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Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 Reviewed
An anonymous reader writes to mention a review of the latest Beta release for Internet Explorer 7 on Paul Thurrott's SuperSite. From the article: "While it's not enough to make me switch from Firefox yet--I still love certain Firefox features such as inline search--it's no longer an object of ridicule either. IE 7.0 Beta 3 includes huge functional and security advantages of IE 6 and is an absolute no brainer for anyone choosing to stick with IE. If you are an IE user, head over to the Microsoft Web site and pick up IE 7.0 Beta 3 today." ZDNet has some first impressions of the release as well.
From the article (emphasis mine): "While it's not enough to make me switch from Firefox yet--I still love certain Firefox features such as inline search--it's no longer an object of ridicule either. "
A finer compliment (no longer an object of ridicule) couldn't be had. This from Thurrott, a Microsoft sychophant. So, it's come to this, Microsoft feints and jabs, feints and jabs, and after ten years (more?) of internet browsing that's how high the bar is set for them. I can't wait for Vista.
...to see an article on /. saying something positive about a Microsoft product.
I guess we'll start seeing flames any minute now...
I did a quick search for "CSS" in those reviews, got zero hits. I skimmed through the lists of enhancements, and looks like almost everything has been available in other browsers for years. 'Nuff said.
python>>> q="'";s='q="%c";s=%c%s%c;print s%%(q,q,s,q)';print s%(q,q,s,q)
[irony]
shit, once again I am stuck! I tried to install it on my SuSE 10.1, but it does not work... this damn Windows Genuine Advantage. If Novel only had a SuSE Genuine Advantage.
[/irony]
IE7 may have all of the features Microsoft wanted it to have, but it still lacks reak XHTML support.
They've had how many years to get their shit together, but we're still stuck with 'sorry, our implementation is a hack even though we helped write the standard, maybe you'll get THE BASIC FEATURES OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB implemented in 2015!
The Yasashii Syndicate ||
Uhh, this is a technology site for nerds isn't it? I was expecting a real review of a web browser, not this pseudo-tech magazine style 'yes this product exists' kind of review. The amount of times he mentions 'feature complete' also really bugs me.
Review Outline:
- They scraped some of the crap off IE 6
- They've "improved it under the cover".
- It's now got features that most other browsers have.
- It'll be released when vista comes around.
What the review should've had:
- Memory usage comparisons
- Backwards compatibility
- Some screenshots of how it miserably fails the ACID2 test.
- Does it finally have 32-bit colour PNG support?
- Whats all this 7+ crap and why is it different?
Sorry Paul you're coming across as a hardcore Microsoftie in it for the money rather than trying to give an honest opinion, hope you make lots of money from advertising, but this is a piss poor review.. maybe I should so it to my grandma so she's got something to discuss while she's getting her hair done!
So wannabe web designers will still be able to create broken pages and get away with it on IE6 AND IE7.
python>>> q="'";s='q="%c";s=%c%s%c;print s%%(q,q,s,q)';print s%(q,q,s,q)
Ha! I know the answer, it will have 100% support of:
- Microsoft HTML(tm)
- Microsoft CSS4(tm)
- Microsoft XHTML(tm)
- Microsoft XForms and ActiveX and other eXotic eXtensions.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
"If you are an IE user, head over to the Microsoft Web site and pick up IE 7.0 Beta 3 today."
Except of course unless you're a web developer in which case you still need IE6 on your machine for testing those delightful CSS quirks and, as ever, you can't run two versions of IE on the same machine.
It's odd. MS's developer tools are generally pretty good but they do seem to fall down a bit for those of us who write web applications, especially given the recent rise in far more complex scripting and so on with the whole Web 2.0 buzz / AJAX thing. Oh well.
should have read "anyone who uses Windows"
IE is still going to be bloated with legacy code and remain noncompliant with W3C standards. Regardless of the bells and whistles, it will only have an audience through user inertia or ignorance of alternatives like Opera or Firefox.
Can't wait to get my hands on tabbed browsing. It sounds really good.
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
First have to validate the system about it's "genuity" and get a key and who knows what it's doing during that process, in any case some sniffing around is done and probably the systems Serial number is recorded.
Once the key is gotten and pasted into a field, download startd...
Then execute the install file - first the system will need to be upgraded, with the "Automatic" upgrade option prominently displayed.
No, I want to do the manual install and see what is coming onto the system.
Well, well, well -the Windows Genuine Advantage is one package in a bundle and _has_ to be installed.
Once the system is upgraded with all the goodies, the IE7B3 installer runs but complains that there is already a previous version of IE7B? installed and it has to be uninstalled first from the Control Panel.But this program has no uninstaller!!
Result: Live with the old IE7 version and have the WGA phone home every day...
Does this suck? Yesssss!!!
M$ is digging their own grave with this type of BS!
I haven't tested Beta3, but without looking I can tell you that the standards support is relatively unchanged since Beta2. The CSS team for IE7 has stated, point blank, that virtually no further changes will be made to the engine on this front. A freaking catastrophe.
