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IE7 Released and Available for Download
Luis Escalante writes "After over a year and a half, IE7 has been released to the public as of Monday afternoon. Download it directly here. Word hit the streets after several mangers of the IE division posted on the IE blog."
So can the WMP-inspired interface be made to go away, and the interface made to look like a real Windows app (with the menu bar, and IE6-style controls etc?)
I think I'll stick to Firefox, thanks.
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
You're probably thinking of this table.
If IE5.5+ supports "filter: alpha(opacity=50);" why couldn't they be bothered to add "opacity: 0.5;" CSS supoprt to IE7. At least they got the Alpha PNGs working good enough now. Also the still renders with tons of extra padding you can't get rid of, even with padding: 0px; so buttons still show up super large in IE compared to all the other browsers.
Morphing Software
Did anyone notice its Windows Internet Explorer 7 and not Microsoft Internet Explorer 7?
1: Opening Multiple Tabs (more than 20) Crashes
2: UI is TERRIBLE - why???
File / Edit / View menu:
Displays below the address / nav bar, a break from convention from every windows app Ive used in the past. A break from convention is good if its progress, this is just change for change sake, it flat out doesn't work!!!!
Command Menu:
Uses Real Estate that could be used for tabs. I want my home button beside my back and forward buttons. I cant convert to a classic view instead of the half baked attempt at a UI, or change
Navigation (back forward reload etc)
Should be grouped together.
I could go on. The fact is, Microsoft have locked me down with this software to a specific experience regarding its UI. I cant change the size of icons, nor the position of toolbars etc. Why not MS??.
Its a joke, and I havent even started playing with CSS in it yet. I was hoping for MS to listen to the cries of the RC users regarding toolbar management, they obviously didn't "hear us"
This is a decent question. I'm a web developer, and the only reason I use Windows is to make sure Internet Explorer renders things properly. Sure, IE7 is a gigantic step up, but it's still not to the point I can say "Well it works in Opera and Firefox, therefore it'll work in IE."
Unfortunately it's not looking too likely we'll see Wine being able to run Internet Explorer any time soon, thanks to the bundled Windows Genuine Advantage software. There's lots of implications in emulating a "genuine" Windows machine, so it will be interesting to see how this plays.
And in typical Microsoft fashion, downloading and installing an internet BROWSER requires... what else? That you reboot your computer.
Maybe it IS integrated, after all...
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Web dev is an understatment. When I release this beauty upon the tubes, well not sure what is going to happen, but hopefully it will be good.
Actually I'm designing a site from the ground up. Trying to do everything* right. Semantic markup, accesibility, proper source ordering, user customizable/specifiable everything...AND trying to accomodate most all browsers or degrade nicely. Its currently just me, but I've got a few other people that are about to come in and start working on it as well.
I'm doing this on the side, so no I wouldn't be out of a job, just gain a lot of spare time. Actually even if I could guarantee that all of my users would use the same 100% standards compliant browser I'd still have to make some of the same decisions...layouts, color schemes, etc. not to mention just implementing features...
I've mainly been focusing on making sure my markup is *perfect*. CSS can't do everything, but the nice thing is that if done correctly, you can turn CSS off and still be able to use the site. Same goes for javascript. My first version will require no javascript and all future core features will be able to run without it as well. AJAX and all this "Web2.0" hype is going to take a backseat to functionality, they'll be added as needed in future releases. I also like to test the experience from using a PDA. What's nice about this approach is that my "full" version and "mobile" version are the exact same codebase.
To top it all off, it has been developed entirely using...drumroll...vi(m).
Every "web dev" should do what I am doing at least once, so they can understand how sites work and not use their WYSIWYG "tools" as crutches and actually understand (x)HTML, CSS, and javascript. Dreamweaver is killing the web!
When I have a kid, I want to put him in one of those strollers for twins and then run around the mall looking frantic.
Frankly, IE7 is a disaster in terms of a sane interface. It's bizarre--toolbar buttons on the same row with the tabs, giving you less space. A weird mini-tab always visible. Stop and refresh over on the right side of the address bar. The weird button+drop-down menu motif of the toolbar.
