New Release

Sometime August 2008, software giant Microsoft released for download the 2nd Beta editionof Internet Explorer 8. The famous browser came in four flavors, namely English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and German.

Shortly thereafter on September 16, the Redmond company went live with the second attack of IE8 Beta 2 releases, offering the browser in a whopping localized versions. The hot-off the shelf IE8 Beta 2 are supported only on the 32-bit versions of Windows Vista RTM and Service Pack 1, Windows XP SP2 and SP3 and Windows Server 2008.

Is it worth the download?

21 Additional Languages

“The IE team is pleased to announce the availability of Internet Explorer Beta 2 in 21 additional languages. The languages released today are fully localized versions of the IE8 English Beta 2. The Complete List of IE8 Beta 2 Languages: Arabic, Chinese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish,” explained Vishwac Sena Kannan, International Program Manager.

Microsoft is currently gearing up for the availability of the gold build of Internet Explorer 8. The Redmond giant has not confirmed a deadline, except to say that it expects to deliver the final IE8 two years after the general availability of Internet Explorer 7 considered by the company to be January 30, 2007, the Windows Vista launch day. However, all indications point to a November release of IE8 final, including the fact that Microsoft is only offering support for the Beta 2 build of Internet Explorer 8 until the end of October.

“When installing localized versions of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 on XP or Windows Server 2003 please remember that the base language of the operating system must match the IE8 language you are trying to install; otherwise the Setup Wizard will display an error. For Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the base language of Windows does not need to match the Internet Explorer 8 language version in order for a successful install. When your user active language matches the Internet Explorer 8 language you installed, then IE8 will appear in the desired language. You will still be able to use IE8 in all other scenarios, but it will appear in English as a fall back version,” Kannan added.

Cool Reception

The public generally didn’t jump up and down to rave over the new iteration. Scan the blogs and there’s defeaning….silence. It’s like “hohum… okay, so what?”

I’m not surprised too. After sampling the beta versions I found myself terribly unimpressed. Same tabs are there. Sites load as lethargically as before. And it doesn’t support the same massive featureset that Firefox does with it plugins. And if IE8 is anything like the previous incarnations, it won’t be long before vulnerabilities start sinking this titanic.

Firefox for me. I’m skipping this one.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 [8.0.6001.18241] (link 1)
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 [8.0.6001.18241] (link 2)