You may have heard that Microsoft are busy working on their successor to the widely criticized Windows 8 operating system; Windows 10 (what happened to Windows 9 we hear you ask? Well, apparently, Microsoft were worried that people would confuse it with Windows 95 or 98!)
Along with Windows 10, Microsoft have been developing a brand new web browser that will be the successor to their long running Internet Explorer web browser (although both browsers will be included in Windows 10). The name of Microsoft’s new flagship browser for Windows 10 is Microsoft Edge, and yesterday Microsoft announced the release date for Windows 10 as being July 29th 2015.
We’ve already been testing MIDAS in the preview builds of Edge, and we’ve been impressed with what we’ve seen so far – Edge offers noticeable performance improvements over Internet Explorer.
MIDAS in Microsoft Edge on Windows 10
The good news is that the current version of MIDAS (v4.09) will work with Edge right out of the metaphorical box! So if you’re keen to upgrade to Windows 10 (which, by the way is a FREE upgrade for Windows 7/8 users within the first year of Windows 10’s release!) but are worried about compatibility issues with MIDAS, then fear not! – we’ve got you covered!
“Open Source” is a term referring to software that whose source code is available for modification or enhancement by anyone. All other major web browsers (Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari are based on open-source components). Presently, Internet Explorer is the only one of the big 5 browsers to remain entirely “closed source”.
As part of their #AskIE event on Twitter today, questions were invited on the current status and development of Internet Explorer. One question in particular was posed as to whether Internet Explorer would “ever consider going open source to speed up develop/bug fixing?“. The response to this question from the people behind the browser was “We consider many things!“
Well, Microsoft have come under much criticism in the past over how slowly they release major updates to their browser. Five years passed, for example, between the releases of IE6 and IE7, and then another 3 before IE8! (Compare that with say Mozilla, who’ve been releasing major updates to Firefox every six weeks for some time now!). Whilst there were of course critical “security updates” and patches to IE in those big gaps between major releases, no “new features” or support for new web standards were introduced. This meant a headache for developers of websites and web based apps.
Developers had to ensure “backwards compatibility” with “stagnant” versions of IE. At the same time, developers wished they could take advantage of newer web standards and technologies which all the other major browsers supported, yet IE didn’t.
In the development of our browser based room booking system, MIDAS, we’ve had to take difficult decisions in the past. We’ve previously decided to drop support for IE6, IE7 and then most recently IE8. This was despite these browsers still having notable market share at the time we took those decisions.
To add to that, whenever Microsoft have released a “major” update to Internet Explorer, it’s not always available for all Windows Operating Systems. Windows XP users for example can’t run anything higher than IE8. Actually, if you’re still using Windows XP… well, you really shouldn’t be!!
How would Internet Explorer becoming “open source” help?
Well, first of all, more developers would be able to get involved in the project by adding support for new and emerging technologies and standards. Secondly, it would also mean that bugs could be more readily identified and fixed. These two factors alone would undoubtedly lead to a faster release cycle, and greater compatibility with the latest standards!
In terms of support for the latest web standards, Internet Explorer is way behind. IE11 (the current version of IE generally available) is only 67% compatible with the latest web standards. This compares to Opera 22 and Firefox 30, both on 85%, with Google Chrome 35 edging ahead with 86% compatibility (Source: caniuse.com)
We’d love to see a faster release cycle for Internet Explorer and the same support for technologies and standards in IE that other browsers have had for some time!
On a positive note, earlier this week, a new “developer preview” of Internet Explorer emerged. This was made available through the new “Internet Explorer Developer Channel“. This preview is designed to give developers like us a first look at what to expect in IE12. The big question now is how long will it be until IE12 actually becomes available to end users? Will Microsoft wait until Windows 9 is released (Like they did with IE10 and Windows 8), or will we see the next major update to Internet Explorer sooner?
Now, twelve months on, and less than a week since Internet Explorer 11 became available for Windows 7, Firefox celebrated its ninth birthday, and just a day after Google Chrome 31 is released, we decided it was high time to once again put the latest web browsers offerings “head-to-head” and independently, rigorously test and benchmark them to find out which one of the five major browsers is currently “the best”….
