October 19, 2006
Internet Explorer 7 is Coming Your Way, Whether You Want It or Not
Ie7
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http://blog.eogn.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/ie7.jpg>...
will release Internet Explorer version 7 on November 1st. All Windows XP
users who have automatic updates turned on (which includes most XP
users) will receive the update automatically. This will be somewhat of a
mixed blessing.
To be sure, Internet Explorer version 7 will add several new features
that have been in other web browsers for a long time. Tabbed browsing is
the most visible of the new features. Once you realize you can open
several web sites simultaneously within one instance of Internet
Explorer, you will wonder how you every got along without it. Of course,
Firefox, Opera, and other web browsers have had that capability for some
time.
Internet Explorer version 7 also fixes several security issues. Security
fixes are a good thing most of the time but some web sites will no
longer be usable with the new browser. Of course, Microsoft says that
the problem is with the sites that do not conform to Microsoft's
"standards." Those who created the sites like to point out that
Microsoft's "standards" are different from everyone else's. In fact,
Microsoft has never handled cascading style sheets in accordance with
established web standards? Who's right and who is wrong? I don't think
it makes any difference; the user loses regardless of which party is at
fault.
I have the latest beta version of Internet Explorer version 7 installed
on one of my Windows systems and cannot view two of my favorite
non-genealogy web sites with it. The sites display perfectly in Internet
Exploder version 6 as well as in Firefox, Opera, Safari (a Macintosh web
bowser) and Konqueror (a Linux web browser) but not in Internet Explorer
version 7.
I have long avoided Microsoft's first release of any new product.
Microsoft has a reputation of releasing buggy code in version 1.0 of
almost all the company's products, then fixing the bugs in release 1.1
or perhaps in release 2.0. Knowledgeable Windows users often wait for
version 1.1 before upgrading any Microsoft product. However, choices are
limited this time. According to Microsoft's announcement at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/updatemanagement/windowsupdate/ie7announ...,
anyone who has Windows XP Auto-Updates turned on will receive the new
version. Of course, you can turn Auto-Updates off, if you like. However,
that means you will also miss out on the frequent security fixes that
Microsoft releases. I wouldn't want to leave my PC exposed to major
security problems, especially when Microsoft has already issued a fix.
In short, I would suggest that you leave Windows Auto-Updates turned on
but keep an eye open for the update that adds Internet Explorer version
7 to your system. After that, anything that "looks funny" on the web
should be blamed on Microsoft, not on the web site owner.
Of course, you can do what I and millions of others have done: install
Firefox or Opera web browsers and avoid the Microsoft hassles entirely.
I still have Internet Explorer installed but I do not use it much. I use
Firefox as my preferred web browser.
Internet Explorer version 7 will be available only for "genuine" Windows
XP with Service Pack 2, Windows XP 64-bit Edition, and Windows Server
2003 with Service Pack 1. The word "genuine" is Microsoft's euphemism
for a non-pirated copy. Anyone running Windows 98, Windows ME or Windows
2000 is out of luck; Microsoft says it will never update Internet
Explorer for those operating systems. Those users will be left with all
the bugs and security problems of Internet Explorer version 6.
I would suggest that anyone running Windows 98, Windows ME or Windows
2000 should obtain one of the free web browsers that do not have
Internet Explorer's security problems: Firefox or Opera.
For more information about the November 1 release of Internet Explorer
version 7, look at Microsoft's announcement at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/updatemanagement/windowsupdate/ie7announ....
Posted by Dick Eastman on October 19, 2006 | Permalink
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