Locutus may have beaten me for the news break ^[1] about Office 2010 beta ^[2], but I’ve got him on the break of the first news about Internet Explorer 9!

Whether you like it or not, IE has had big impacts on the Web, some which they aren’t given credit for. For instance, AJAX as we know was first supported in IE, with a Javascript Object Microsoft created ^[3]. So whether you use it or not, like it or not, it’s a good idea to know what the IE team is up to. And the latest news from the IE team is Internet Explorer 9.

Although IE9 is only 3 weeks old, this is what we have been told about it so far:

• It will use DirectX2D to render. What that means is that rendering web pages will be done by the GPU instead of the CPU, which should make rendering faster. This will also mean that font’s should look smoother as shown bellow.
  96 point Gabriola on a Lenovo X61 ThinkPad at 100% Zoom using GDI (note jaggies):
  ^[4]
  96 point Gabriola on a Lenovo X61 ThinkPad at 100% Zoom: Direct2D (without jaggies):
  ^[5]
• It will run JavaScript faster (about 1/3 the time of IE8).
  ^[6]
• IE9 currently gets a 32 on the ACID3 test.  While that’s not so great, if you factor in that they’re only 3 weeks in, and it is bound to increase as IE9 is developed more, it’s not so bad.
  ^[7]
• It also now supports rounded borders.
  ^[8]

So although a lot isn’t known yet about IE9, it does seem to have some stuff going for it. And just one request: Don’t tell me about how IE should use Webkit (if you read the comments on the IEBlog you’ll understand).

[via IEBlog ^[9]]

Love IE? Hate IE? Vent or cheer below!