Microsoft has announced today that Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 is available for download.
In the Microsoft announcement, Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Internet Explorer development at Microsoft, said the timeline for further releases is:
Windows Vista Beta 2, and then Beta 3 of IE7, release candidates, and then a final release before end of year.
In a review of IE7 Beta 2, Mich Arrington of TechCrunch pointed out that:
The key features are tabbed browsing (including “Quick Tabs�, a way to see multiple web pages on a single tab), a continuation of the minimalist approach on the UI and toolbars, and enhancements to the RSS reader built into the browser. The team says they’ve made significant improvements in CSS rendering as well, a problem I noticed in the previous beta version.
Co-incidentally (I think!) John C. Dvorak has an article in PC Magazine today where he calls on Microsoft to abandon the browser! John reckons that:
All the work that has to go into keeping the browser afloat is time that could have been better spent on making Vista work as first advertised.
All of Microsoft’s Internet-era public-relations and legal problems (in some way or another) stem from Internet Explorer.
John’s solution is that Microsoft should:
pull the browser out of the OS and discontinue all IE development immediately…. Then, Microsoft can worry about security issues that are OS-only in nature, rather than problems compounded by Internet Explorer.
I wonder if Dean Hachamovitch and the IE team are worried about their jobs now that John has put that sugestion out there. Somehow I doubt it! John’s idea, while superbly timed and very well argued is destined to be ignored by Microsoft. Giving up and conceding defeat is not the Microsoft way.
IE7 Beta 2 caveats – According to Microsoft’s IE Group Program Manager, Tony Chor,
there is no supported way for IE6 and IE7 to install side-by-side
IE7 is beta software – install it at your own risk!