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Free Internet Explorer 8: Full Version Available Now

IE8 has been unleashed! An article for Software4Students.ie - Ireland's Discount Software Store Tuesday 17th March 2009

To download Internet Explorer 8, click here. The web browser debate may be providing good copy for tech journalists but the bottom line is that Internet Explorer remains as popular as ever due to ease of use. Although the internet has finally gone mainstream, those responsible for working in and reporting on the tech industry have yet to grasp the fact that the man on the street does not think the way they do. It may help the marketing people to have cool new features to plug but ultimately it is the basic issue of usability which makes up people's minds. That's partly why so many websites have features which are blindly obvious to programmers and confusing to everyone else! As I've written previously, software is not a sports team. Creating your own digital toolbox is always a good idea. Whether you need to create a PDF in Microsoft Word or manage RSS feeds from your favourite sites in IE8, you can never have enough quality software, especially when in IE8's case, it is free. No matter what web browser you try out, if you find yourself asking questions like, "What does that do? Why is that there? Where did this come from?" then chances are your curiosity is being stretched to its limits. Learning new software skills is vital. Trying to cope with browser design usability issues is not. Having been using the beta version of IE8 for a few months, I can honestly say that I've not had to ask myself many questions. Naturally it does have cool new features for the marketing people to plug with names like "Accelerators" and such like but let's face it, as long as it does what people want with the minimum of effort required than it'll remain the most popular browser around. As the comedian Stuart Lee would suggest, books should inspire us. On the other hand, navigating the browser's favourites menu (website bookmarks) during your lunch break shouldn't require us to split the atom. Access to information should always be getting easier.
Internet Explorer 8 Technology
The arrival of Internet Explorer 8 has increased suggestions online that Microsoft should abandon support of it's much maligned older browser, IE6. It is quite possible that anyone installing Windows XP on a computer today would still find themselves using IE6 as their default browser until they carried out Windows Updates. XP's lingering popularity has in effect lengthened the life span also of IE6, a dated browser which compared now to the likes of Opera, Safari or Chrome is woefully inadequate. The forthcoming Microsoft operating system Windows 7 is therefore likely to play a large role in killing off IE6 once and for all, ensuring that IE8 is the benchmark for users. In the words of arstechnica.com: "It's good to see Microsoft fight back with a vengeance." To download Internet Explorer 8, click here.

Want to know more about browser technology and IE8? Read all the latest articles here.

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