Have you heard IE7 is now officially (somewhat unofficially too) released. What the heck does that mean? Well if you go to Windows Update it means its not released, if you go to Yahoo! or to CNet or any of the others linking deeply into Microsoft.com you can find the direct download.
Or you can just buy a new PC and it should come packed with IE 7 - I think that is supposed to happen soon but Windows Update won’t happen for at least a month and even then it will be a staggard release so it could be Christmas by the time you get it.
I have been using the last Release Candidate of IE7 for a few weeks now and find it to be a great browser for browsing. However since using FireFox (a.k.a FF) I have come to expect much more than just a ‘browser’. With FF I have about 7 different RSS readers I can use, I have hundreds of themes to choose from so if I am a girly girl I can have a hot pink look or if I am a football (soccer for us North American’s) fan I could David Beckham imagery all over. As well there is the much more sophisticated and advanced functionality of having a browser that supports more standards.
I digress. IE7 is getting used on my PCs and here is why, it has a truly protected environment, it has a great RSS viewer that blows away anything FF offers, and it prints nicely which FF always messes up. Incidentally Newsgator is beta testing a sync plugin that allows your IE7 and Newsgator hosted RSS feeds to fully sync. Newsgator charges for everything but because this service is in beta it is FREE. 
Give IE7 a try but just don’t be surprised if you give it up and return to Firefox. If you are a IE user what are you thinking? You should really try new things and give FF a chance because it will probably change your mind about how you use the web.
Ping THIS!
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Marcus Greenwood 10.20.06 at 5:33 pm
not very bullish on MS these days. Over the past 4-5 years since XP was released they’ve not really achieved very much. The fact that IE7 took over 4 years is a joke. IE7’s CSS and JavaScript support is still miles behind Firefox. And now I have to modify my code further to support yet another buggy browser which sits half-way in between Firefox and IE6! arghhhhhh!!!!
Marcus Greenwood 10.20.06 at 6:33 pm
not very bullish on MS these days. Over the past 4-5 years since XP was released they've not really achieved very much. The fact that IE7 took over 4 years is a joke. IE7's CSS and JavaScript support is still miles behind Firefox. And now I have to modify my code further to support yet another buggy browser which sits half-way in between Firefox and IE6! arghhhhhh!!!!
Roger Kondrat 10.21.06 at 10:50 am
I know what you are working on Marcus so I particularly feel for you on this issue.
Admittedly there has been much talk about how IE7 is more standards compliant and hey that is great but as you pointed out now there are ‘3′ major distinct branches of browsers that interpret the web very differently.
I think it is safe to say that from a business costs (development time) this new and more compliant IE browser is expensive and you have to wonder what is the point.
The idea of standards is to decrease costs by being compliant and if you don’t achieve a decrease in costs what is the point right?
Maybe a good question is, should IE7 just have extended IE6 functionality? And should those ‘new’ features have been compliant so that there can be some cost savings?
I know I am flying into the wind here (re: extend IE6 rather than build a new browser) but will I soar or crash for it.
Your thoughts?
Roger Kondrat 10.21.06 at 11:50 am
I know what you are working on Marcus so I particularly feel for you on this issue.
Admittedly there has been much talk about how IE7 is more standards compliant and hey that is great but as you pointed out now there are '3' major distinct branches of browsers that interpret the web very differently.
I think it is safe to say that from a business costs (development time) this new and more compliant IE browser is expensive and you have to wonder what is the point.
The idea of standards is to decrease costs by being compliant and if you don't achieve a decrease in costs what is the point right?
Maybe a good question is, should IE7 just have extended IE6 functionality? And should those 'new' features have been compliant so that there can be some cost savings?
I know I am flying into the wind here (re: extend IE6 rather than build a new browser) but will I soar or crash for it.
Your thoughts?