Browsers Tested
Google Chrome 31
Mozilla Firefox 25
Internet Explorer 11
Opera 17
Apple Safari 5
The Tests
We broadly tested four key areas of browser performance: Speed, Memory Usage, Compliance with standards, and Javascript Performance.
1. Speed
The “Cold Start” test measures the time taken to load up the browser upon its first run after a computer reboot. This is measured from the point at which the browser is executed until the point at which its user interface (UI) is ready to accept input.
The “Non-Cold Start” test measures the time taken to load up the browser on second and subsequent runs after its first run after a reboot. This is measured from the point at which the browser is executed until the point at which the user interface (UI) is ready to accept input.
With the browser open, an empty cache, and showing a blank page (about:blank), the “Page Load Time (No-Cached Load)” test measures the time taken to completely load a complex web page. This is measured from the point at which the “Enter” key is pressed on the URL in the browser’s address bar until the point at which the test web page has fully loaded (as reported by an “onLoad” event on the test web page).
With the browser open, and the test web page already loaded in a single tab, the “Page Load Time (Reload from Cache)” test measures the time taken to reload a complex web page. This is measured from the point at which the F5 key (refresh) is pressed until the point at which the test web page has fully reloaded (as reported by an “onLoad” event on the test web page).
2. Memory Usage
The “Base Memory Usage (Blank Tab)” test measures the amount of memory used by the browser with just a single blank (about:blank) tab open.
The “Memory Usage (10 open tabs)” test measures the amount of memory used by the browser with 10 tabs open, each displaying the home page of a popular website.
3. Compliance
The “HTML5 Compliance” test measures how well each browser conforms to the current state of the HTML5 specification.
The “CSS3 Compliance” test measures how well each browser conforms to the current state of the CSS3 specification.
4. Javascript Performance
There are a number of different Javascript Performance Benchmark tests available today, all of which give quite different results. We’ve analyzed results from 6 of the most popular Benchmarking Tests and aggregated the results below:
Individual details of each of the 6 individual Javascript benchmark test suits used to arrived at these aggregated scores may be found in our full test report, available to view/download at the end of this page.
Summary
Category
Test
Winner
Runner-Up
Speed
Cold Start
Non-Cold Start
Page Load Time (Non-Cached Load)
Page Load Time (Reload from Cache)
Memory Usage
Base Memory
10 Open Tabs
Compliance
HTML5
CSS3
Performance
Javascript Performance (Aggregate)
Results
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place
4th Place
5th Place
Google Chrome 31
Opera 17
Internet Explorer 11
Mozilla Firefox 25
Apple Safari 5
The above overall positions were derived based upon the sum of the positions that each browser finished in, in each of our tests. For example, in our HTML 5 compliance test, Chrome came first and so was assigned 1 point, Safari came 5th and so was assigned 5 points. Browsers were then ranked according to the lowest number of points to give the 1st-5th places above (1st being the best)
Analysis
Google Chrome When we last tested the five major browsers back in November 2012, Chrome came first in 8 out of 13 our tests, making it a clear winner! A year later, and Chrome is still going strong, coming top in 8 out of 15 tests, and second in a further two tests. Where Chrome still doesn’t perform quite as well is when it comes to its memory usage, using well over 3 times as much memory with a single blank tab open than Internet Explorer 11.
Mozilla Firefox We were a little surprised that Firefox only came top in 3 out of 15 tests, and only once came runner-up. To Firefox’s credit, its main strength still seems to be in its memory usage. With 10 websites open in separate tabs, the amount of memory used was less than half that of Chrome with the same ten sites open.
Internet Explorer We were pleasantly surprised by the improvement of Internet Explorer 11 over previous versions as well as other browsers. IE11 came top in a couple of our tests, and runner-up in a further three. Where IE11 appears to have improved most over earlier versions of Microsoft’s browser in is the length of time taken to load and pages (either from a server, or from the cache) as well as start/restart the browser itself. In our tests, starting IE11 took just 0.01463 seconds! – some 280x quicker than Opera started. That said, in general Internet Explorer 11 still has a way to go to come up to par with the other major browsers in terms of HTML 5 compliance.
