IE7 to be Pushed to Users Via Windows Update

dfrick writes "CNET is reporting that IE7 will be pushed to users via Windows Update. This has serious implications for e-commerce websites whose functionality might be affected by any bugs in the software. Also to have end users suddenly using a new browser right before the holiday shopping season could magnify the cost any bugs that might create a bad user experience on sites."

Comments

Re:Force-Feeding

[Phroggy]

I can't speak to Microsoft Update, but as for Apple, the problem is this:

If you tell it to ignore/hide/delete/whatever the iPod updater, it will never bother you again about that specific update. The next time they release a new iPod update, it will present you with the option to install the new updater. Also, unlike other updates, the iPod updater is an application that pushes a firmware flash to an iPod; it does not update software that is already installed on your Mac. As far as I know, there's no way to make it quit bugging you every time they release a new update.

However, if your grandmother doesn't want to be harassed about updating GarageBand, she should probably uninstall GarageBand, and then Software Update will never bother her about it again. Just because she doesn't know what it is doesn't mean Apple shouldn't try to fix the bugs in it for her.

Re:Most CSS bugs are fixed in IE7

[Phroggy]

Maybe this is an oversimplified solution, but why couldn't Microsoft just "push" CSS fixes to their older browsers? I realize web developers (like myself) already have a slew of hacks and patches to handle the broken CSS of IE 5&6, but surely a company with as many bright engineers as Microsoft could figure out a way to patch the old browsers without breaking pages that use the hacks.

IE6's rendering engine has been mostly consistent for about 5 years now. Web developers know what's broken, and how it's broken, and how to work around the problems. If a certain bit of CSS code behaves a certain way on IE and a different way on everything else, I can use conditional comments to use one stylesheet on IE and a different stylesheet on everything else so that all browsers look the same. If that one bug gets fixed by itself, then IE will still be using my hacked stylesheet, but now it will display the page wrong (just like Firefox or Opera would if I gave them the same hacked stylesheet).

IE6 has been so broken for so long that we really don't WANT them to fix it one piece at a time. What they're doing with IE7 is far better. Of course, ideally, they'd make IE7 pass Acid2, but this is definitely a step in the right direction. If they patched rendering bugs in IE6, it'd be a nightmare.