Elliott C. Back: In Aere Aedificare

IE8: Acid Test Passes

Posted in Spread IE, Browsers, Microsoft, Firefox by Elliott Back on March 6th, 2008.

You’ll be surprised to see that Internet Explorer 8 Beta (8.0.6001.14184) does better on the Acid2 test than Firefox 2 (2.0.0.12) does:

acid2-ff-vs-ie.png
Safari also passes the Acid2 test, but nobody uses it

The results are far worse on the Acid3 test, with IE8 scoring 17% and Firefox scoring 50%, but I believe they are intended. See, when Microsoft releases Beta 2 of their browser, it will definitely pass the Acid3 tests to give the community just that much more shock and awe:

acid3-firefox-vs-ie.png
Safari gets 39%, yay?

Ironically, the IE8 website throws an error when viewed with IE8. I guess that’s what they mean by improved standards compliance:

ie8-error.png

Worse, the Official Microsoft Site prompts to install some nasty, spyware-looking ActiveX control to view the IE8 site:

active-x.png

Congratulations Microsoft, on passing the Acid2, but unfortunately you have a laundry list of things to do, not limited to (a) make it faster and lighter than Firefox, (b) build in good developer tools, (c) get rid of ActiveX, (d) make a more usable UI, or (e) fix your own website to work in IE.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 7:29 pm and is tagged with internet explorer 8, microsoft releases beta, acid2 test, shock and awe, laundry list, microsoft site, acid test, developer tools, ie8, own website, firefox, safari, yay, ui, spyware, compliance, microsoft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.

4 Responses to 'IE8: Acid Test Passes'

  1. Asa Dotzler said:

    on March 6th, 2008 at 10:16 pm

    Comparing a beta version of IE with a version of Firefox that’s been shipping for a long time seems a bit unfair. Compared to Firefox’s beta, you won’t find any IE lead on Acid2 or Acid3 (where Firefox’s beta crushes IE’s beta.)

    - A

  2. Shawn Wilsher said:

    on March 6th, 2008 at 11:46 pm

    Firefox 3 nightlies hit 68/100 on the acid 3 test page ;)

  3. Asa Dotzler said:

    on March 7th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    Oh, I forgot to say that Firefox pre-releases developer builds have been passing* the ACID2 test since April 11, 2006 (yes, 2006). The first evidence that we have of IE passing ACID2 came less than 3 months ago**.

    * www.flickr.com/photos/dbaron/126886608/
    ** blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/12/19/internet-explorer-8-and-acid2-a-milestone.aspx

  4. BP said:

    on March 24th, 2008 at 1:04 pm

    Pretty dim comparing a beta that’s been out a few weeks with a browser that was released almost two years ago.

    Are you aware that there’s a new release of Firefox that’s been in beta for months and is due for final release very soon?

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