Opera A lot has changed with Opera since we last tested browsers twelve months ago. Since then, Opera have switched from using their own “Presto” layout rendering engine to instead using the same engine as Chrome. Whilst this change has been received with mixed reviews by Opera users, with some unhappy that many of Opera’s original features were dropped, our test results actually show that the “new” Opera is a browser to be reckoned with, out performing Internet Explorer 11, Firefox 25 and Safari 5 in our tests. Opera 17 came top in 3 out of our 15 tests, and runner-up in 6. The browser also scored highly on HTML5/CSS3 compliance and in our aggregated Javascript performance tests, however, Opera’s memory usage was fairly high, second only to Chrome. Opera 17 was slow to start, however, once running it loaded and rendered web pages swiftly.
Safari Our browsers tests were performed on a Windows machine (test specifics are included at the end of this report). Whilst the latest version of Safari is 7, Apple took the decision after the release of Safari 5.1 to no longer continue developing Safari for Windows users – a mistake in our view! Therefore, the most recent version of Safari available to Windows users is 5.1.7, which was used in our testing. Given that Safari 5.1.7 is now the oldest of the 5 browsers tested, it follows that is doesn’t perform as well as its peers. However, surprisingly, it did come runner-up in both our memory tests as well as our non-cold start test.
Conclusions – From a Developers Perspective
From our perspective, as developers of a leading web-based room booking and resource scheduling solution, perhaps the most important factors in determining which browser is “best” are compliance with the latest HTML5 and CSS3 standards. As we work hard to ensure our software works well in all the major browsers, this is where having universal standards between browsers becomes so important. In theory, a website (or in our case, a web app), should look and behave the same regardless of the browser being used, which should in theory happen if all browsers complied 100% with standards! Chrome 31 currently comes the closest to the HTML 5 standard with 93% compliance, but as can be seen, CSS3 compliance still has a long way to go for all browsers, with the winning browser in the CSS3 compliance test (Opera 17) only achieving 58% compliance.
Speed (page load time) and Javascript Performance are also important factors for us, as we want our web app to be as fast and responsive as possible. Opera 17 and Chrome 25 loaded pages faster in our tests, with Internet Explorer 11 following close behind. As for performance, both Chrome 25 and Opera 17 outperformed other browsers in our aggregated Javascript performance test scores.
A few surprising finds:
Microsoft have made some significant steps forward with Internet Explorer 11 over earlier incarnations of their browser.
Opera 17 performed better than expected
Firefox 25 performed worse than expected, finishing an overall 4th place in our tests.
MIDAS, our popular Browser-Based Room & Resource Scheduling Software is currently supported in all browser versions we’ve tested here. Find out more at https://mid.as
Conclusions – So which browser should I use then!?
• If you work with lots of browser tabs open at once, and/or the amount of available memory on your system is limited, Firefox 25 would seem a good choice of browser to use, as this used the less memory than other browsers under the same conditions.
• If you regularly open and close your browser, Internet Explorer 11 or Firefox 25 would seem a good choice as these browsers start up quickly. If, however, you tend to keep your browser running most of the time, Opera 17 would be a better choice, as even though its start-up time is considerably longer, initial page load times are the quickest of all the browsers we tested
• If you’re still using an earlier version of Internet Explorer – it’s certainly worth upgrading to IE11, or if that’s not possible (for example, if you’re using Windows XP, you won’t be able to update your Internet Explorer past version 8!), maybe it’s time to try a different browser!?
• At the end of the day, use the browser that you feel most comfortable with! …BUT make sure you keep it up-to-date, and don’t ignore the competition – if you do, you risk being left behind as other browsers overtake yours in terms of their speed, security, memory usage, standard compliance, and performance!
• In recent years, browsers such as Internet Explorer and Opera have been somewhat overlooked by many regular internet users – but if you’ve not used these browsers for years having previously dismissed them – a lot has changed, and it’s certainly worth giving them a second look again now!
