FlashHero said:
But what are your opinions? Will you switch if everything is true?
I won't switch, because I've been using the beta since it was published anyway.
First I was just curious, and I slowly got more and more attached to it. Here are just some of the reasons:
Security:
IE uses a Windows function (which is - by the way - available for all software) that puts the associated processes on even lower permissions than the current user.
Privacy mode:
Since in IE every tab is one process, I can switch to privacy mode without closing any of the existing ones, and just close the privacy window when I don't need it anymore.
Jump List integration:
I actually don't know if other browsers finally make proper use of the jumplist by now, but IE does it, and does it well, so it's an advantage to me.
Tab management:
Every IE9 tab is shown in the taskbar as if it were a window (since the windows get grouped by program, it doesn't clutter the taskbar), making switching between them easy, even if there are a lot of them. If I don't have too many tabs open, I can see a current preview of each. Granted, videos don't play when minimised, but at least I see the state of the page at the moment I opened the list. I can simply close any tab by middle-clicking on it in taskbar view (or the browser for that matter). I can move tabs around freely. Tabs that are opened in the same "tree" (originating from the same page or successive pages) get colour-coded and can be closed as a group (single tabs can also be un-grouped). Dragging a tab detaches it from the window, releasing it in "free air" creates a new window, moving it to screen edges performs appropriate snap actions.
Bookmarks/Favourites:
The IE Favourites are neatly integrated into the Windows interface, and even get synchronised between my desktop PC and my netbook, automatically and silently (as long as Live Mesh is running).
Page Apps:
I had no idea how else to call this function. A web page in IE9 can be attached to the taskbar like a program. Once attached, it will be displayed with the asssociated icon (the e logo in escapist's case) and when the page gets opened that way, the browser controls get a matching colour scheme. Web pages attached this way can be handled like normal attached programs.
Resource management:
If I close an IE9 tab, it's gone. It can be restored If I want to (via the "new tab" page), but as far as the system is concerned, the process is gone from memory and CPU.
After a while, my Firefox process usually needs about 800M RAM + about 200M for "plugincontainer" and pretty much all of my CPU, either for itself, or because the system is swapping like mad.
Message handling:
IE9 messages, including downloads, are displayed in a non-intrusive, yet easily visible way by showing a yellow bar at the bottom of the screen.
Progress display:
IE9 download progress is displayed on the program icon in the taskbar. Firefox downloads aren't, unless you're using a download manager plugin which does that.
Web Slices:
As far as I know, no other browser does that: Some sites offer a "web slice" which is basically a small page which gets saved as a bookmark, and when you click on it, it doesn't go to the linked page, but instead opens the page in a small dropdown window. Really useful to quickly check the weather forecast (Bing search results including "weather" and a location name automatically generate these slices), see your social networking news or whatever other sites offer for it.
There are a few disadvantages though: Since every tab is its own process, sometimes it can take a second to open a new one, and there is no significant amount of plugins available.
