Internet Explorer 8 final now available

I wouldn’t rush out and get it, but Microsoft has finally announced that Internet Explorer 8 is fully baked and available for your consumption. Or at least it will be available for your consumption in a few hours.

It can be downloaded in 25 languages at http://www.microsoft.com/ie8 starting at noon EDT on March 19. Internet Explorer 8 is easier to use, faster and offers leading-edge security features in direct response to people’s increasing concerns about online safety.

“Customers have made clear what they want in a Web browser – safety, speed and greater ease of use,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

At this moment, the link mentioned in the Press Release is redirecting to the IE8 beta site, but Microsoft should catch up momentarily.

Of course, if you’re concerned about safety, you won’t use ActiveX, and if you don’t want to use ActiveX, you probably shouldn’t use Internet Explorer.

Meanwhile, Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 is up, and I hear that Google’s Chrome is in for a speed-up improvement.

Ah, competition. It’s a wunnerful thing.

UPDATE: IE8 is now available for download at the location cited above. Ed Bott has a tremendous, thorough report on the changes in IE 8 that’s well worth reading. And Microsoft just posted a list of major sites that don’t work well with IE8. MS recommends that you use IE8′s compatibility mode for those sites.