The training wheels have come off of the latest version of Internet Explorer, as Microsoft unleashes version 9 of the world's most heavily used browser this evening at an event at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Internet Explorer 9 (download after 9 p.m. PT) debuts to the public not only as the fastest, most standards-compliant version of IE yet, but also as one that can stand up and compete on features and looks with Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and the Opera browser. Along with IE's new features, though, Microsoft has a clear message for Windows XP users: hurry up and upgrade to Windows 7 already.
Microsoft's official explanation for why Internet Explorer 9 doesn't support Windows XP, the operating system that runs on an estimated 40 percent to 50 percent of the world's computers, is that the graphics card-powered hardware acceleration that helps the browser load pages faster doesn't work properly with the device drivers on Windows XP. However, at least one other browser, Firefox 4 release candidate 1, offers full hardware acceleration across multiple operating systems, including Windows XP.
More: http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20043103-12.html?
............................................................................................
Microsoft's official explanation for why Internet Explorer 9 doesn't support Windows XP, the operating system that runs on an estimated 40 percent to 50 percent of the world's computers, is that the graphics card-powered hardware acceleration that helps the browser load pages faster doesn't work properly with the device drivers on Windows XP. However, at least one other browser, Firefox 4 release candidate 1, offers full hardware acceleration across multiple operating systems, including Windows XP.
More: http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20043103-12.html?
