IE7 Announced for Longhorn and WinXP

sriram_2001 writes "There is now an official announcement from Bill Gates on Internet Explorer 7. It will be available in beta form this summer for Longhorn and XP SP2. The IEBlog has commentary about the decision making process that went into the new browser version." Coming on the heels of the June Beta announcement for Longhorn, if things go as planned it will likely be here in early summer. The new browser's early arrival was first discussed last year.

Good

[Anonymous Coward]

Firefox could use a little competition.

Beta Release?

[NardofDoom]

Hasn't IE been in beta since, well, it was released?

Firefox

[Anonymous Coward]

Rumour has it it's built on Firefox.

Part of Microsoft's Press Release

[bigtallmofo]

"In yet another example of innovation, Microsoft has invented a feature called Tabbed Web Surfing (tm) (r). Tabbed Web Surfing is a revolutionary user interface for web browsing that Microsoft as its inventor has received over 7,000 patents on."

In other news....

[Anonymous Coward]

4 critical security flaws have already been found in the yet to be released Internet Explorer 7.

Re:I wonder what MS has stolen from firefox

[kidoman]

not just tabs,

a whole lot other goodies like:

- Poop blocker (but not MSN poop)
- ad blocker (ofcourse, excluding those in HoTMaiL)
- a about:firefox page which allows IE developers to speak their "minds" out.

and others....

Re:I wonder what MS has stolen from firefox

[axis-techno-geek]

Come on, I'm sure they will create a half dozen new security holes, give them some credit :)

If you had read that link you posted...

[benhocking]

You would have noticed the poster was asking the forefox users to be quiet. So, us Firefox users can keep on ranting. :)

Re:IE.Net?

[diegocgteleline.es]

They don't have enought time for that.

Re:I wonder what MS has stolen from firefox

[lucabrasi999]

and others....

Among the others, MS should definitely include the Abe Vigoda Status [mozilla.org] extension in IE7.

I've seen it and its called ActiveTabs

[Anonymous Coward]

And its even better than other tabbed solutions in that each tab appears in its own window as God intends.

Re:Beta Release?

[Ford Prefect]

Hasn't IE been in beta since, well, it was released?

Doesn't 'beta' mean feature-complete? ;-)

On standards compliance:

[temojen]

From the press release:

Gates announced Internet Explorer 7.0, ... maintaining the level of ... compatibility that customers have come to expect.

So no, it won't be standards-compliant.

Re:Good

[john82]

Firefox could use a little competition

I thought the current IE was little competition for Firefox.

Re:On standards compliance:

[Jesus_666]

It will be fully compatible with Windows Media Image (replacing PNG and delivering amazing new possibilities through innovative two bit transparency), ActiveStyle (replacing CSS), ActiveMarkup (replacing HTML, XML and XHTML), ActiveMath (replacing MathML) and ActiveDynamicVectorImages (replacing SVG). Also, VBScript, JavaScript and animated GIF support will be dropped in favor of ActiveX.NET.

All of these new technologies will of course have mandatory heavy-duty DRM, which means that in order to look at a 10 KiB site with five 100 KiB images you'll automatically download and upload ~12 MiB worth of certificates to see if you are allowed to do so (all MS ActiveWebContent DRM certificates are valid for the duration of one session or one hour, whichever ends first).


Since all of the mentioned technologies are valid Microsoft internal standards (the specification of which are accessible after signing an NDA and a non-competition agreement), IE is the most standars-compliant browser of all - that is, once the Longhorn users have made sure that the current web standards have died out.

Re:But, does it support....

[Anonymous Coward]

"Does it support any of the following yet?: "
I don't know. I'm a Microsoft developer and all of those links in your posting seemed to be blocked by our enterprise firewall. What is this "WWW.W3.ORG" that you speak of? Must be some crhacker site or something evil obviously if our firewall blocks it.
Oh well, that's enough of my day posting here on Slahsdot, I'm off now to write some proprietary open free standards that we'll charge money for if you ask.

