Internet Explorer 9 doesn't please all

Neowin member, blogger and Microsoft Connect tester "tuxplorer" has posted an extensive list of features that have been removed from the transition from IE8 to 9 on his blog, and despite reporting these issues to Microsoft, he felt that his concerns weren't addressed.

IE9 has received praise for its standards compliance, something the IE Team made a commitment to vastly improving with a series of developer previews geared especially toward that purpose, also when opening the Release Candidate users are invited to test these at a specially developed website.

So is it all roses? Are there people out there that agree with the following points raised by what seems to be a minority at this point. Let us know your thoughts!

While Internet Explorer 9 represents significant improvements to the Trident rendering engine and the Javascript engine, certain user interface elements and some functionality that are present in Internet Explorer 8 are no longer present in Internet Explorer 9. The following is a list of such features that have been removed in IE9:

• Internet Explorer 9 setup cannot be sequenced using Microsoft App-V.
• Tabs from the previous session (after IE is closed and opened again) can no longer be opened selectively. Only tabs from current session which were recently closed can be selectively opened or the entire last session has to be opened.
• The dedicated search box has been removed. Searches can be performed from the address bar as was already possible in all previous IE releases. Because of the removal of the search box, users have to repeatedly type the same search terms if they want to search using a different search provider. Textual descriptions for search providers are no longer shown except in a tooltip when hovered over.
• Tab list menu button has been removed. (Accessible using Ctrl+Shift+Q)
• The page title is no longer shown in the browser's title bar.
• Each download does not get its own button on the taskbar showing the progress of individual downloads. All downloads are grouped without user preference in a single download manager button.
• The progress bar when loading pages and 'Done' message after page loading is complete have been removed from the status bar.
• All functionality from the status bar except zoom button and showing hyperlink upon mouse hover has been removed. The status bar in Internet Explorer 8 showed security zone info, Protected Mode status, SmartScreen information, certificates info, addon manager, pop-up blocker, privacy policy/report and InPrivate Filtering status.
• The ability to freely move browser elements in unlocked state has been removed. The menu bar, favorites bar and command bar could be moved in Internet Explorer 8.
• Large icons cannot be used on the command bar. • Completed MB and the progress bar have been removed when downloading.
• The Notification Bar replaces the Information Bar which appeared above the page content. The Notification Bar  overlaps a certain part of the page and requires the user to close it to see underlying parts of the page.
• Internet Explorer can no longer be set to notify download completion with only a sound. Every download completion shows a visual notification on top of the page which has to be closed.
• When clearing browsing history from within the browser, there is no progress bar or any sort of indication. Instead, a visual notification is shown on the notification bar which has to be closed by the user to see underlying page content.
• Save As is no longer the default option when downloading files. Instead Save is the now the default option which always saves to the Downloads folder.
• The about:tabs page cannot have the status bar enabled. Recently closed tabs from the current or previous session no longer show the URL below.
• The following configurable options have been removed without explanation:
  • Reset text size to medium while zooming.
  • Force offscreen compositing even under Terminal Server.
  • Enable page transitions.
  • Always use ClearType for HTML.
  • Smart image dithering.
  • Print background colors and images.
  • Do not submit unknown addresses to your auto search provider and Just display the results in the main window.
  • Security Zone settings: Automating prompting for file downloads.
  • Security Zone settings: Open files based on content, not file extension.

Internet Explorer 9 feels like it suffers from Chrome-envy. The IE team probably didn't confident about standing their ground with IE8's helpful and customizable UI.