Now that all three major players have come out with their latest browser versions, the Battle of the Browsers has just flared up a little more. There is Google chrome version 10, Microsoft IE9 and the Mozilla firefox 4. And the initial outlook is that Microsoft have erred in leaving out the Windows XP users. By releasing IE9 which works only on vista and upwards they have left out about 50% of the internet users out of the loop. And firefox seems to have benefited directly from it. At the time of writing this article within two days Mozilla claims about 7,373,811 downloads and counting. Compare that to IE9′s about 2.5 million downloads.
No Doubt Microsoft has come out with a vastly improved product than their last version namely IE8 . There is major improvements in various aspects like speed, stability, looks, customization and all . All the same microsoft had a lot of catching up to do too. But leaving out the majority internet users seems a little foolish. Microsoft justifies there being no version for windows XP by stating that modern graphics and security infrastructure of browser requires a modern operating system to utilize the latest hardware and software enhancements. And by utilising the enhancements in Windows 7 they have indeed come out with the best browser from its stable. All said and done Microsoft loss is Mozilla’s gain and firefox is bound to close in on the browser leader sooner than later.