It's 2006, and Microsoft STILL hasn't learned how to simplify its interfaces? On the contrary, they're complicating them even further.
"Sufferin' succotash."
IE 7 is actually less integrated than IE 6 was. However, the IE rendering engine is provided as a library for other applications to use. Any other applications that have embedded browser controls depend on IE -- and as they should. Applications should not have to deal with HTML rendering on their own. I would imagine this would cover everything from help systems to chat clients to things like the Add/Remove programs dialog.
Since other browsers don't come pre-installed on Windows computers, IE tends to be a neccesity (whether Windows should make it easier for applications to rely on other 3rd party browsers is a separate issue). As such, a system reboot is neccesary as the rendering engine itself, exposed as a library, must be updated. Basically it just ensures nothing is using the browser control at the time of update.
-James
DO NOT install this in virtual pc under Windows 2003 Enterprise (or possibly XP). On boot the Virtual Machine User Services crash immediately (not sure what this affects) and Internet Explorer will crash immediately on start. Without IE6, I have no way of getting Windows updates...
Especially don't do it if your Windows license is from MSDNAA (academic) because you only get 1 activation which is not renewable. In other words, I'm screwed. (Mac user, just have Windows for testing my web sites in IE, and no I will NEVER pay to get a copy of M$ Windows)
Oh, it's much worse: did you notice this part from the Webmaster checklist?
HTTP content cannot be included in an HTTPS page (see the Internet Explorer Blog article).
Now expect the sound of thousands of admins whining as their critical mixed-content webpages fail to load, and the sound of millions of dollars of new servers and SSL accelerators to support SSL encryption of all the dancing bears on web servers that are signed into with HTTPS, but have all their image content on HTTP.
And oh, yes, expect the sounds of millions of tech support people with Indian accents getting phone calls from irate Americans and asking the inevitable question "Have you rebooted your computer, sir?" I hope Microsoft will pay for the new fiber-optic cable to support all the tech support calls.
This is going to be fun to watch, especially for web pages designed with old pieces of Microsoft design garbage like FrontPage.
I double-boot Windows and Linux at work. I use mostly Linux (SuSE) and their automatic update feature is quite painless - you only have to reboot on kernel updates, which aren't that common. However, it always pisses me off when I restart to Windows and I have to restart another 10 times to install all patches that came out in the meantime. This is godawful embarassing, no matter the excuse, especially for a 'modern' operating system.
Here's my experience:
:(
1) Install IE7 since it's out of beta - downloads and installs in about 2 minutes.
2) Reboot PC - 1 minute
3) Enable menu bar - 2 minutes trying to get it to move to the top. Nope
4) Try to change search engine to Altavista - 2 minutes - exception thrown just typing a letter in the search menu.
5) Remove IE7 - 2 minutes
6) Reboot - 1 minute
(I guess I might have also added the about 5 minutes svchost ran my cpu to 100% after the first reboot)
How horrible.....
A perfect example of why the filesystem model in Windows is broken.
The kind of issue you describe is solved automatically by the filesystem on Unix systems. If one process deletes a file that is opened by any process, then that file will be unlinked from the filesystem, but remain useable to the process that was already using the file. The file is not actually deleted from disk until all processes stop using it.
Among many other things, this means that you can safely upgrade a library, or even a program, that is running. The old processes will keep running the old library with no issues but any new processes that are created will automatically use the new one. Once all old processes die, the space used by the old library is returned to the filesystem.
There are gotchas with the 'Unix way', like correctly handling configuration files that are only open on startup and shutdown, but these issues can be handled with a bit of care.
Under Linux, people routinely upgrade Firefox or even the X windowing system while the programs themselves are still running. Afterwards, they simply restart the program in question to run the new version.
Try out fish, the friendly interactive shell.
We hear reports of huge numbers of corporate machines using a warezed XP key to allow them to install Windows en masse; huger numbers of people in countries in Asia, etc. that can't afford an official copy of XP and so warez it.
How widely will IE7 be installed? I think a relatively large percentage of the Windows userbase will be unable to install it because of the WGA stuff. You might end up with a long term 50/50 split between IE6 and IE7.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.