Why is this a nightmare? In order to avoid unnecessary workarounds MS eliminated ALL (yes, ALL) the workarounds used by client side devs to solve the core issues with regard to how MS renders CSS and HTML. This includes things like the guillotene bug (where content and images inside a floated box just disappear enitely), etc. However, THEY DIDN'T FIX ANY OF THE BUGS.
This means that we're now going to be headed back to the days when we have to render separately for different browsers, meaning XSLT is going to see a resurgence, costs are going to double, and folks are going to have to go back and recode all their existing apps so they render correctly in IE7.
Welcome to the wonderful world of IE development. By incompetent retards, for incompetent retards, led by a visionary bonobo chimp.
-rt
Hmmm, let's see:
"it's not enough to make me switch from Firefox"
"it's no longer an object of ridicule either"
"...for anyone choosing to stick with IE"
"If you are an IE user..."
"I still feel that most users would be better off with a more feature-packed browser like Firefox"
I'm not quite sure that "non-negative" is the same as "positive". I also need to look up on the definition for "lukewarm reception".
Do you really think they care about feedback? They will just shove it down Windows user's throats anyway. the average person doesnt really have a choice.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta 3 is a solid, feature-packed browser that all IE users should flock to immediately"
I am going to switch immediately, and you should too.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Installed it yesterday on my old Dell laptop. Turns out it breaks slashdot layout, sidebars to be exact. WTF? I thought it was supposed to have better support for CSS, not worse!
Of course, the Lawful Evil solution would be to pop up a message saing "Invalid HTML document" if no DOCTYPE was present.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
This is definitely a step in the right direction (the Firefox direction that is). I agree that anyone who insists upon using Internet Explorer should get this the moment it's released. Now if only Microsoft can start adopting important standards in 10 years.
The problem I have is this: if IE7 reverses the spread of Firefox, what's to stop Microsoft from repeating history and ceasing all serious development again?
Haiku for you!
When a website wants you to go through a bunch of hoops like WGA to download a file there's often a very simple way around that. You can probably find the URL on FileMirrors. If it's something popular like an IE beta it'll probably be on the front page so you won't even have to search. Oh, and here's a link to IE7BETA3-WindowsXP-x86-enu.exe.
MSIE is proprietary. Those three words cover a great deal of what is wrong with Thurrott's review, even granting him his status as a Microsoft sycophant (as another poster pointed out).
Digital Citizen
People here have missed an important point: IE7 finally supports such basic CSS properties as position: fixed, min/max-width and fixes a few of the more annoying bugs; it also now supports PNG alpha transparency.
Once IE7 becomes widely adopted, we can finally start USING some of these features without worrying about them not being compatible with IE. We need to encourage people to upgrade, and if they won't upgrade to Firefox or Opera, then at least they can upgrade to IE7 and give us an easier time developing web pages.
"If he were a plant, people would roll him up and smoke him."
Actualy since I test my sites for standsards compliance they usualy break when viewed in IE. Something will be rendered just a little wrong or an extra space where it should not be etc.
I refuse to do extra work just to satisfy microsofts refusal to play along with standards they usualy pushed for and/or helped write. I also do not care about people who use IE, and after a breif explination neither do most of my clients... and so if you view my companies site in IE it is a bit off and will politely ask you to use any browser but IE if you want to see it the way it was meant to be. I then include my standard "why" page explaining standards and how microsoft does not follow them along with code examples showing all the extra work microsoft tries to create for me.
And yes... some of what I do is professional web development. When I explain the extra cost of making thier site "IE compliant" instead of "Standards compliant" almost always companies go with standards. Just one more way Microsoft raises your total cost of ownership as a business.
Who are.....these people?
I'm a developer and whilst I understand the point of view that IE is not standards oriented, the fact is that you're missing the whole point in that end users like IE, its really easy to use, and don't give a toss about the fact that it isn't standards compliant. All they care about is that web sites work in it, which they do.
Web Developers can bitch all they want about standards etc, but the fact is that all Microsoft are worried about is backwards compatibility, which is the 100% correct way to go. Deal with it! Microsoft build products with the end user in mind. Web Developers are not the mass market end users.
What would happen if Microsoft decided to start making the browser entirely standards compliant? A number of websites would stop working. You guys would moan about Microsoft again, saying how it was all their fault anyway. No change there, no incentive for Microsoft. Microsoft would lose market share because they made their browser the same as everyone elses. Theres no money to be made because you are the same as everybody else. Again, no incentive for Microsoft.
I think you guys should get a reality check, and stop thinking that Microsoft should be impressing you somehow.
Disclaimer. I am a developer, not for Microsoft, and I work on developing, recommending and implementing software based on open source products.
This bug has been known by IE7's developers for at least 1/2 weeks, and in fact they have discussed it with slashdot (or at least tried to). See this for the technical explanation.
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F