Internet Explorer 9 platform preview download available now

[DavidR]

SAY GOODBYE TO WINDOWS XP FOREVER    :'(

Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch all but confirmed today that the next version of Microsoft's Web browser, Internet Explorer 9, will not be supported on Windows XP.

Hachamovitch stopped short of explicitly saying that XP would not be supported, but said that building a "modern browser" required a "modern operating system." IE9 will be heavily dependent on hardware acceleration, courtesy of its use of Direct2D and DirectWrite; neither API is available on Windows XP.
<snip>

What an absolute load of tosh, XP has a legal extended support life cycle until April 2014 that no matter how much they squirm they can't wriggle out of.

IE9 has nothing to do with XP the two are separate entities, XP shipped with IE6 and believe it or not that too has to be supported until the end of the same XP extended support life cycle also. IE7 is still getting support as I believe that came with Vista. IE8 is still supported, h*ll the paint on it is still drying out.

Yet here we are with MS announcing IE9 and wanting to have everyone switch to it to use an underhand, devious, misrepresentation that XP is dead because of the future release of IE9 is total FUD, rubbish, tosh, c**p.

Microsoft has been trying to kill XP in this FUD way since Vista was first announced, yet even now XP has around 60% market share

[news]

IE6 has been around, forever, and still going strong.  Not to worry, as DavidR stated. They (Microsoft) will figure out what they need to do to get IE9 to work with XP, when the time comes, I'm sure of that. I have a sample version of IE9 and am testing it. Sorry everyone is always so down on Internet Explorer, as well as Windows XP. When a new version of IE is introduced, as with any new product, it's always out with the older version of a system, and in with the new. It just doesn't work that way.

I happen to love all versions of IE. They have their share of problems, that's true. I've been using different versions of them, for a very long time, along with other browsers, and I just guess I've been lucky with each version. Don't worry Chris, it will be just fine. 

[Hermite15]

XP has around 60% market share

nothing to be really proud of ... on the users' side. But again, I must have been among the lucky ones (0.000000000001% or what do you reckon?)  who ditched XP for Vista and had everything up and running on a 2003 computer, printer, wifi, graphics etc...while I could read everywhere that Vista was lame, insecure, even trojan-ware (it's true I've read it ).

[Chris Thomas]

@ DavidR

It is not only IE 9 but before April 2014 USB 3.0 is going to be common and right now Windows XP 3 don't support it and as far as I know, it is never going to be supported.

Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest format shifts in 30 years. :'(

By early 2011 all hard drives will use an "advanced format" that changes how they go about saving the data people store on them.

512-byte sectors have been the norm for decades. The 512-byte size was itself inherited from floppy disks, making it an even older historical artifact. The age of this standard means that it's baked in to a lot of important software: PC BIOSes, operating systems, and the boot loaders that hand control from the BIOS to the operating system. All of this makes migration to a new standard difficult.

Instead of storing 512-byte sectors, hard disks will start using 4096-byte sectors. 4096 is a good size for this kind of thing. For one, it matches the standard size of allocation units in the NTFS filesystem, which nowadays is probably the most widely used filesystem on personal computers. Secondly, it matches the standard size of memory pages on x86 systems. Memory allocations on x86 systems are generally done in multiples of 4096 bytes, and correspondingly, many disk operations (such as reading to or from the pagefile, or reading in executable programs), which interact intimately with the memory system, are equally done in multiples of 4096 bytes.

Phoenix produced preliminary BIOS support for the specification in 2005, and Microsoft, for its part, ensured that Windows Vista would support the new sector size. Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 all support the new sector size. MacOS X supports it, and Linux kernels since September 2009 also support it.

The big obvious name missing from this list is Windows XP (and its server counterpart, Windows Server 2003). Windows XP (along with old Linux kernels) has, somewhere within its code, a fixed assumption of 512 byte sectors. Try to use it with hard disks with 4096 byte sectors and failure will ensue.

Quote from

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/03/why-new-hard-disks-might-not-be-much-fun-for-xp-users.ars/

[Hermite15]

yeah OK but XP users who spared a few bucks when not buying Vista are very unlikely to acquire new hard disks

[DavidR]

@ Chris Thomas
Again a big so what if USB3 comes out that too doesn't kill anything and users can continue using their system as they are right now.

As and when they get another new system then they will consider their options

Again so sodding what if new HDD format won't support XP, in 2011 when these come out that too doesn't kill anything and users can continue using their system as they are right now. Do you think that all current standard SATA drives will cease to exist, no they will probably get cheaper, heck you can still get IDE HDDs if you need to.

Life will continue pretty much as normal in the world after IE9, USB3 and the new HDD 'advanced' format. The earth will continue to rotate despite these FUD reports, progress happens, but that doesn't mean everything before it will die.

[Chris Thomas]

@ David

Thanks for the assurance 

But we still have to move on some day otherwise we will end up like people complaining about Avast icon issue on Windows 2000

DirectX 10 is necessary if you want your upcoming browser to use Direct 2D and other related stuff

[DavidR]

Yes, but the difference is that it is in your hands, not the doom sayers.

As and when you when you come to upgrade your system, there are crucial things you will decide, primarily what OS and win7 is out now and the paint is hardly dry in the Gold version release and MS are already talking of the next windows version.

So nearer the time that you would consider a new system having followed developments on the likes of OS, HDD development, Optical and USB devices, etc. and you try to future proof your purchase as best as possible.

Most graphics cards/chips already support directX 10 and directX 11 is already out in some graphics cards though currently there aren't many takers in the games developers but that will change when directX 11 is more common.

So don't worry about the future concern yourself with today as that is what effects your system today. Monitor developments so when you come to upgrade or get a new system you know your options.

[YoKenny]

I purchased a system last March that was capable of running Vista now Windows 7 so I am in no hurry to upgrade so I will cross that bridge when I come to it. 

It is all immaterial as its all going to end Dec 21, 2012:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KGg0BWFb-4

[Chris Thomas]

A little more info

Microsoft's new JavaScript engine, called Chakra. It will support multicore processors.

Chakra is a HINDI word so I suspect some Indian is working on it.

Maybe I am right

[YoKenny]

@ Chris Thomas

I guess it addresses the throat chakra best.
http://www.chakra-colors.com

[bong2x]

 

[RZPogi]

@ DavidR

It is not only IE 9 but before April 2014 USB 3.0 is going to be common and right now Windows XP 3 don't support it and as far as I know, it is never going to be supported.

Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest format shifts in 30 years. :'(

By early 2011 all hard drives will use an "advanced format" that changes how they go about saving the data people store on them.

Quote from

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/03/why-new-hard-disks-might-not-be-much-fun-for-xp-users.ars/

There will be drivers produced for usb 3.0 and the new HDD format for XP by some people.

[DavidR]

Well no doubt someone will come up with drivers but without USB3 ports the driver won't be of much use. Then we will be waiting for a corresponding PCI card with USB3 ports and chips.

[polonus]

Hi DavidR,

MS wants to go faster than reality allows, 56% of the OS population still is on XP SP3. To use IE9 as an excuse to abandon anything older than W7/Vista could be another issue for the EU commissioner to look into.Another issue is why a browser should come integrated with the Operational System, that certainly was a monopolistic action of the MS Imperium, IE rated to own 62,5% of the overall browser market.

IE8 will be tomorrow's IE6 soon. Users that want to continue the use of XP SP3 will switch to another browser like Chrome, Firefox, Flock, Opera etc. Actually MS has stated that IE9 will come integrated into W7 and was back-ported to or made compatible with Vista, so a lot of users better switch from XP directly to W7, because the browser was developed with that OS in mind,

polonus