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IE9 will have better JavaScript performance

19 November 2009 13:13 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 15 comments

Microsoft has said today that its upcoming Internet Explorer 9 browser will "nearly" close the JavaScript performance gap that its current browser version has against rivals Firefox and Chrome.

The claim is notable especially because the software giant only started developing IE9 last month.

Says Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft president of Windows and Windows Live: "We know we have a lot of work to do in some areas of performance. [However], we're getting very close to the other browsers."

Mozilla's director of community development Asa Dotzler says the move is unsurprising but Microsoft still has tons of work to do to match Firefox or Chrome in terms of speed and performance.

"Microsoft dug a huge hole when it mostly abandoned IE6 and the Web from 2001 until 2006. Their early efforts at ramping back up with IE7 were a big disappointment to most Web developers and while their efforts with IE8 were much better, they're still at least a full generation behind the modern browsers," says Dotzler.

Currently, Chrome performs JavaScript benchmarking tests 10 times faster than Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox performs them at 4 times the speed.

Somewhat shockingly is the low Acid3 scores for Internet Explorer. The Acid3 benchmark test "is a test page from the Web Standards Project that checks how well a web browser follows certain selected elements from web standards, especially relating to the Document Object Model and JavaScript." IE9 scores a 32 out of 100, while Chrome, Safari and Firefox all score 100/100. Even the beta of Firefox 3.6 scores a 92.

"We need to do a better job on Acid3," Sinofsky confirmed. "We have made some improvements in IE9, which now scores 32 out of 100." IE8 scored a 24.

Permalink to this article

Microsoft tells users to drop Internet Explorer 6, XP too (20 January 2010)

German government warns about using Internet Explorer (16 January 2010)

Firefox 4 delayed until 2011 (29 December 2009)

Mobile Firefox coming within 'days' (26 December 2009)

Firefox 3.6 final release delayed until 2010 (19 December 2009)

Google to launch Chrome Extensions this week (6 December 2009)

Internet Explorer slides again in September (2 October 2009)

YouTube to drop Internet Explorer 6 support (15 July 2009)

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8 (19 March 2009)

