Internet Explorer 9 is trying to break me and Microsoft up

I am what you would call a fan of Microsoft. Until recently, I have been in love with almost all of their software (Microsoft Security Essentials ended up being too needy so I dumped it). When I first heard about Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) I was giddy! I have been using IE for what seems like forever.

I would cheat on IE occasionally... I used Firefox and Chrome for some Facebook games but IE was always my go-to (default) browser. I have always been into beta testing software (trying the software before it is officially released to the public) and IE9 was no different. The day it was released in beta I did not hesitate to download and install it.

At first, everything seemed great! A nice, fast browser that seemed to flow perfectly with the rest of my computer. Over the course of several days, I started to notice that a lot of sites with form data were not working correctly. I thought little of it until I was on a government site filling out my FASFA information. I received a warning that my version of IE was not supported, but I ignored it thinking  Bah! Microsoft wouldn't release anything that wasn't backward compatible out of the box, it will work fine!  Well, when I went to submit my information, the browser locked up and I was unable to submit my information.

Oh, silly me, I should use compatibility mode, its just a temporary bug, they will work it out soon. It's new! Give em a break!

Compatibility mode didn't work either. Then I remembered all of the other sites I had been to where the form data didn't work. I did some testing and, sure enough, other browsers worked fine on those sites; IE9 did not. To hell with this, I uninstalled IE 9 and rolled back to 8 and I had my lovely relationship back... for a while

A few months later, IE9 was released as an optional download for Windows. Surely all the bugs had been worked out by now, right? I downloaded it again and this time, when I opened it for the first time, it took a LONG time to open... like 30 seconds or more on a fresh install (I have a30Mbps cable connection). I was a bit upset, but still kept playing with it... the initial lag in opening was soon forgotten and I continued to surf with my new best friend. For a few days, things went smooth... I was annoyed that the initial start up of the program took a while, but I remedied that by leaving it open whenever I could.

And then the crashes came. For no damn reason IE9 would crash and have to recover. I could just be reading a page and it would crash and recover... not too often, but the fact that it was happening at all was pissing me off. I uninstalled IE9 and once again rolled back to 8. I was very disappointed, but I was confident it would be fixed soon.

Eventually, IE9 became a "recommended" update and my computer, like an unattended child, installed the unwanted software. Now, I thought, it has to be fixed! Nope. Same long delay in opening, same form problems, same random crashes. My heart is broken.

I am currently writing this from Firefox. I still have IE9, but I loathe using it for anything. It is simply clunky and unreliable. The only thing I use it for now is streaming media (Netflix, Hulu, etc.). Firefox and Chrome are now the bread-and-butter of my Internet experience.

I still love Microsoft, but I hate it when I have to tell a customer Yea, I have that same problem with IE9. Your choices are to deal with it, or we get you another browser... And I, am just a little bit dead inside. I am actually ashamed FOR Microsoft about IE9.