Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 will be released at the same time as the first betas of Windows Vista (née Longhorn) and Longhorn Server, Microsoft announced Friday. The magic date is Wednesday, August 3rd.
What new functionality will be in this first beta of Microsoft’s updated browser remains to be seen, though tabbed browsing and RSS are near-certainties. Beyond that, Microsoft is simply touting “developer platform advancements”, which could mean anything. Hopefully some of the promised design features such as CSS2 fixes and PNG transparency will be in there.
Damn! Just 3 days before I go on holiday. Anyhow, this is great news! I can’t wait to see what work Microsoft has put in IE7 and Vista.
July 24th, 2005 at 4:53 am
Will ‘normal’ people be able to get their hands on Vista? Or will it be windows professionals, etc, only?
July 24th, 2005 at 7:04 am
I was also about to ask that. How does one lay hands on the betas?
July 24th, 2005 at 7:48 am
The Windows Vista website says to check back on August 3rd:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx
Windows Vista Beta
Beta 1, targeted at developers and IT professionals, will be available by August 3rd 2005.
Check back here for all the details.
July 24th, 2005 at 7:43 pm
I expect the betas of Vista and Longhorn Server will only be available to invited beta testers (although there is talk of Vista Beta 1 being available to MSDN Premium subscribers).
The IE7 Beta, on the other hand, will definitely be public. The official IE Blog would be the best place to watch for news.
July 24th, 2005 at 11:30 pm
If new IE supports CSS & PNG i would be in heaven. : )
As for the Windows formally known as longhorn, there have been leaked beta builds floating around for a couple years now. From what i gather it seems to be bigger, and slower, but with a pretty watch-looking clock on the right side of the screen :)
Some sites with info & screenshots if anyone is interested:
http://www.win-vista.net/
http://www.msbetas.org/
http://bink.nu/
July 25th, 2005 at 12:30 am
One week after the arrival of my new machine. Should I wipe XP Home (yuck!) and replace it with VISTA?!? Reminds me of when I got a hold of a copy of Windows NT 5. Installation was great. Booting? That was another thing altogether.
July 25th, 2005 at 1:52 pm
hughitt1:
the clock/sidebar is being dropped from longhorn/vista as far as I know
July 25th, 2005 at 7:30 pm
Was just readin on their blog and they said “Since we have no plans to do native rounded corner support in IE7 (CSS3 feature), I want to point out that there is an article available on MSDN that shows you how you can easily and efficiently implement rounded corners with IE today.” Appears IE7 is going to be another proprietary piece of crap.
July 25th, 2005 at 7:35 pm
Quote:
“the clock/sidebar is being dropped from longhorn/vista as far as I know”
WHAT it’s Microsft best improvment to Windows since the addition of Pinball!
July 26th, 2005 at 10:27 pm
If they made the development of IE7 a contineous one, much like Mozilla…instead of just releasing it and loafing on it, I believe it would become a more stable and credibly product in the sense that they will contineously try to fix it and make it better.
July 28th, 2005 at 1:49 am
Here’s a post that lists some of the bugs will be fixed and some of the CSS 2.1 stuff that will be supported:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/07/29/445242.aspx
August 16th, 2005 at 1:23 pm