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IE10: How does it really stack up?

lucidchart.com

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Re: IE10: How does it really stack up?

#11

Post by andybak »

monsterix wrote: post #6

Well, let's agree that IE10 does well whatever it is designed to do well. Cool. Now what? We have an IE10 browser that compares well with Google Chrome, Opera and perhaps Firefox too (I don't know the exact details about your tests that were making Firefox crash as often as you've claimed in your article). So is this the point where Microsoft takes on the real challenge? Will it go beyond its typical high-speed sales…

IE 6, 7 and maybe 8 users are probably running XP so can't upgrade.

IE 9 users on Vista are similarly out of luck.

I won't be recommending IE 10 even to my clients on Windows 7 or 8 until they have an silent auto-updater and a frequent release cycle. It's the only way we'll stop IE's user base holding back the web.

Re: IE10: How does it really stack up?

#12

Post by paranoiacblack »

Wait, did you make the other browsers your default before running the tests? I was under the impression that IE is the only first-class browser and the other browsers would work as third-party apps with limitations on things like the amount of processes it can open, etc. I ask because I supremely doubt that Mozilla Firefox couldn't pass your benchmark, although I don't use it myself.

Re: IE10: How does it really stack up?

#13

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

The real problem is that while there will be a new and better Chrome and in a month and a half, and similar for Firefox, we'll have this build of IE10 for 2 years or maybe more.

How they compare at the start of the cycle is not typical, how they compare at the midpoint will be more average, how they compare at the end (where IE7 or IE8 is now) is the worst case.

Re: IE10: How does it really stack up?

#14

Post by ygra »

paranoiacblack wrote: post #12

Wait, did you make the other browsers your default before running the tests? I was under the impression that IE is the only first-class browser and the other browsers would work as third-party apps with limitations on things like the amount of processes it can open, etc. I ask because I supremely doubt that Mozilla Firefox couldn't pass your benchmark, although I don't use it myself.

There are no limitations on desktop applications in Windows 8 whatsoever.

Re: IE10: How does it really stack up?

#15

Post by emehrkay »

Were all of these tests done on a Windows8 machine? I only ask because the latest version of Safari isnt available for Windows (you may be able to install WebKit nightly as a Windows user though).

Id like to see how nightly build of browsers stack up as well.

Re: IE10: How does it really stack up?

#16

Post by bendilts »

emehrkay wrote: post #15

Were all of these tests done on a Windows8 machine? I only ask because the latest version of Safari isnt available for Windows (you may be able to install WebKit nightly as a Windows user though). Id like to see how nightly build of browsers stack up as well.

That's right, these were all done on a Windows 8 machine. We could of course test on Safari 6 on a Mac, but then the numbers wouldn't be directly comparable (since it's different hardware).

Re: IE10: How does it really stack up?

#17

Post by olliesaunders »

bendilts wrote: post #16
emehrkay wrote: post #15

Were all of these tests done on a Windows8 machine? I only ask because the latest version of Safari isnt available for Windows (you may be able to install WebKit nightly as a Windows user though). Id like to see how nightly build of browsers stack up as well.

That's right, these were all done on a Windows 8 machine. We could of course test on Safari 6 on a Mac, but then the numbers wouldn't be directly comparable (since it's different hardware).

I think your article would benefit from making this piont clearer. There's been discussions on HN before about how performance of Apple software on Windows differs greatly compared with performance of Apple software on Apple OSes.

Re: IE10: How does it really stack up?

#18

Post by HarshaThota »

andybak wrote: post #11
monsterix wrote: post #6

Well, let's agree that IE10 does well whatever it is designed to do well. Cool. Now what? We have an IE10 browser that compares well with Google Chrome, Opera and perhaps Firefox too (I don't know the exact details about your tests that were making Firefox crash as often as you've claimed in your article). So is this the point where Microsoft takes on the real challenge? Will it go beyond its typical high-speed sales…

IE 6, 7 and maybe 8 users are probably running XP so can't upgrade. IE 9 users on Vista are similarly out of luck. I won't be recommending IE 10 even to my clients on Windows 7 or 8 until they have an silent auto-updater and a frequent release cycle. It's the only way we'll stop IE's user base holding back the web.

They do have auto-updates for IE now: http://blogs.windows.com/ie/b/ie/archive/2011/12/15/ie-to-st...

But it's not quite there yet because it relies on Windows Update and it only shows the option if you haven't previously declined an upgrade to a new version of IE. But at least it's a start.

Re: IE10: How does it really stack up?

#19

Post by olliesaunders »

Opera used to market itself almost exclusively on how it was faster than any other comparable browser. I just had a look on the Opera website and now it says "Faster & Safer internet" yet it performed worst on this test. As the underdog in the browser market, despite being what has always seemed to me as a pretty nice piece of software, I feel a bit sorry for them. I hope they can do whatever it takes to catch up with Chrome on the performance front.

Re: IE10: How does it really stack up?

#20

Post by bendilts »

olliesaunders wrote: post #19

Opera used to market itself almost exclusively on how it was faster than any other comparable browser. I just had a look on the Opera website and now it says "Faster & Safer internet" yet it performed worst on this test. As the underdog in the browser market, despite being what has always seemed to me as a pretty nice piece of software, I feel a bit sorry for them. I hope they can do whatever it takes to catch up wit…

We were a bit surprised on Opera's performance as well, since it did reasonably well in our last benchmark (vs. Chrome 6, FF4, IE9 beta, etc).

http://www.lucidchart.com/blog/2010/09/16/ie9-ff4-beta-in-re...

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