Browsers Tested: Chrome 31.0.1650.48 m | Firefox 25.0 | Internet Explorer 11.0.9600.16428 | Opera 17 (Build 1652) | Safari 5.1.7 (7534.57.2)
Browser tests were performed on an Intel® Atom™ CPU D525 @ 1.80GHz system, with 4GB Ram, running Windows Home Server 2011 SP1 (Windows Server 2008 R2) 64-bit. Each browser was a clean install, using default install and browsers settings, and with no extensions/addons installed or enabled.
Speed tests were measured using Rob Keir’s millisecond timer and PassMark AppTimer v1.0. Each speed test was performed 10 times for each browser, and the results averaged to provide the data presented in this report.
Memory usage was measured 60 seconds after tabs had finished loading and was measured through the Windows Task Manager. Memory usage includes all associated processes running with the browser (for example, running Safari spawns both “Safari.exe” and “WebKit2WebProcess.exe” processes, the memory usage of both is taken into account)
It’s been a busy end to the month in the world of web browsers in June… So here’s our take on what’s been happening..
Internet Explorer – IE11 preview available & IE11 is to be available for Windows 7
Firefox – v22 released this week
Chrome – Now 5% faster on average
Opera – v15 preview available
Safari – Even the developers admit its gone quiet!
Internet Explorer: This last week saw Microsoft release the first public preview of Windows 8.1, which contains the first glimpse of what IE11 will have in store for its users!
Microsoft believes that “the best experience of the web is on a Windows device with Internet Explorer 11“. We’ll let you decide!
However, one of the main focuses for IE11 is on better support, performance, and responsiveness for touch actions
According to Microsoft’s corporate vice-president for Internet Explorer, Dean Hachamovitch, speaking at last week’s BUILD developer conference in San Francisco; “Most of the web wasn’t designed for touch, but users still expect it to just work“. An example given was that navigation and interaction within web pages or web apps often relies on “mouseovers”. This is where hovering the mouse over a particular region causes a menu or tooltip to open. The natural behavior for users with a touch screen is to tap the area. This is usually translated into a “click” event rather than a “hover” action, or if they tap and hold, seen as a “right click” event.
In IE11, Microsoft has integrated support for such scenarios, allowing users to touch a hover “hotspot” so that the menu/tooltip stays open rather than automatically clicking the element.
IE11 is also the first of the major browsers to offer HTML5 drag-and-drop support for touch interaction. These “hover” and “drag-and-drop” improvements for touch should offer users on tablets or other touch-screen devices a richer experience when using our web based scheduling software.
The great news too if you’re a Windows 7 user is that like IE10, IE11 will also be available to you! Whilst Microsoft have confirmed this however, there is no specific date for when IE11 may become available for Windows 7. If it’s anything like the delayed IE10 release for Windows 7, Windows 7 users may have to wait 4 months longer than Windows 8 users to get their hands on the next version of IE!
MIDAS is already supported in the preview version IE11, as well as in IE8-10. However, if you’re still an Internet Explorer 8 user, we will no longer be maintaining compatibility with this obsolete browser once IE11 becomes fully available. If this affects you please read this!
Mozilla Firefox: Also within the last week, Mozilla have released Firefox 22, bringing with it a number of improvements and new features. Some of these improvements, particularly those relating to core Javascript performance, should mean your MIDAS experience on Firefox is better than ever!
Firefox 22 also introduces support for new technologies and better compatibility with existing web standards. One of the exciting new technologies introduced with Firefox 22 is “Web Notifications”. This will allow websites/apps to display notification messages on your system (similar to new mail or new message notifications that other applications may display). Notifications are not widely supported by other browsers right now. At time of writing, only Opera 12 and Safari 5 currently support it. Once this becomes more widely adopted, you may see “web notifications” being introduced to MIDAS. For instance, it could be used to notify you of booking reminders as well as new watches or messages. Stay tuned for more in the future on this!
