rescue

You can email me at

nationalfirerescue@yahoo.com

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

MT — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:41:15 GMT

It's very sad that https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/ shows me "Page not found" after I am logged in (and, surely, it's such not only for me), making this completely unusable and completely preventing people from participating in Public Beta Program for IE8 so that some IE bugs found are still unfixed.

May be Microsoft will use more reliable bug tracking system like Bugzilla (as well as usable login mechanism unlike current one) for the next release of IE, and feedback will *really* possible from all those web developers who want and *can* make IE better but didn't can do it for IE8.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

steve_web — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:04:51 GMT

1.) The IE MVP's link is broken.

2.) I'm fairly concerned when all this talk is about being at the "last stages"... I have 3 private web applications that ALL have significant issues in IE8 RC1 in Standards Mode due to bugs still in IE8 RC1. By "significant issues" I mean that if IE8 RC1 shipped as is for the IE8 RTM, I would have to set the FORCE-IE7 Header and forgo IE8's improvements.

I realize that there will likely always be fixes after "the last RC" before a final product is shipped, however I'm concerned that if there is no IE8 RC2, that significant bugs/issues will make it into the final version - that developers will have to workaround for the next 10-12 years.

Is there any chance that a few select active Bug submitters (e.g. myself, Gérard Talbot, ppkppk, the_dees, James Hopkins, snookca, etc.) might be able to get access to one of the "almost-final" internal builds so that we can run some tests on it? I can't speak for all the above, but I'm fine with signing any NDA's, and accept/understand all risks with installing un-officially released software.

I'm most concerned with (X)HTML, CSS, & JavaScript Regression issues... which often only "show themselves" when tested on a variety of sites - off the public domain. I'd love to post access to some of these sites but often can not, and isolating an exact test case is quite difficult and extremely time consuming.

Please give this some serious thought.

steve_web

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Stifu — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:04:32 GMT

Personally, I thank Gérard Talbot for being so obstinate and caring, and for having filled half of all the reports or something. :p

Take that img alt attribute bug, for example... It's been there for so long, every web developer knows about it, and the IE team obviously knew about it too, but if Gérard hadn't taken the time and efforts to try and bring it to their attention, it'd be probably still broken right now. Actually, I didn't know it was fixed until today, and I'm pleasantly surprised.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

someone — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:07:45 GMT

am i the only one who had some problems with this version? sometimes it gave me the connection error window, and when i refresh the tab, the problem is gone.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

EricLaw [MSFT] — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:54:44 GMT

@Dirk: In the final release, pages may continue to opt-themselves out of XSS protection using the X-XSS-Protection header.

@Philip Rhodes: The problem you're describing is almost certainly a hardware problem.

@alamfour: Does the crashing problem exist when you run without add-ons? www.enhanceie.com/ie/troubleshoot.asp#crash

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

SharpGIS — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:13:25 GMT

However you never fixed the most voted for issue: Proper support for css-opacity.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Roman — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:27:56 GMT

Thank goodness the disappearing text bug was fixed. Happened to me a lot, was a real pain.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Damian Shaw — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:22:09 GMT

So, I think it's time to start asking, when are the previews of IE9 coming? What are your plans for it? Canvas? Better Selectors API support? SVG? Crazy JIT Javascript engine?

I understand Microsoft's general want not to jump the gun so developers don't develop on something that actually never comes out. But 2 betas and a release candidate is pretty sparse by your competitors standards. Even Opera do weekly snapshots when they're in beta phase.

Maybe there's other issues like the massive IE install time + system restart (also are you looking to change this at all?), but you don't give a lot of technical specifics on this blog about what your aims and targets are.

I do like the openness of general aims and the fact you clearly read and take on board comments :). But the gap between releasing IE7 and talking about IE8 was so wide, people weren't even sure if Microsoft had an IE team anymore, even little tidbits from time to time would be better than that.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

ArjanO — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:08:56 GMT

Some problem I encountered as an end user. Sometimes small letters like an 'e' in sub are displayed a filled cirkel. i.e. http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Nieuwe_Uri_Geller (in the infobox)

This worked fine in IE7 and i don't think it has anything to do with the markup on the page.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

will — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:39:50 GMT

Hi...

