Reviews/Opinions: Internet Explorer 7 beta

Fedz

I've been using IE7 beta for awhile now! Has anyone else been using it and what do you think of it (opinions/reviews) please?

I'd review and post my opnion of it on here but but in all honesty it's a very sad disappointment with a poor and half hearted attempt at tabs - why do I sound surprised :rolleyes:

I just thank God I'm a K-Meleon user.

To say Microsoft have all this money and techies ...etc - they can't even start with a half decent beta! :rotfl:

I don't see Microsoft winning back the browser share it's quickly loosing and this will only help to loose it quicker!

Kind regards

Mr_Skint_2

So as youve been using it can you post your views please...

Fran

What is K-meleon like, have you used it long? How does it compare to Mozilla?

Mr_Skint_2

K-melon more like its a stripped out version of Firefox in some respects but slower.

Fedz

The install/upgrade to IE7 (beta) was very easy, simple and straightforward - no problem.

Upon launching it:
The graphics look the same and the toolbars are messy in appearance.

You notice this BIG oversized tab area with small tab you click to open new tab or you can double click the tab bar.

Theirs nothing new in the drop-down menus except a phishing filter in tools area but everything else is simply ordinary.

I attempted to move the icons, menus, address bar ...etc as you can in the previous version but the back and forward buttons at immediate top of window can not be moved and the same bar the address input area is nothing on this top bar can be moved or anything moved onto it - like previous IE can.
So in effect you have a top bar with a very long address bar and search input area and that's it but you can change the search engine settings - nothing new really!

Under that is second layer of tabs but in my opinion they are tatty looking, not well designed to look at and is very basic and half hearted attempt at tabs.
You can double click a blank area of tab bar to open new tab or r.click to bring up the menu to open new tab.
To close you can double click the tab to close it but you have to r.click it and close it from menu or use the X cross on the far right of the tabs layer. - very disappointing!

The 3rd bar is your standard buttons and menus - the can be moved around but not onto or above the above layers so in effect nothing can be done with them!

In fullscreen mode it gets worse!

You loose the standard icons and menus so it disables you from clicking between the icons of favourites, history ...etc - you have to press F11 or the icon in the very top right to come out of fullscreen to then be able to click your standard icons and or menus.

The good thing is in fullscreen the tabs appear and go as you move mouse near top of screen, which is to be expected but they do look out of proportion and are quite large!

Again in fullscreen mode you just have layer 1 and layer 2 with layer 3 missing and I can't find a option to tell IE to keep layer 3 (which is used alot) visible when in fullscreen mode - like layer 1 and 2 is!

In summary: a waste of time and 3rd party browser fronts such as DeepNet, GreenBrowser are much more user-ability and configurability than IE7 will ever be.

The others have moved on a lot quicker and will always be in front as it really does take Microsoft too long to release new, fresh and inspiring browser. When they do after all this time (i know it's a beta but ...) it's nothing new, it's been standard for months upon months with others!

Kind regards

Fedz

Mr_Skint wrote:

K-melon more like its a stripped out version of Firefox in some respects but slower.

In my case I found K-meleon faster than Firefox on all my PC's of different specs - I found FireFox quite bloated!

Personal preference I know but I find K-Meleon alot more slimmer (leaner), faster and highly configurable

Kind regards

Mr_Skint_2

I did some research testing myself and found K-meleon to be slower on my home PC I did a time test with K-meleon, Opera, Netscape, and FF and IE, and I will have to say IE came out on top in speed trials on a 512kbs connection with Sygate Firewall and I will be the first to admit that IE has some security issues so do other browsers but not as many, but then again my firewall and Antivirus and Washer is always constantly maintaining my system.

The tests were carried out on the same Website, Network Solutions Homepage, at hourly intervals for 2days from 7pm to 12pm.

Best Wishes :dance:

Fedz

Right I'm thinking page loading and sytem resources

I use the K-Meleon 0.9 with Mozilla 1.7.11 rendering engine - an un-official version

I find IE faster at rendering pages and page loading time than K-meleon but the difference is not large enough to warrant me to use IE as K-meleon is highly configurable.

I use the internet in fullscreen and with K-meleon I can alter the r.click menu to have whatever I want eg: my favourites (bookmarks), search pop-up window along with the standard menu eg: highlighted text > goto url, search a search engine you prefer, wikipedia, dictionaries, send page, save page ...etc.

I have never, ever found or thought of K-meleon being slow!

Kind regards

Mr_Skint_2

Fedz wrote:

Right I'm thinking page loading and sytem resources

I use the K-Meleon 0.9 with Mozilla 1.7.11 rendering engine - an un-official version

I find IE faster at rendering pages and page loading time than K-meleon but the difference is not large enough to warrant me to use IE as K-meleon is highly configurable.

I use the internet in fullscreen and with K-meleon I can alter the r.click menu to have whatever I want eg: my favourites (bookmarks), search pop-up window along with the standard menu eg: highlighted text > goto url, search a search engine you prefer, wikipedia, dictionaries, send page, save page ...etc.

I have never, ever found or thought of K-meleon being slow!

Kind regards

Sorry man Yep I was just on about page download speed (still IE is a mess) :T

Fedz

An update on IE 7 I missed and is important:

The favourites whilst not in fullscreen doesn't have the pin or not to pin option but in fullscreen it's again worse as you loose the icons and munus so can't get rid of favourites at the left very quick.

In my honest opinion a perfect example of no thought before any release (even a beta) and how a browser shouldn't be.

If I had anything good to say and I used with an open and un-biased mind I'd say but I really can't see anything - it's an awful shame lol

Mr_Skint_2

Fedz have you got a link for Customer Review to submit thoughts on IE7 or wont they take outside help.