Microsoft IE8 looks simply rocking for me. It is available for download now. Earlier it was available to selected Beta testers only. You can download it from here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/Install.htm
Fifteen seconds. Then, it decided not to let me fill in the forms for login at DP. So, it's crap. According to.. me
I had to have a play. And it sucked http://www.gpearce.co.uk/2008/03/05/its-ie8-beta-but-does-it-work It's something to write about, I guess...
What's new in IE8? Well, IE7 was bollocks. IE8 is complete and utter bollocks. I hope you guys enjoy downloading/installing IE and letting M$ spy on you (even more than they already do!)
I'm a bit confused as to why they're releasing this so soon, even as a beta. IE7 only just recently came out, and they haven't rewritten any code from scratch. A new version should be entirely new code, not just some new features. Why not just release these new features in a service pack for IE7? It's about three times faster now, for Javascript at least. It's not just as fast as Fx3 (beta also). You sound a little biased. IE8 is a far better browser, from a tech point of view, than all it's predecessors. As for what you say about M$ spying on people, that's just stupid. They don't send any of your web surfing behaviour because that would be illegal, I'm sure. Not to mention immoral. They're not going to go down an immoral path whilst they're losing so much market share; they need to retain users.
IE8 has compatibility modes, so it checks which standard you're coding in and then renders it using that. Your old pages should work find in IE8.