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Alorie Gilbert at ZDNet:
Microsoft took the wraps off Internet Explorer 7 on Tuesday, releasing the new “preview” version of its Web browser to the general public for testing.
The program, still a work in progress, became available for download at 9 a.m. PT from the Internet Explorer section of Microsoft’s corporate Web site. The company, which began limited testing in July, had promised to deliver a public beta by the end of March.
“The big update is that it’s public,” said Margaret Cobb, group product manager for Internet Explorer at Microsoft. “All previous releases were limited.”
The latest version works only with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and includes many of the features Microsoft has been touting for months.
More on the new features by following the link and from Erik Larkin at PC World.
Update: The direct link to the download is here and this release is formally termed the Beta 2 Preview for IE7.
Update 2: There don’t appear to be any big surprises in this beta. Some reviews:
IE 7 Beta 2 Shows Progress
Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta 2 Public Preview Review
Hands On With Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 Beta
An excerpt from the latter by Harry McCracken at PC World:
But overall, IE is just not that big a whoop. Mostly, it brings an increasingly antiquated browser up to rough parity with Firefox and Opera, two products which have improved by leaps and bounds during the years that IE has mostly stood still. It does have a few nice features that its rivals don’t, but none of them are life-changing experiences.
Jeremy Kirk at Infoworld
After outrage from many of its own employees over its abrupt censoring of a Chinese blogger, Microsoft has formulated a new policy to deal with requests from a government that alleges posted material violates its laws.
The measures were detailed by Microsoft’s top lawyer, Brad Smith, at the Government Leaders Forum in Lisbon on Tuesday.
Smith said that Microsoft will only remove blogs when given proper legal notice, and even then, will only block access to that material within the country where it is deemed unlawful. The site will still be viewable from outside the country, he said.
The shutdown of the US hosted MSN Spaces weblog of a Chinese reporter undoubtedly prompted this action. Smith says Microsoft is developing technology for country specific blocking and I’d guess they are going to need it for more places than just China.
Update: The formal press release is now available and has more details.
Paula Rooney and Barbara Darrow interviewed Jim Allchin last week for Computer Reseller News and he had this revelation:
CRN: Is there going to be antivirus in Vista?
Allchin: No, there is not.
CRN: Why?
Allchin: It’s a complicated answer as to why not.
CRN: Was the decision based on technical concerns?
Allchin: It wasn’t technical.
OneCare, Microsoft’s antivirus (and more) product for Windows XP is in beta and prominently states that it will not be compatible with Vista when it is released, which has lead to a variety of speculation. Even its current availability as a well regarded and free beta has significance for antivirus software vendors, let alone the possibility that it might be bundled with the operating system. The likely reason for not including it in Vista is almost certainly the fear of upsetting longtime time security software partners and/or arousing the ire of antitrust authorities.
John Leyden at The Register, who spotted the relevant part of the Allchin interview, points out that the European Commission had contacted Symantec last October on this issue, although Symantec says that they did not complain to the commission, but that the commission contacted them. However, according to Symantec’s spokesman:
“We have always said, and continue to say, that we’ll continue to compete with Microsoft in the market as long as there’s a level playing field.”
Bundling an antivirus product in the operating system doesn’t seem like it would qualify.
Update: Speaking of Symantec:
Symantec expects to begin offering a new consumer security service similar to Microsoft’s Windows OneCare Live by September of this year, a company executive said Monday. Code-named “Genesis,” the service will integrate components of Symantec’s security, PC tuning, and backup software into a single service that is accessible over the Internet.
Microsoft Corp. did not infringe on any of the patents asserted by Research Corporation Technologies (RCT) in its lawsuit against the software company, a federal court in Arizona has ruled.
According to a final ruling issued Jan. 27, 2006, by the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, the court found that three of six patents asserted by RCT were “unenforceable due to the patent applicants’ inequitable conduct in withholding material information from the Patent Office with an intent to deceive the Patent Office.”
Today’s decision follows a previous ruling in April 2005 in which the same court found that all claims asserted by RCT in three other patents were invalid.
