Dean, the guy responsible for IE7, announced yesterday that Windows Vista (and concurrently IE7) Beta 1 has been released.
After reading the IE7 Technology Overview, I am please to see some of the new features that will be available in the new version of IE.
- tabbed browsing
- better user interface
- proactive security notifications (for phishing, non-secure sites, etc)
- alpha channel PNG support
- better CSS support
- RSS feed detection, subscription and viewing
- built-in, customisable search tool
- and so on
I won’t be switching from Firefox when it comes out, but it is good to know that IE is being brought to the same level as other browsers now. Hopefully, I’ll finally be able to design a website and not have to worry about testing it in different browsers.
The Beta 1 has been released to only MSDN subscribers and a small group of pre-selected testers. Beta 2, according to the documentation Dean provided in his post, will be available publicly.
A lot of commentators on Dean’s post are whining about the decision for Microsoft to go with a private testing for the first beta, but they’re all blowing smoke. They didn’t even read the information Dean posted, and got up in arms about something which is really irrelevant. They’re just a bunch of selfish children.
UPDATE: If you don’t want to take me seriously, at least listen to what Molly has to say.