Microsoft has released the 2nd beta of Internet Explorer 7 to the general public. You can read the release notes, or watch a tour of the new features. Microsoft warns you not to use this beta a production environment: "Evaluation of Internet Explorer 7 should start now, but the software should not be used on production systems in mission-critical environments. Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview will only run on Windows XP Service Pack 2 systems, but will ultimately be available for Windows Vista, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003." Update: You might have been expecting this, but there's already a DoS attack out there for this new beta.
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Member since:2005-07-02
Safari isn't cross-platform. It doesn't even use the exact same rendering engine as Konqueror. What's more, IE7 is supposed to be much more up to date as far as standards go (not up to Opera yet, but not nearly as bad at IE6 from what I used of it). What's more, if we get a lot of people beta testing IE7, and reporting rendering bugs, then MS will be more likely to fix as many of those non-standard rendering issues as possible. Then all the average Joe users out there will be using a standards compliant browser, and there won't be any "ONLY IE HERE" pages.
So, stop spreading FUD. Start working with MS for better compatability in the future. I say this to everyone who comes out with the "MS did badly before, so they will do badly again" argument against IE7. Until the final is out, we all have the power to make it more standards compliant and more secure, but using the beta and giving feedback to MS. To me, that is a "very" compelling reason.
Member since:2005-06-29
Safari isn't cross platform but their engine is, for example: http://gtk-webcore.sourceforge.net/, and the newer nokia handsets.
And yeah, microsoft has a very good track record of solving bugs and making their browser standards-compliant, and they always listen to their users and their problems.
And what happens when they add avalon and those pretty-marketing-name technologies to ie7 and other browsers are left out on the cold? A monoculture like this is _always_ bad, be it open-source or not.
Member since:2005-07-08
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-11-11
"Why should I support cross-platform browsers if I'm only using one platform?"
Because you're not the only person in the world. Perhaps expecting you to help out those on other platforms is a little far-fetched, but you could 
Also, there's no guarantee you will always be using that one platform. Something could conceivably prompt you to switch at some point, you can't know. If OSX or something gains acceptance (and hardware and ISV support) and becomes a more pleasant experience than Windows, you just might switch (barring a fanatical loyalty at any cost). Supporting cross platform apps is future proofing your experience.
Besides, until now, cross platform browsers tend to do better at sticking to the standards (instead of adding stuff like activeX etc, though we'll see if IE7 changes that), and better standards support fosters competition, impoving your browsing experience (those tabs and stuff IE7 added? They got the idea from other browsers, a benefit of having competition).
Edited 2006-02-01 20:27
Member since:
2005-06-29
Unless you have a *very* compelling reason to use ie7, please help make the web a better place and use cross-platform and standards-compliants browsers like firefox, opera, and konqueror/safari.
I fear that ie7 may attract people back from those, and the return of many "ONLY IE HERE" pages...