IE9 at MIX10 – six questions for Microsoft

Since Microsoft announced its general strategy for Internet Explorer 9, 4
months ago
, rumors have started to do rounds. Questions like Will IE 9 be
“more compatible”?, will IE 9 be more secure?

Especially the last question is vital, because lately not a week has gone by
when soem sort of IE flaw wasn’t discovered

The following are questions planned to ask Dean Hachamovitch, next week :

Who cares? I don’t mean that question to come across as rude, but a lot of
people have questioned whether Internet Explorer is still relevant. IE still
counts a majority share among Internet users, but just barely, and the
competition is very aggressive. Can IE9 recapture mind share the way Windows 7
did? And in particular, can you get the fickle Twitterati and Techmeme crowd to
take IE9 seriously?

How are you going to address compatibility concerns? IE8 was a huge step
forward in terms of supporting standards, but it still falls short on some key
tests like ACID3, and there are still thousands of high-profile sites that don’t
work well in IE8. Will IE9 add more complexity to this equation, or will it make
things easier for frazzled developers?

What about HTML5 support? It must be a relief to watch Apple and Adobe fight
over Flash and not have to get dragged into that argument. But the anti-Flash
crowd is pinning its hopes on a still-fluid standard called HTML5. Will IE9
support HTML5?

What’s the latest on performance?
Most of your competition (Google Chrome in
particular) is vocal about its superior performance compared to IE8, and
reviewers seem to agree. I know you’re planning to tap into GPUs to improve page
rendering, but what else are you doing to address performance concerns?

What’s the security story? Internet Explorer has gotten a bad rap lately,
mostly for the sins of older versions. Is there anything new in the security
infrastructure for IE9?

When will it be ready to ship? Every previous major release of Internet
Explorer has been tied to a new version of Windows: IE6 and XP, IE7 and Vista,
and IE8 with Windows 7. Why break the pattern with this release?

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