I am bemused right now. You say you are beta testing, but I've had a play with your lovely new browser and I'm sure you've made a mistake. This is clearly not a beta. Pre alpha perhaps.

The ie8 rendering method is still broken. It's still has the same bugs that have plagued your program since ie6.

So, hitting compatibility mode will sort it out. Excellent. Now we have to cater for 2 browsers all in one, plus standard ie7, plus ie6... At least all the other browsers can render a site properly. What the hell gives you so much trouble that you can't do the same?

And now I hear that people can press the compatibility mode button and if enough people do it my website will be forced into compatibility mode... I can safely say that if this is the case it will be abused.

What is wrong with simply updating ie7? Why introduce ANOTHER browser. Another browser with even more problems and even more hassle.

Please, don't release this software.

Thank you.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

hAl — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:58:34 GMT

@will

Your story would be more believable if you would provide information on the things still being broken.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

jacob — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:48:55 GMT

I think it is time to start the "SVG in IE9!" campaign.

We'll need to get a website running, have developers add electronic signatures, and start referencing said site anywhere that SVG comes up in conversation or talk of "IE & Web Standards" in the same sentence.

The IE Team knows that we want native SVG support, but I think it is time that they HEARD it LOUD and CLEAR! While there is still time on the roadmap for them to add it without slapping a:

"Sorry, we don't care^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H maybe in a future release"

Signed,

Tired of waiting

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Tom Stack — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:16:11 GMT

Plese reconsider and give us RC 2. Even if the time its public is less than RC 1 give us a chance to see whats getting fixed.

Will the Connect bug database remain opened after RTM? at minium wipe the public side and reopen it so bugs can be reported.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Blabla — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:32:08 GMT

Hey, MS.

What about this one:

http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/Coffeehouse/446292-Why-does-IE-crash-suddenly-on-some-websites/

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

steve_web — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:20:53 GMT

@Tom Stack - on behalf of all of those developers and testers that have entered bugs in the IE7 connect database... only to have them wiped clean, and entered bugs in the IE8 connect database... with 90% still open/active... Please DO NOT WIPE the public bugs and start over! This would be a massive waste of everyone's time to re-enter all the same bugs.

Similar to others that have raised their voice on this, this is a case of "The boy that cried wolf"

============= 1 ===============

For IE7, MSFT said "Hey, we want your feedback!, come submit bugs in connect!" - and we did... and then after all our hard work, they destroyed it.

============= 2 ===============

For IE8, MSFT said "Hey, we want your feedback!, come submit bugs in connect!" - and we did... and then after all our hard work, they [kept|improved|destroyed] it.

============= 3 ===============

For IE9, if the selection in the above options is "destroyed", we won't be coming back to submit bugs.

steve

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Lucas Lim — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 09:27:56 GMT

I have been using beta 1, beta 2 and RC 1 of IE8. Frankly speaking, RC 1 is a HUGE improvement compared to beta 2 and 1. It's way more stable and a little faster. I was wondering why IE will release beta 2 to the public when it is so unstable, it crashes many times. RC 1 is more useable. I believe there are still tiny bugs here and there to become a solid product. Speed wise, the IE team could have done more as the other browsers like Firefox and Chrome are more than 2-4 times faster than IE8. I think speed is a important factor in browsers lately. It's wise to speed it up even more quickly or you will lose even more market share soon. http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=1

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

hAl — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 11:03:29 GMT

@jacob, forget svg.

Better jscript and DOM support should be the priority for IE 9.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

fearphage — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:00:32 GMT

Is it a true statement that IE8's compatibility mode will render and function differently than the stand alone IE7? If that is the case, then IE8 is essentially adding 2 additional browsers to the testing matrix for web developers. That seems quite unfortunate.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

PatriotB — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:07:52 GMT

Ok, so *surely* the beta feedback wasn't what really drove these three issues to be fixed...

