LandzDown Forum

Has anyone else tried IE9 Beta yet?  I installed it yesterday and, as an ardent Firefox user, am quite impressed with the look & feel of IE9.  What do you particularly like (or dislike) about IE9?

Operating System

-- Windows XP -- That's right, IE9 is not compatible with Windows XP.
-- Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit with Service Pack 2 (SP2)
-- Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit
-- Windows Server 2008 32-bit and 64-bit with Service Pack 2 (SP2)


(More info at Internet Explorer 9 (Beta).)

I am a Firefox user also plus I am afraid of BETA's but both my desktop and laptop have XPSP3 so I guess it is out of the question anyway LOL

likewise, i've read a lot of good comments about ie 9, including speed and security.

i will give it a try when it comes out of beta - i only have 1 win 7 machine now, and it's in production -
i may have to load 7 on another machine and give ie 9 beta a whirl.

ps
welcome, jacob23benjamin!

Windows Live Essentials 2011 isn't compatible with Windows XP either. 

A time comes when backward support just cannot continue.  There have been too many changes made to Windows Vista and then Windows 7.  Not only that, more and more businesses are or already have moved to Windows 7.  Windows XP was released almost 11 years ago.  Even companies that waited until SP1 (2002) or SP2 (2004) to move to XP, that hardware is wearing out and the machines are being replaced with more powerful computers running Windows 7. 

Not to be facetious, remember, Microsoft is a business.  It has to answer to its stockholders and has to pay the salary and benefits for somewhere around 90,000 people (excluding an unknown number of contractors).  I don't mean that as a reason to replace old computers but think about it.  I know people who were angry with manufacturers of third-party hardware who chose not to update the drivers for Windows Vista.  They probably could have but elected not to so those who wanted to use their product would purchase new.

To begin with, Microsoft has not stopped support for Windows XP.  In fact, support for Windows XP is continuing until 4/8/2014.  See the Support Lifecycle.  IE8 does run on Windows XP.  However, there are still irresponsible companies with IE6 on XP.

Besides, what makes you think that many Government offices have not already migrated to Windows 7?  From over a year ago, The U.S. Government and Windows 7 | Windows 7 News

A Dell survey of 205 government IT shops found that about 50% of those surveyed had plans to move in a year or less, with another 37% saying that they’d like to make the move in a year or more – most cited new features and functionality as the reason to upgrade. Many are also planning to coordinate the rollout of Windows 7 with the retirement of older Windows XP machines. {bold added}

And this, also from over a year ago, Feds Prepare To Make Leap to Windows 7 -- Redmondmag.com.  At that time, portions of the Government had already begun moving from XP:

The Army and Air Force expect to finish their Vista deployments by the end of 2009. The Air Force is already working on developing a Windows 7 implementation of the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC). Microsoft has followed up on the Air Force initiative with its own FDCC effort for Windows 7.

Further, Microsoft works very closely with Government offices, both Federal and State and has a separate website devoted specifically to those entities.  The public site:  http://www.microsoft.com/industry/government/default.aspx?id=0

Personally, I would much rather that Government offices dealing with not only personal information but also defense data have the most secure operating system possible.  How many times have you read about laptops with confidential data being stolen?  This includes Government employees.  Windows XP does not have the features of Windows 7 -- AppLocker (uses Group Policies for providing access to applications), BitLocker (Drive Encryption) and BitLocker To Go (BitLocker Drive Encryption for password-protected portable media, such as USB flash drives).