IE 7 Beta this summer

[dpyers]

Apparently MS will finally unbundle IE version releases from New windows releases. The Beta of IE7 will be released this summer, about a year ahead of the Longhorn Windows release.

The new release will be primarily security oriented but will also include a spyware checker. For XP SP2 only, although there may be a W2K version to follow.

There will also be an XP SP3 out this year, maybe with IE7, maybe not.

I normally avoid IE beta's like an ex-wife but will probably test this one out. If they fix the broken implementations of CSS, XHTML, and HTML in this release, a lot of sites that are designed to look good only in IE may wind up broken.

[Brangwyn]

As I recall almost all of the IE releases have been OS release independant, IE6 was available before XP was released wasn't it?. The big news is they're upgrading it full stop Billy had basically said IE was at the end of it's roadmap and most of the developers had been moved over to longhorn.

[dpyers]

MS has resisted requests for a new version saying they would only release new versions with new OS's. I thought IE6 was tied to XP. IIRC, IE5 wasn't tied to anything.

[dtay73]

If memory serves me correctly unbundling IE from the OS was part of the Anti-trust lawsuit a few years ago. I believe that they can't make them dependent on each other any more.

[admin]

FireFox, FireFox, FireFox.. Thats all I have to say about it.. hehe

[dpyers]

Originally Posted by dtay73

If memory serves me correctly unbundling IE from the OS was part of the Anti-trust lawsuit a few years ago. I believe that they can't make them dependent on each other any more.

They're independent products but they had announced that the releases of each separate product would be bundled together - e.g. They would not release the next stand-alone version if IE until they released the next version of windows - 2006/2007.

Holding back on the next IE release was a bone of contention for a lot of developers who essentially had to create IE versions of their presentation and then one that worked in browsers that were more standards compliant.

As FireFox has gained market share, having two css/html/xhtml schemas available has become more important as a lot of sites that look good in IE appear broken in FireFox although it's actually the IE implementation of standards that is flawed.

[dweimann]

We really need IE 7 because the current patched POS with sp2 is a broken horrible mess and just asking for browser exploits and security compromises. It's a good sign that MS is finally bowing to some pressure to try to fix some of their mess. As a webdesigner I have to design for and use IE much of the time, but after sp2 i became very disillusioned.

[Brangwyn]

I'll have to try and find the link again, but I read an interesting article a few weeks back, someone had done a full comparison of the major browsers and compliance across various W3 standards. You'll never guess which browser came out as "most" compliant.

[dweimann]

Hey, I like designing for IE, but i just want a browser that doesn't crash every 30 minutes and doesn't happily download spyware even though the security settings are high and it's patched to the hilt.

[TonyK]

You know what the last few years where the best years for me, the same version of Windows XP pro got used to it and I don’t have any problems. I was sick and tired of all the Microsoft crap and I hope they don’t come up with anything new for an other 20 years I don’t want to play with a program that don’t really do anything besides been the operating system I don’t want to buy or try to figure out all the bugs of an other version of Windows.
Thank very much.