1. I'm sure the emulate button experience was always on track to be refined post beta1.

2. There's no way that the disappearing text issue wasn't known inside MS before shipping... there's no way you wouldn't have fixed that even if there was no beta program.

3. The alt-as-tooltip issue has been compalined about numerous times over the years on this blog, other blogs, etc, and there's no way that the beta votes made any difference to whether you fixed it. (Of course my personal opinion as a strict constructionist is that there is nothing stopping a UA from choosing to show a tooltip for alt -- as long as it prefers title.)

I'm sure there have been a few good unique bugs that have come out of beta testing, but most of them are things that your own developers and testers surely already found. It seems a bit patronizing to give the beta testers the impression that they've helped more than they have.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Mike — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:46:13 GMT

Sorry but without SVG or canvas ie 8 is just old technology that does nothing to improve the web.

This in my view should not be called a modern browser.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Ted — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:57:29 GMT

Mike, I'm sure everyone here is just so happy that you've shared your opinion. Mail a picture of yourself to the IE team so they can put you up on the wall as the customer they care most about for IE9!

PatriotB, the IE guys had to pick bugs that could actually be described in less than a page. "Remember that weird crash at memory offset 521421 in mshtml.dll? Thanks for all the votes" just doesn't sound as good.

hAl, you and Mike should go have coffee and let us all know what you come up with.

Lucas, IE is infinitely faster than both Firefox and Chrome when it comes to rendering *full* CSS 2.1, WebSlices, and Accelerators. Oh wait, that's because those other browsers don't have those features.

Blabla, if you bother to read the article more than the URL, the answer is in the first several replies. Install junk add-ons, have a junk browsing experience.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

türkei urlaub — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:37:46 GMT

Giving feedback is key element for the designing more perfect system. Thanks a lot

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

muhatapx — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:10:04 GMT

desing is really perfect. Thank you..

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Xepol — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:55:27 GMT

I would actually consider "Connect Feedback ID 334225: alt attribute for image should not and must not be displayed in a tooltip" to be a very, VERY poor bug report.

In it, he states an opinion, links to a few articles that also state the same opinion AS opinionated fact (which does not make it fact). The only link to an authoritive source on the standards doesn't actually discuss the issue of what to do with the alt attribute, but rather how to choose what text you want in said alt attribute.

So, basically all opinion presented as fact with no clear factual basis provided. While I hate to praise Wikipedia for anything, their policy of cite reference is a good idea, and here, he has not actually cited a real reference.

A good version of the bug report would report the violation and point at the standard itself.

I've noticed that the standards have a habit of being poorly written and rather than a standard, we have majority consensus on how to interpret them - not agreeing with majority consensus does not constitute violation of the standard.

In the W3C link provided, there is no clear violation of this use of the ALT atribute.

Perhaps the standards needs "fixed".

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Janusz — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:06:03 GMT

Local intranet issue exists in RC1.

When automatic proxy detection is on and there's no proxy configuration script given the majority of internet sites is placed on local intranet zone due the rule put all the sites that bypass proxy server into intranet zone.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Stifu — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:28:35 GMT

Xepol: feel free to make better bug reports.

Personally, I don't care whether the reports are good or not as long as the bugs are fixed.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

ccatto — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:57:35 GMT

Hey Now Allison Burnett,

Nice post, those are some nice fixes.

Thx 4 the info,

Catto

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

Nikolay — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:56:36 GMT

Not the place to report a bug, but this one is BAD:

IE8 on Windows 7 --> opening my Gmail account after I changed the compatibility mode and put Gmail on the trusted sites list --> tabs start opening one after other with pop-up window warning for both secure and unsecured content on the page. Of course after a minute the computer freezes.

re: Thank You IE8 Beta Testers

ieblog — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:36:12 GMT

@Janusz: We're not able to reproduce this problem. Please send me mail (ericlaw at microsoft) so we can debug this. Thanks!