Re:I wonder what MS has stolen from firefox

[rednaxel]

BTW, the http://www.abevigoda.com/ [abevigoda.com] site is showing the following text right now:

fark and firefox are killin' me

will be back in a day or so. abe's still alive, by the way (2/15/05 12:13:52 pm PT)

Kinda funny.

PS: The last remark was not deliberately written in order to influence moderators.

Re:I wonder what MS has stolen from firefox

[legirons]

FWIW, bars had tabs long before Galeon

(does this thread continue until we find a patent?)

Re:I wonder what MS has stolen from firefox

[Anonymous Coward]

Nazis invented tabs.

Re:I wonder what MS has stolen from firefox

[mbsurf]

My filing cabinet had tabs before all of you!

Re:Part of Microsoft's Press Release

[eventhorizon5]

>"In yet another example of innovation, Microsoft has invented a feature called Tabbed Web Surfing (tm) (r). Tabbed Web Surfing is a revolutionary user interface for web browsing that Microsoft as its inventor has received over 7,000 patents on."

"This just breaking...
Microsoft is now reporting that IE7 will be renamed Microsoft Firefox, and the Firefox name will be a registered trademark to prevent confusion..."

Re:I wonder what MS has stolen from firefox

[sploo22]

"Tabbed browsing? That was MY idea! But I never thought to get a patent!"

New IE 7 Beta Moniker

[Zemplar]

"
Try Internet Explorer 7 Today!
"

"It doesn't suck quite as much as it used to. [No Really!]"

from the blog

[tod_miller]

Why? Because we listened to customers, analysts, and business partners. We heard a clear message: "Yes, XP SP2 makes the situation better. We want more, sooner. We want security on top of the compatibility and extensibility IE gives us, and we want it on XP. Microsoft, show us your commitment."

through babelfish's bullshit -> english

Why? Because we listened to customers, analysts, and business partners. OMG!!!1 IE is teh suckx0r!!111 viruses, trojans and worms, oh my!11 my pc is fux0r3d!!111 Wh4t is thi5 coolsearch toolbar doing here? my computer ate my homework! I fancy Ellen Feissssssssss! maaaaaaaaaaaarry meeeeee!!

blame it on valentines day ok... OK... get fuzzy, dilbert... herman and pearls and some PA get my through.

Re:Wow. It's been a long time since Microsoft blin

[idiotfromia]

So you're saying Firefox will never die, sorta like BSD.

I Have Been to Redmond and Seen IE7

[Cruxus]

I have recently returned from the perilous gates of Redmond, and I have seen an alpha build of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0. Firstly, let me say this: I was quite impressed. IE7 has added the features I know I've been clamoring for: tabbed browsing, improved security management, and enhanced user interface customizability. The one thing missing is a button that enables the user to visit a webpage containing one of my highly philosophical writings at random, but that can be added as an extension later.

IE7 integrates with the Windows operating system to protect the user from malicious hacker software like Mozilla Firefox. If the user inadvertently attempts to run Mozilla Firefox instead of IE7, it will know and launch in the malware's stead, thus securing the user from harmful XPIs and open standards compliance.

As an additional feature, which as a Web designer I appreciate especially, IE7 renders HTML and CSS in ways once unimagined. With this feature, I am kept on my toes and am provided an opportunity to revisit old stylesheets and code, gnawing at the puzzle of keeping my pages rendering as intended in this new version of Internet Explorer as well as in previous versions and in other browsers, such as Hot Dog, too. My fellow Web developers, you're in for some fun!

If all that wasn't enough, Microsoft has added a feature designed for the clueless newbies and enabled by default: Clippie! Yes, your friendly Office Assistant is being integrated into yet another flagship product from Redmond. Enjoy!

Re:I wonder what MS has stolen from firefox

[GrumpySimon]

Ah crap. Godwin's law.

THREAD CLOSED - Nothing to see here

Re:I wonder what MS has stolen from firefox

[randallpowell]

Tab rules. It was the only cola in the 80's marketed to gay men. Now if they would make a cola for us straight guys, we'd be set.