Computer Forum

**5urlcom** · 01-31-2006, 02:39 PM

Here are the download links and the previews and comments for the Beta

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/01/31/520817.aspx

http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=159460

**vangogh** · 01-31-2006, 02:59 PM

I'm certainly interested in seeing what the new IE will be like though it still won't be my main browswer. It doesn't look like the general public can get IE 7 yet, but hopefully soon. My only request from Microsoft is they allow me to have both IE 7 and IE 6 installed on the same computer to make my development life a little easier.

I'm mostly hoping the new browser is more compliant with standard code so that in a few years I can drop some of the IE hacks I use in devlopment.

I am looking forward to the public release. I'm guessing it will be this summer, but I'd be happy if it was sooner.

**5urlcom** · 01-31-2006, 04:19 PM

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=58957

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...aredirect.mspx

**Village Idiot** · 01-31-2006, 08:01 PM

I am not in the leist interested in it, firefox has made me a perminent customer. if MS left all those holes in IE for that many years, why wouldnt they do it with the obviously buggy version 7?

**Minaki** · 01-31-2006, 08:44 PM

Quote:

My only request from Microsoft is they allow me to have both IE 7 and IE 6 installed on the same computer to make my development life a little easier.

You could use VMWare or Microsoft VirtualPC to do this. (There's also PearPC that emulates a Mac)

Quote:

I'm mostly hoping the new browser is more compliant with standard code so that in a few years I can drop some of the IE hacks I use in devlopment.

You'll still have to wait for the masses to drop IE6. Some of use are still waiting for them to drop IE5! Some companies have a tendancy to stick with what works for them, even if that means using old, outdated software...

Quote:

if MS left all those holes in IE for that many years,

Years? Holes? IE6 with the latest software updates applied has no known holes.

Quote:

why wouldnt they do it with the obviously buggy version 7?

Buggy? Have you fully tested it? Did you even realise it's still in Beta Preview therefore bound to have a few bugs?

**Minaki** · 01-31-2006, 09:09 PM

i'm%20lovin%20it%20logo[1].jpg

**getlessdebt.com** · 01-31-2006, 10:19 PM

No way, I switched to firefox and will never go bacK!

**vangogh** · 01-31-2006, 11:21 PM

Thanks for the link 5urlcom. I'm downloading as I type.

Minaki I know you're a big IE supporter. Sorry,but Firefox has become my default browser for a variety of reasons. I'm not someone who thinks IE is bad though. I have a hunch IE7 is going to be pretty good in fact. I assume the beta will be a little buggy, but that's to be expected and I'm not going to judge the browser on it.

I know it'll be years before I can drop coding for IE6 and it's really ok. I've found all my workarounds and it's not nearly as much as people think. The only things I generally have to trick IE about is min and max widths and heights and I've found some easy workarounds so it's no big deal. I think too many people complain about a browser not working instead of just taking the time to learn to code a little better. I find if you start with standards compliant stuff and then tweak a little for various browsers at the end it's pretty easy to get things looking good across broswers.

I do wish I could use some new things like border-radius more, but it's not too big a deal to wait. And I can always code that stuff for those who have updated browsers. The masses will just have to live with corners a little longer.

I've thought about installing VMWare at some point, but it's not going to happen tonight or this week so for now I'll just live with instaling IE7 on a different drive and testing it out. I'm interested on what's in the new version, but I switched to Firefox a year and a half ago and will continue to use it as my primary browser.

**Christopher** · 01-31-2006, 11:56 PM

I'll download and try it, though I highly doubt I'll ever start using it as my primary browser again.

While we're on the topic of browsers, I thought it might be fun to reveal the stats we get here on WT:

IE: 65.9%
FF: 24.7%
Opera: 3.2%

I wonder how these percentages will fluctuate as people go back to / try IE with this new version.

**luke456** · 02-01-2006, 12:36 AM

I'm already happy with my FF and if ever I'm gonna change browser, definitely not IE.

