Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Internet Explorer 7

Who didn't see this coming? Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer 7 will be released this year. This after saying for a while that there was no new browser in the works.

How can this be? Well, it could be that this new version is nothing but IE 6 with a bell or whistle and some fancy chrome. That would not shock me, but it would disappoint me.

The alternative is a new browser, based on Mozilla 5. IE 6 (just like the 5.x and 4.x before) were based on Mozilla 4. If you are using IE, see for yourself here. Scroll down to where it says User Agent. Anyway, if a Mozilla 5 based browser is coming out soon, could Microsoft's hand have been tipped when some employees of Big Redmond showed up on blog visitor logs (including mine) using Firefox?

Hey, like I said in my earlier post, I like Microsoft products, but prefer Firefox to IE. I don't have any knowledge about IE7 beyond what's been said publicly. I don't know what IE 7 looks like or anything. But I suspect the next real browser from Microsoft will be based on Mozilla 5, like Firefox. If so, and if it runs as fast and as fun as Firefox, they'll have a winner.

Personally, I think I'm going to be disappointed.



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5 comments:

  1. At least you know that you're going to be disappointed. Think of the millions of people that are expecting a browser that is capable of competing with FireFox; well I guess if they don't know about FireFox they probably won't be disappointed.
    I'm not knocking MS either I love Uncle Bill and thank him for everything he's done. Without him I would probably be cleaning rabbit poo out of a cage for a living. But given MS's history of early release (Windows ME), I think we might as well brace for impact and be thankful there's an alternative.
    But as a web developer, I think you know what the way too early release of Internet Explorer 7 means.
    Code changes for everyone. They'll find some way to break links, passwords, database access, something that will require extensive research and rewrites by developers to keep their clients happy; six months after the changes have been made MS will admit they made a whoopsies (it must be nice to be King).

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  2. They're releasing a new browser? They must have needed to upgrade to new security flaws.

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  3. I'm psychic. I'm already disappointed.

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  4. i'm not going to drop Firefox anytime soon.....

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  5. Internet Explorer 7

    He said the new version will be built on the work they did in SP2, and other things. Gates mentioned they will go further to defend IE users from phishing and other deceptive software.

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