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Morreale (Member) 19 November 2009 13:31
IE is just so horrible it's sad... My school uses it instead of anything else, I don't know why :( [ + quote]
scum101 (Inactive) 19 November 2009 13:34
"nearly" close the JavaScript performance gap hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha oh so "cutting edge" eh M$?? Yes, we give you 100% free, no strings attached email! Just send us your address and we will send you as much free email as you could ever wish for [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 19 November 2009 13:35
manrod (Junior Member) 19 November 2009 14:30
Great news from Microsoft... whispers Do they realise that pretty much everyone one uses anything buy IE to browse the web? [ + quote]
grkblood (Senior Member) 19 November 2009 16:40
*Originally posted by manrod:* Great news from Microsoft... whispers Do they realise that pretty much everyone one uses anything buy IE to browse the web? retarded statement, you realize that every single pole ever conducted on this matter proves you're wrong right? [ + quote]
getanacct (Newbie) 19 November 2009 18:37
I'll believe that Microsoft will improve IE when they actually do it. I'll probably still be waiting when the new browser comes out. [ + quote]
Pop_Smith (Senior Member) 19 November 2009 18:51
*Originally posted by Morreale:* IE is just so horrible it's sad... My school uses it instead of anything else, I don't know why :( Luckily the college I'm attending installed Firefox 3.5 on all the computers on campus at the beginning on the current semester. Despite being on XP the IT department also upgraded all the computers to IE8. *Originally posted by manrod:* Great news from Microsoft... whispers Do they realise that pretty much everyone one uses anything buy IE to browse the web? I'm sorry but according to NetApplications, which is a highly regarded website to get analytic data from, as of the first week of November Internet Explorer has a 63% hold on the market. I'd venture to say that IE6, which was released with XP in 2001, still holds 20+% of that 63%. Firefox has a 25% share, which is respectable but it is less than half of IE's portion and just barely more than IE6. See this report for more information. One thing Microsoft needs to understand is that all their competitors browsers are standards compliant. Not that Microsoft cares, but they could save web developers tons of time by making IE9 100% compliant with web standards. Safari and Chrome (and probably Firefox as well) are compliant with what is done of HTML5; Microsoft need to make IE9 compatible as well. Peace EDITED by Pop_Smith: Forgot to close the quote tag. >.< [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 19 November 2009 18:53
bluedogs (Junior Member) 19 November 2009 20:00
Sweeeeeeeeet Microsoft is releasing IE that nearly closes the javascript issues. How good is this going to be...... Oh heck I can't do it. Hey M$ give up with IE guys, you have not released a decent browser since IE6. As for "nearly" well here's a target for ya how about "all". Stop releasing unfinished, slugish, unsecure rubbish and people might actually give you guys a fair go. As for the 63% that's because IE is forced upon users especiallysince Vista and even worse now in Win7. Now don't forget to add new users who don't know how to change browsers because they believed M$ statements such as Vista is now IE8 and convincing people that you needed Vista or better to use it. It's like Acer, Dell, Compaq releasing monitors with stickers on them saying "Vista Ready" well deeeer of course it is, or even Netcomm with "Vista Ready" stickers on the boxes of the broadband modem/routers/wireless.... again deeeer of course it is. [ + quote]
DXR88 (Senior Member) 19 November 2009 22:10
*Originally posted by bluedogs:* Sweeeeeeeeet Microsoft is releasing IE that nearly closes the javascript issues. How good is this going to be...... Oh heck I can't do it. Hey M$ give up with IE guys, you have not released a decent browser since IE6. As for "nearly" well here's a target for ya how about "all". Stop releasing unfinished, slugish, unsecure rubbish and people might actually give you guys a fair go. As for the 63% that's because IE is forced upon users especiallysince Vista and even worse now in Win7. Now don't forget to add new users who don't know how to change browsers because they believed M$ statements such as Vista is now IE8 and convincing people that you needed Vista or better to use it. It's like Acer, Dell, Compaq releasing monitors with stickers on them saying "Vista Ready" well deeeer of course it is, or even Netcomm with "Vista Ready" stickers on the boxes of the broadband modem/routers/wireless.... again deeeer of course it is. pfff. nobody is making you use IE. chrome OS comes with the chrome browser. Linux comes with Epiphany or Konqueror. Yet people always bitch when Microsoft wants to bundle there browser with there OS. [ + quote]
bluedogs (Junior Member) 19 November 2009 22:23
*Quote:* pfff. nobody is making you use IE. As I said *Quote:* As for the 63% that's because IE is forced upon users especially since Vista and even worse now in Win7. I don't use it, haven't since IE 6 :) but alot of people do and have lots of problems As for *Quote:* chrome OS comes with the chrome browser. Linux comes with Epiphany or Konqueror. I don't use them so I don't complain about them because they can't do what I want them to do. [ + quote]
Amak (Member) 19 November 2009 22:33
How about following web standards and make the browser usable? [ + quote]
SProdigy (Member) 19 November 2009 23:35
*Originally posted by Amak:* How about following web standards and make the browser usable? LOL... I think that ship has sailed! It's a shame, I STILL have to code for IE... [ + quote]
scum101 (Inactive) 20 November 2009 5:26
That's the problem.. people "still" coding technically broken pages to comply with something they should really give the finger. Code to the standards, and if it don't work with IE then who is to blame? .. Put a big banner on it.. "IE is broken, use a proper standards compliant browser. Get one here"(and a nice link to opera or firefox) See.. that's the trouble.. people lie back and take it from M$ all the time instead of doing the logical and saying "screw you, make it bloody work properly or get stuffed" Yes, we give you 100% free, no strings attached email! Just send us your address and we will send you as much free email as you could ever wish for [ + quote]
manrod (Junior Member) 20 November 2009 12:16
*Quote:* *Originally posted by manrod:* Great news from Microsoft... whispers Do they realise that pretty much everyone one uses anything buy IE to browse the web? retarded statement, you realize that every single pole ever conducted on this matter proves you're wrong right? Oh sorry I didn't realise it's a retarded statement. The again it's only your opinion which is worthless to me. I just lol at all the people still using IE and getting random spyware etc. [ + quote]
Pop_Smith (Senior Member) 20 November 2009 14:15
*Originally posted by scum101:* That's the problem.. people "still" coding technically broken pages to comply with something they should really give the finger. Code to the standards, and if it don't work with IE then who is to blame? .. Put a big banner on it.. "IE is broken, use a proper standards compliant browser. Get one here"(and a nice link to opera or firefox) I don't enjoy having to code for buggy IE (especially IE6) but if you are coding a site for someone else chances are they will want it to work with as wide of an audience as possible. They aren't paying you to build a site that looks like it's broken for 20% of its users. If you are coding a site for your own use, or you are the boss, then you can do what you want. With that being said I'd recommend using something like IE6 Upgrade Warning to notify a user of IE6 that new versions of IE exist with a link to the download page. It also has links to the download pages for Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. I use it on my personal site and included a button that says "If you want to close this window click here. By doing so you agree that the site may not fully function in your browser." This allows those that don't want to upgrade to still use the site but they have to agree to a disclaimer that it might not look pretty. Peace [ + quote]
klassic (Member) 20 November 2009 14:16
*Originally posted by scum101:* That's the problem.. people "still" coding technically broken pages to comply with something they should really give the finger. Code to the standards, and if it don't work with IE then who is to blame? .. Put a big banner on it.. "IE is broken, use a proper standards compliant browser. Get one here"(and a nice link to opera or firefox) See.. that's the trouble.. people lie back and take it from M$ all the time instead of doing the logical and saying "screw you, make it bloody work properly or get stuffed" That sounds like a great idea, just put up a big banner insulting your customers. I used to code the website for an ecommerce company. We can't just tell over half our customers "Sorry the page looks like crap, but will you still buy from us." 90% of our customers were college students with no choice but to use whatever browser their school had installed on your computer. Your banner idea might work wonders for your personal site, blog, and such, but for most businesses it won't. Most people on the internet are intelligent enough to know that the problem is with the browser. They will automatically assume your site is broken and go somewhere else. [ + quote]