**Minaki** · 02-01-2006, 05:24 AM

Quote:

I think too many people complain about a browser not working instead of just taking the time to learn to code a little better. I find if you start with standards compliant stuff and then tweak a little for various browsers at the end it's pretty easy to get things looking good across broswers.

Yeah I definatly agree with that!

**Village Idiot** · 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minaki

Years? Holes? IE6 with the latest software updates applied has no known holes.

not true. havent you heard of that recent javascript exploit? that is only one of them

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minaki

Buggy? Have you fully tested it? Did you even realise it's still in Beta Preview therefore bound to have a few bugs?

I am speaking of the finished product. since when has MS EVER made a product that there isnt a better version of. o yes, never

**TimSchroeder** · 02-01-2006, 02:50 PM

I'm am testing the BETA version. Firefox is still way better IMO.

The new IE is making my screen wavy when I scroll down on a page for some reason!

**vangogh** · 02-01-2006, 06:03 PM

Does anyone know if I can install the IE7 on a different drive on my laptop other than C:\?

I started to install it last night and before I got too far it looked like the install was just going to overwirte my existing IE6 without giving me an option to install elsewhere.

I have other computers I could install it on, but truthfully I rarely ever use any but the laptop I'm typing on now. I'm not really wanting to install something like VMWare at the moment just to test out a beta version of a browser.

Any other ideas?

**Christopher** · 02-01-2006, 08:41 PM

The FAQ on IEBlog says:

Quote:

Can I run the preview and IE6 at the same time?

No, the preview is a system upgrade that replaces IE6 on your computer with the preview code.

As Chris Wilson pointed out, "'IE' is actually a collection of system components - networking, browser hosting, core HTML rendering, printing, etc. When we install a new version of IE, we're installing it for all applications that use these system components - including the tiny iexplore.exe itself." Because of this, we do not support the various hacks that allow side by side running of IE6 and the IE7 Beta 2 Preview. Running with these could cause issues with the stability of a system.

**vangogh** · 02-01-2006, 09:34 PM

Thanks Chroder. I had a feeling that was the case. Thought I'd ask anyway. Looks like I'll have to wait a little while to take a look at IE7. I need to keep IE6 on this computer at the moment to test sites

**Minaki** · 02-02-2006, 05:58 AM

Quote:

I am speaking of the finished product. since when has MS EVER made a product that there isnt a better version of. o yes, never

That's a matter of oppinion. IMO, the vast majority of the products that Microsoft make are miles better than any of the alternatives.

The fact is, no software is 100% bug free. Yes, even Firefox (Firefox has in fact had loads of holes in the recent months...)

**Village Idiot** · 02-02-2006, 11:21 AM

Quote:

That's a matter of oppinion. IMO, the vast majority of the products that Microsoft make are miles better than any of the alternatives.

windows is the only one that I have found, and thats because there is no replica exists. I have ms office and visual studio, I perfer the free alternitaves.

and I am very aware the FF has holes, but the mozilla foundation fixes it asap, ms waits for months if they look into it till the next version.

**Minaki** · 02-02-2006, 01:11 PM

Quote:

and I am very aware the FF has holes, but the mozilla foundation fixes it asap, ms waits for months if they look into it till the next version.

Actually, with the last highly critical hole, they released a fix earlier than the usual schedule for updates.
The reason they do that is so the patches can be properly tested and quality assured, so they don't realease patches that cause more problems than they solve.
They also release a full acknowledgement of the problem, as well as details of mitigating factors and temporary workarounds.

**vangogh** · 02-02-2006, 03:22 PM

Can't we all just agree to disagree. I use Firefox as my primary browser. I've found it's the best one for me. The 'for me' is the most important part of that statement. That doesn't make IE a bad browser. In fact it's a pretty good browser. Whenever I open it and view a web page the page displays. Seems to work.

I'm still going to use Firefox, but my use doesn't make it any better. It's more useful 'for me' in the way I browse and the way I use a browser. I suspect that for many people the opposite is true. There's plenty of room in the world for more than one browser and I'd say that the competition between them all will only make browsers in general more useful to all of us.