In other highly exciting(!) Firefox news, their logo has undergone a redesigned:
…and yes, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it looks virtually the same! In justifying the new logo, Mozilla explain, “Unlike previous versions, the updated logo was created specifically with mobile in mind. Although we think it looks great at any size, it’s been optimized to be crisper and cleaner on small screens and lower resolution devices. However, it also scales quite nicely for use in retina displays, and (unlike previous versions) can be accurately recreated in SVG so it’s more ‘of the Web’“
MIDAS is currently supported in Firefox 4+ (v22+ recommended)
Google Chrome: We’re having a hard time keeping up with the latest stable version number for Chrome! For Windows, Max, and Chrome OS it’s currently version 27. However the current stable version of Chrome for Linux is 28. This is unusual, as Google tend to keep major version numbers in sync across all platforms!
So, what exciting new features have v27/28 brought? Well, not a great deal actually! Aside from a variety of fixes mainly for Flash-related exploits, the highlight of v27 is the claim that web pages load 5% faster on average!
MIDAS is currently supported in Chrome 9+ (v27+ recommended)
Opera: If you’ve been following our blog, you’ll know that at the start of the year, Opera announced it was ditching its own Presto rendering engine. Instead it was essentially joining forces to use the same rendering engine to that of Google Chrome. Such a major change in the fundamental nature of the Opera browser was going to take time to emerge. After much confusion and changes, at the end of May, Opera lifted the lid on their “next generation” Opera 15 browser to mixed reviews.
As this was the first “preview” release, it was essentially just a shell of a browser. Many of Opera’s previous features were removed, to the anger of Opera’s loyal user base.
However, as June has progressed, so have the updates to Opera 15. These updates haven’t exactly been earth-shattering though. Essentially just offering a handful of fixes each time and a way to import data/settings from Opera 12.
Whilst understandably there’s a massive amount of work involved in changing rendering engines, Opera really need to start getting their act together. They need to remember what set Opera apart from other browsers in the first place if they really expect Opera 15 to complete with other major browsers. Right now, whilst Opera 15 hasn’t yet had a general release, it’s lacking a lot of features and functionality that Opera 12 offered.
That said, MIDAS is supported in Opera 15 (as well as Opera 9-12. v12+ recommended)
Safari: Well, activity on the Safari front just seems to get quieter and quieter each time we post! In fact, on the Safari blog itself they admit they’ve been “quieter than usual” which they attribute to Apple developers being away at a conference(!)
Anyway, A small update to Safari, 6.0.5, was released at the start of the month for OS X and iOS.
At Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference this month, it was announced that Safari 7/6.1 would bring improvements in JavaScript performance and memory usage. There would also be a new look for Top Sites and the Sidebar, and a new Shared Links feature. Additionally, a new Power Saver feature pauses plugins which aren’t in use. Safari 7 for OS X Mavericks and Safari 6.1 (for Lion and Mountain Lion) is expected to be available this Autumn. Sadly, there’s still no sign of any more updates for Safari on Windows (which is still currently stuck at v5.1.7)
MIDAS is currently supported in Safari 4+ (v5+ recommended)
You may have heard that Microsoft are busy working on their successor to the widely criticized Windows 8 operating system; Windows 10 (what happened to Windows 9 we hear you ask? Well, apparently, Microsoft were worried that people would confuse it with Windows 95 or 98!)
On a positive note, earlier this week, a new “developer preview” of Internet Explorer emerged. This was made available through the new “
According to Microsoft’s corporate vice-president for Internet Explorer, Dean Hachamovitch, speaking at last week’s BUILD developer conference in San Francisco; “Most of the web wasn’t designed for touch, but users still expect it to just work“. An example given was that navigation and interaction within web pages or web apps often relies on “mouseovers”. This is where hovering the mouse over a particular region causes a menu or tooltip to open. The natural behavior for users with a touch screen is to tap the area. This is usually translated into a “click” event rather than a “hover” action, or if they tap and hold, seen as a “right click” event.
In other highly exciting(!) Firefox news, their logo has undergone a redesigned: