IE 7

[Simcfc73]

This might have been mentioned previously but I am quietly impressed with IE 7 even though its only on Beta2.

The XML feed is really nice, very uncluttered layout and the anti phishing could be great if its proved to work.

They've even added the godawful tab browsing to try and lure the firefox crowd back.

A step in the right direction.

[eejit]

I have to admit that I don't like it at all. Are you able to move the URL bar back to where it was before?
It feels like too little too late to me, it's the extensions that set Firefox apart and I can't see MS allowing users to add their own extensions to IE any time soon.

BTW, I thinks tabs are godawful too.

[Geoff]

I can't see MS allowing users to add their own extensions to IE any time soon

It's called ActiveX. Virus and spyware writers make 'extensions' for IE all the time.

[Simcfc73]

Who had 1 hour 1 minute in the sweepstake before a *yawn* anti M$ message came up.?

Like shooting penguins in a barrel.

[Geoff]

Just stating fact.

[CyberNerd]

I must admit that I struggle to see the relevence of IE7 compared to firefox and Opera.
couldn't live without my tabs now !

[Geoff]

Have they fixed the CSS madness present in IE6?

[mark]

They claim to be CSS1 compliant but are not touching CSS2. ZenGarden special effects section is still out of bounds unfortunately! http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/02/02/523679.aspx

Like the graphics but agree entirely with eejit - too little too late.

Annoying on my system it's broken email links opening OE. I use it rarely and already it's been hijacked, plus OE has a new search bar too [kids looking at e-card site]. So much for safe browsing.

[webman]

MS have been complacant for too long in the browser and making very little changes to it over so many years since they virtually knocked Netscape out of the water. Now they have good competition they're trying to salvage what they can. IMO, anyway

[CyberNerd]

Who had 1 hour 1 minute in the sweepstake before a *yawn* anti M$ message came up.?

I was betting on the fact that all the windows admins were too busy firefighting.

Don't see many pro-IE7 followups yet!

[webman]

Don't see many pro-IE7 followups yet!

Not expecting any

[Preston]

I'm deffinately still in love with Firefox, its so user friendly and i have NEVER had it crash on me yet. IE used to cause me no end of trouble. Microsoft are only just catching up with early versions of Firefox now!

[Norphy]

I had a nice long reply typed out here and then FF decided to crash on me. Ah well, here we go again

I've played with the beta some. It has some nice points and some bad points. Its obviously still a beta and needs some work. I do think it has a lot of potential. Heres what I like:

Most of the new interface. Minimal, I like it
Zoom feature. It zooms everything unlike FF which just zooms the text. Works well
RSS Feeds. Better than Firefox's live bookmarks imo
Quick Tabs. Slick, I like it
Multiple homepages, opened in tabs when browser opens
Decent implementation of tabs and the new tab button.

Stuff that I'm ambivalent about:
Phishing filter. Has the capability of being open to abuse and could slow your browsing down

Stuff I don't like
Getting rid of the menu bar by default. Silly imo although it can be turned back on
Memory hungry although that said, so is Firefox
Pressing the home button when you have multiple home pages defined brings up all of the home pages whether they're open or not. MS should make it so it brings up the first only or at least make that an option.

IMO Opera is still the best browser for the PC out there. It is the smallest, fastest and best featured browser out of the box. It beats Firefox into a cocked hat and then some. The only reason I'm not using it is because it doesn't support NTLM Proxy Authentication which I need

I was betting on the fact that all the windows admins were too busy firefighting.

I'm trying to be as polite has possible here so please don't take offence. Firefighting what? Just because I run a Windows network does that mean I'm constantly fighting to keep my network up to date and to prevent malicious stuff from getting on it? Does that mean its falling over all the time? A network is as secure as you make. That applies whether its run on Windows, Linux, Solaris, OSX, VMS, whatever. I have a working patch strategy. I have put in measures to stop people loading spyware and unauthorised software onto the network. I have good antivirus protection. My network is protected by a powerful firewall. I wouldn't go as far to say that I'm invulnerable (Who is?) but we have not had a virus hit us in more than two and a half years. Spyware infestation has been eliminated. I hate it when people hear you have a Windows network and immediately start banging on about how you should be running Linux or make smug comments like that one quoted.

I know that I'm probably reading too much into that comment and that it was most likely made in jest. However that was something I wanted to get off my chest and I feel a bit better for it now

[tarquel]

Norphy - I have to agree with your entire post [except for the Opera bit as I've never used it really]

IE7 is lovely but like Norphy said, still has some bugs and issues still - but it is beta everyone, lets not forget.

People stick to what they like - its a fact - but lets keep the comments about what people should have to a minimum please.

Regards
Nath

[Simcfc73]

Norphy,

Funny that, I got quite annoyed by the firefighting comment too but I couldn't type as polite as you.

I didn't like the way it hides the menu bar either and it took me quite a while to restore it. The RSS is useful but I think I will stick to a standalone one until the full release comes out.

The way that favourites and the history tab scroll down is nice, especially now it doesn't resize the IE window.

The bad ponts are that it crashed a few times when closing the window and its killed my FTP upload that I use.

I can forgive them as its only Beta2.