Could IE 8 Be Great?

• By Doug Barney
• 08/28/2008

Microsoft is trying to entice people like me back into the fold with IE 8, now in its second beta. The new browser steals one cool feature of Firefox: When your browser dies, it will restore your old session, including all the tabs.

For admins, there are new tools to make it easier to deploy, especially if you're rolling out Vista images.

Are there compelling reasons to use IE over Firefox? If so, what are they? Answers readily accepted at [email protected].

Consumers Voting with Their Downgrades
Vista has more features, and is far newer than XP. And it actually costs money to remove the new Vista and install the seven-year-old XP.

So why would over a third of new PC customers go through the trouble and expense of downgrading to XP? Because XP works!

There are many people that like Vista -- even some that really like it (though I have yet to hear the word "love" used). But for way too many, Vista is slow, unpredictable and incompatible. Microsoft needs a Manhattan Project to fix or replace Vista tout de suite. After all, as Bill Gates used to say, "It's only software."

How would you fix Vista? Send your best to [email protected]. Hopefully, Microsoft will be reading.

Microsoft Lost Another One
Redmond Report readers have probably heard about my sons Nick and David and their love for Mac laptops. Their older sister Lauren, on the other hand, has been a real holdout.

Her first machine was a PC laptop -- I never even thought to suggest a Mac. After that one started to die, I suggested a Mac; it would save me some headaches and her some heartache. Nothing doing. Another laptop, a Toshiba I think, was acquired. The screen on this baby died, and once again I pitched Apple, pointing to her brothers' experience. Nope -- this time, an HP fit the bill. Now it's two years later, and the HP is getting slower and less trustworthy. Another PC? No, sir. This time Lauren demanded a Mac.

I blame Microsoft. Some of her college classmates are using Vista, and there's less than total happiness. And getting a new machine to run an old OS, XP, just doesn't make sense.

She got her new MacBook to arrive today. But don't cry for Microsoft. We'll still have to shell out more than a hundred bucks for Mac Office.

Mailbag: Mac Servers and Virtualization, More
Doug recently asked for a show of hands to determine who uses Mac servers for virtual Vista and XP desktops. Here are your responses:

We don't use Mac servers, and I don't know anyone that uses Mac servers in an enterprise environment. And using them to drive VM Vista or XP desktops is even more out there. I'm sure there are a few people out there, but I very much doubt that it is close to 23 percent, or even 3 percent. They may be counting non-Windows as a whole as Mac servers (Unix, Linux, BSD, Mac).
-Dustin

I have not seen a single Mac server in an enterprise IT computer room. Who are these virtual people?
-Anonymous

Well, we sort of use Mac servers. Being that we are a large university, there is not much control over what the faculty or even tech workers for individual departments do. I'm guessing that there are about 10 or so, but none in the datacenter. I don't know of any that are being used to run virtual Windows machines.
-Charlie

Yes, I use Macs for Hyper-V. I run Win 2003 images on a Dell with Win 2008. However, I have some Win XP and Win NT images that were virtualized on MS VS 2005. When I migrated them over to the Hyper-V on Win 2008, I discovered that Hyper-V only supports Vista, Win 2003, and Win 2008 and above. I also saw that Hyper-V will only support two cores per image on Win 2003 images, and I can only assign cores in multiples of two.

On my Mac Pro, I run Parallels Hyper-V server for Mac. It runs my Win XP images just fine. Also, I can assign up to eight cores to any image including Win 2003 and in multiples of 1. I have a Win 2003 Enterprise image as a TS assigned with three cores, not possible with Hyper-V. Performance seems to by equitable between images running on the Mac and the Dell. However, I have not been able to add Win 2003 images running on Mac to a server farm that has images running on the Dell.
-Stephen

Is it always true that downgrading to XP costs more than it does to just keep Vista? A few readers don't think so:

I don't know if I agree with that statement. If businesses have to upgrade a large amount of their desktop apps due to Vista incompatibility, the costs can add up quickly. In an economic downturn, businesses aren't willing to pay to upgrade their expensive, slightly aged, mission-critical desktop apps (that still get the job done) just to be able to run a not-so-stellar OS.
-Chris

This is so not true if you are a large corp. Large corps spend tens of millions on testing their in-house apps with new OSes, so why would they want to spend all of that additional money to test their apps with Vista if XP is working for them?
-Nicholaus

On the topic of Vista, Scott shares his thoughts on where the OS is falling short:

Just wanted to give my two cents on Vista: I just bought my wife a new computer with Vista installed and we both love it! I think a majority of the problems Vista is experiencing is due to familiarity; people like what they know and don't embrace change just for the sake of change. I'm guilty of that at times, too.

I think it's also due to hubris (and a little ignorance) on the part of Microsoft and its OEM partners. Vista does require some good hardware to run and selling Vista Ready vs. Vista Capable PCs was a mistake when all it was going to do was confuse customers. Vista on a Celeron with 1GB RAM and a 128MB video card -- c'mon, they should know better; a dual core 2GHz CPU with 2GB RAM and a 256MB video card should be MINIMUM specs for installing Vista (that and good drivers). After all, you want your customers to enjoy their experience, not ponder why it's so slow and unresponsive compared to their XP machine.
-Scott

Speaking of Vista's appeal (or lack thereof), Jeremy has one suggestion to fix it:

Someone in recent Mailbag section mentioned the nerdy Mac guy from the Apple spots. Does he have a non-compete clause or could Microsoft throw an obscene amount of money at him to switch? Maybe have PC guy kidnap him from a brainwashing cult to realize Vista is good.
-Jeremy

And finally, Dean shares his thoughts on the recent passing of longtime InfoWorld writer Ed Foster:

I have been a fan and avid reader of Ed's work for many years. It was a real shock to get the e-mail from Jeff Foster saying that his father had passed away. Ed was a very vocal advocate for those that did not have the media platform to bring issues to a wide audience. He was not shy about taking on the "big guys," whether it be for one person or a whole class of people, and that won him the admiration of us all. We all lost a friend and leader at his passing.
-Dean

Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].