Vista - IE8 delayed? Microsoft extends support cutoff for IE8 betas

In August IE8 Beta 2 was released in English, German, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese, and in September Microsoft released support for 21 more languages. Microsoft officially set the deadline for the final version for later this year, and left it at that. We noted in September that, according to the IE8 Beta 2 support page, prerelease versions of IE8 would no longer be supported come November 1, 2008, suggesting that the final version would arrive this month. We've noticed, however, that this date has been recently changed to December 31:

Free unlimited installation and usage support is available for Internet Explorer 8 pre-released versions, but only for North America English customers. This support for Internet Explorer 8 pre-released versions is valid until December 31st, 2008.

Full Story: IE8 delayed? Microsoft extends support cutoff for IE8 betas

Hey that's my b-day when IE8 is suppose to be released.

Well those are just timeframes, Microsoft still hasn't given a date

Not surprised after the bug I reported last week (Its a big one)...It will be pushed back another month or two

I have used it and does anyone really care if it ever comes out?

I find it to suck and still get way more spyware and other crap than I ever get in FF!

80% of all Windows machines use IE exclusively (numbering in the millions)...Thats why its important they get IE8 out soon because by default its way more secure than IE7, I haven't got one virus though IE yet thanks to Protected Mode so if you leave UAC turned on then nothing can infect your machine unless you agree to allow that crapware on there

I used it too - and I say All hail {insert your favorite non MSIE browser here}.

For me it is Fx 3.1 RC 1, followed by Iron, Opera and Orca.

Hi dmex, are you saying IE + UAC is way more secure than Firefox? This would be good to know definitively, as I use Firefox because I think it is inherently safer. But, maybe UAC gives IE the edge?

Norm

Hi Norm,

Its debatable..

Internet Explorer with UAC enabled allows IE to run with a lower Integrity Level than Guest which is more secure than Firefox, however it also comes with ActiveX that give IE a greater attack surface...

Firefox runs under your user account and while that's not as secure as Protected Mode, Firefox has a smaller attack surface than IE because it doesnt expose itself to ActiveX...

Its a 50/50 but I say Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer ever will be because it doesnt use ActiveX (they need to make ActiveX obsolete before we start seeing some major improvemets to Internet Explorer)

Thanks for the explanation. Good to know the why!