Internet Explorer 7: Yesterday's Browser… Today!
Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 the other day. Since I'm required to use it for some of our programs at work, I went ahead and upgraded to the latest version. Needless to say, I'm totally unimpressed.
It looks just like Firefox. They ripped off most of the interface (including a search box in the upper-right corner) and gave the browser pretty much all of the features that Firefox and Opera users have been using for years now. This includes tabbed browsing and subscribing to RSS feeds. It has a strong "me too" feel about it. There's nothing innovative here, and we'll still have to deal with IE's terrible rendering of web pages. Microsoft has hyped up and given us a catch up product. I expected better after five years.
The worst part is that it actually removes functionality that was present in IE6 that I actually liked. I would condense the menus, navigation buttons, and location bar into a single bar to save space on the page. I'd then tack on the Links toolbar and the Google Toolbar. Well, IE7 will have none of that customization stuff. You can't move the location bar. You can't customize the navigation buttons. You can't have the menus share space with the location or navigation bars. Now I'm stuck with fewer of the options I want to see AND more space taken up by toolbars. Not. Cool.
It's also only for folks using Windows XP SP2, so if you're like me and have held out on an older version of Windows (or your copy of Windows is, er, "borrowed"), you're SOL on browser updates. Do yourself a favor. Unless you absolutely have to use IE for something, go grab the new version of Firefox (2.0 was just released today) and enjoy all of the goodies without all of the headache.
Jesse
Shauna
Apparently it’s already causing a problem here at work, too. All of our internet clients receive copies of their payroll reports via email and the new version of IE is changing the file extension, resulting in a file that cannot be opened. Well, it can be opened with a few simple steps, but now I have to deal with a whole bunch of extra calls from clients who don’t know why their files won’t open.
Where I work it was just announced that they will prevent IE7 from going out to machines for at least three months. They’ve learned by being burned that with Microsoft, it’s better to wait for some of the problems to be worked out before installing it.
I didn’t think it was that great when I had it installed on my laptop(when I had a laptop). It caused a bunch of problems with the work e-mail so I’m waiting to download to it until the IT guys at work have worked out the compatibility problems.
Just. Amen.
Yup…I am happy with Firefox 2.0. I am being patient with the add ons to get updated so I can really feel at peace.
I just got my new whoopty-do computer at work preloaded with SP2. It has extra windows I'm not used to seeing. Something about windows not copying files and that I might lose stuff. Anyway it's annoying because I have to keep closing those windows so they don't get in the way of what I'm trying to see on the screen. Right now I'm looking for ways to get that little window turned off much the same way that I have done the volume.
My family asked me today, “umm.. our internet says it is updating and now it is weird. Can you fix it?”
I told them again “USE FIREFOX. I put it on your computer.”
“Is that the orange one?”
“yes. Use the ‘Orange Internet'”
SIGH.
I don’t know what any of you are talking about.