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IE7 Bugs and Reviews
An anonymous reader wrote to mention a Register article in which the possibility is raised of the current build dumping Yahoo and Google toolbars. At the same time, GWBasic writes "I've posted a review on IE 7 Beta 1. It is very clear that, unlike when Microsoft targeted Netscape, they are using their classic method of producing superior software by catering to the needs of the user. This is not IE 6 with a few features borrowed from the competition, but rather a clear step in the evolution of user-centric design." Flexbeta and ZDNet have looks at the new browser as well.
Didn't read the article, did you? The author admits to only beeing experienced in the use of the 'Crazy browser' browser. He states that the new features in IE7 are not copies of features from other browsers. It is obvious from this that he hasn't used Safari or Firefox, which combined have implement every feature he lists except for the merged history. Even the design decisions on tabs, like the single close button at the right, is stolen verbatim from Firefox, which the author is obviously oblivious to.
You want IE7? Use Safari or Firefox.
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The Slashdot introduction says "This is not IE 6 with a few features borrowed from the competition, but rather a clear step in the evolution of user-centric design."
I'm sorry but that is about as wrong as it can be. Every single "new" feature mentioned in the article is already present in every other browser that I know of as a built-in feature or an add-on. This refresh of IE is clearly borrowed from the competition. Unless IE7 includes more changes than what was mentioned in the article, it will still be behind the day it comes out in Vista/Longhorn.
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From what I've read so far (direct from MSDN), there's nothing that significantly improves the lives of web developers. Only 2 of the many CSS bugs have been resolved, no improvement in CSS implementation/support, no good debug tools.
So IE7 will continue holding us back.
I spent my yesterday morning screwing around with IE 7 and the truth is, it wants to be firefox really bad, but it's just not good enough. I admit that I am biased, but I have always used the browser I thought was superior, which means I used IE6 for a long time. After rebooting twice from the installation, it broke trillian and anything with a web browser control, that's probably related to it being a beta product though. The browser itself isn't even a reasonable duplicate of firefox. The tabs are an afterthought at best. I didn't find a way to bookmark tabgroups and the top two bars were locked in place, only the file menu and nav buttons could be moved. It was generally disagreeable and I had to remove it. This is my opinion: IE7 is a steaming turd that has been roughly molded to resemble firefox, just don't touch it, smell it, or _use_ it and it's fine.
So far, only development versions of Safari and Konqueror do.
I'm not sure when they'll be available for public consumption, but the compliant Konqueror should be released with KDE 3.5.
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