Should Web Developers upgrade to Internet Explorer 8?

Question

I am a web applications developer stuck working on a Windows machine. Today I got an update notification asking me to upgrade Internet Explorer to version 8. I previously had IE 8 installed during the beta, but uninstalled it due to inconsistencies between it's 'compatibility mode' and a stand-alone version of IE 7 (very weird, albeit 'fringe', javascript/css errors).

So my question is, have those inconsistencies been worked out by now? If I test a site in compatibility mode, how confident can I be that that's exactly how it will appear/work in IE 7? Do you think it's 'safe' for a web developer to upgrade to IE 8 at this point in time?

Answer 1

I haven't had any problems with compatibility mode. I upgraded to IE8, although we still have a test machine that runs IE7. I also use IETester, which is a FANTASTIC tool.

Answer 2

Everyone else running Windows and not in a corporate environment that filters such things is also getting that same update notification.

So, if your users are mostly using company computers where IT departments control IE upgrades, sticking with IE7 on your primary machine (and testing in IE8 in a virtual or other machine) would likely be the best option.

Otherwise, you should move with the majority of your users and either use a virtual machine with IE7 for backward-testing, or use the compatibility mode.

Answer 3

I'm currently developing web sites for IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome all on the same machine.

I use IE8 to test both IE8 and IE7 rendering (using the Developer tools that are including, you can switch the browser between IE8 and IE7 rendering modes...not to mention switch between Quirks and Compatibility mode for each browser).

To get back to IE6 I use the Beta of Microsoft SuperPreview (if you haven't seen it, check it out...they're going to offer Firefox and Safari rendering to it last I checked)

Answer 4

Hello tj. The best advice I can give is that you keep a few Virtual Machines with IE7 and IE6. IE8 has been very inconsistent for me as well, crashing every now and then. Compatibility mode seems to work at least in my sites, so that part looks ok.

Answer 5

You should be developing on whatever browsers are most popular for your audience. If you anticipate your readers are going to be using IE 8, then you should use IE 8.

Obviously you should test in everything, but you should give more focus to what your users are most likely to use.

Answer 6

You can always run different versions of Internet Explorer in Virtual PC to emulate different environments. That's what we do, at it really works.

Microsoft even released this for free (see above link).

Answer 7

I think it's worth it for the built-in Developer's Toolkit. (press F12 to see)

Have you considered installing Virtual PC (free) or VMWare and running IE7 in a VM?

Answer 8

If you use a tool like jQuery for your client-side programming, in theory "all" of the compatibility testing has already been done for you. They have enormous test suites to ensure this.

Answer 9

I went with IE Collection and love it.

http://finalbuilds.edskes.net/iecollection.htm

Answer 10

Install IE8, you need to be able to check pages in IE8 after all. To check with older versions, you can install IETester. It saves you from bothering with virtual machines.

Answer 11

After trying IE8's Developer Tools (press F12) and seeing how nice it is, i can say that its a must to upgrade, and you have many other ways to test on previous versions as previous answers listed.

A similar Developer Toolbar was available for download for IE7.

Answer 12

HO MY GOD YES!

IE8 is a really good product by Micrsoft. Not only it's fast (not as fast as it should be, but it's good enough), but it ripped off all of the features Firebug has. It also contains the rendering engine of IE7, so you are really not loosing anything, only winning.

Press F12, and you will be able to choose how to display the page: IE7, IE8 or some middle thing which I never understand. You can also force the web browser to render in IE7 mode by adding this to your HTML code (taken from http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/06/10/introducing-ie-emulateie7.aspx )

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

I have also this to say: the sites I build usually don't have display problems under IE8 and look the same as FF3, Opera, Konqueror, Chrome etc... It's actually a good browser.

Answer 13

Another possible solution is using a multiple IE installation as provided here: http://finalbuilds.edskes.net/iecollection.htm.