I've been nursing several grudges against Internet Explorer (IE) 9 for a while now—and was planning on keeping them to myself. But when Microsoft started up the spin machine for IE10 a mere 29 days after IE9 was officially released, they struck a nerve. More importantly, the way they struck that nerve convinced me that their direction is about as wrong as it could be when it comes to what IE9 and IE10 are going to mean for web developers.
A Question of DirectionChrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari all share a common trait—which is that each of these browsers is trying very hard to establish itself as the "platform of choice" for web content among the denizens of the Internet. Superficially, Internet Explorer shares this same commonality.
The difference, however, is that while Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari are all striving to make their browsers the platform of choice across all operating systems, Microsoft is taking an entirely different approach by targeting only the latest versions of Windows (Vista and/or Windows 7). More specifically, Microsoft is really stressing the "native" capabilities of the operating system as being the key to achieving their goals.
Consequently, while Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari are all striving to enable developers to create HTML5 applications that enable robust end-user experiences across all operating systems, Internet Explorer has a chip on its shoulder, trying to prove that Vista or Windows 7 is the key to a successful browsing experience.
In Microsoft's defense, the prospect of end users adopting browsers as their "platform" doesn't look too appealing when you're sitting atop an empire based upon the sale of operating system licenses. As such, it's not that surprising when the
blog post introducing IE10 ends up reading more like a manifesto for how great the latest versions of Windows are.
The Spin Machine Is Out of ControlYet Microsoft amazingly continues to both
apologize for IE6 and beg people to
upgrade to a better and safer browser while simultaneously
continuing official support of IE6 until April 8, 2014, and releasing IE9—which won't run on Windows XP.
Consequently, Microsoft continues to send very mixed messages.
On one hand they tell developers that IE6 was the worst browser ever, and IE9 will make up for all the pain developers have suffered at the hands of IE6—only to tell us, merely 29 days later, that IE9 needs to be thrown under the bus to make way for IE10. Yet, simultaneously, Microsoft is telling businesses running Windows XP that IE6 is perfect for their needs and will be fully supported until 2014 at the same time they're telling consumers running Windows XP that IE8 is what they should be using.
Sadly, Microsoft and the IE team are getting really good at telling people what they want to hear. For eons now the Microsoft spin machine has been telling developers that IE9 will have the best support for HTML5 of any browser available—while the reality is much more complex than that.
Only, instead of addressing that complexity (or Microsoft's laudable stance of only implementing finalized features), Microsoft and the IE team have cherry-picked tests and prominently displayed them to the point of making it seem like Internet Explorer 10 is the only browser that complies with web standards while all other modern browsers (including IE9) fall short.
Take a look at the
chart yourself. It speaks volumes. Before the release of the IE10 preview, IE8 was listed in this chart to show its woeful inadequacies. Now that IE10 is the new focus, IE9 has been thrown under the bus. For example, IE9 used to weigh in with a perfect 100 percent on all existing tests, but now that IE10 is the new focus, new tests have been released and IE9 just isn't as standards compliant as it used to be (only a few months ago).