IE leaving the stone age behind

[dixieflatline]

From cnn about the new IE beta:

Microsoft also added more guidance to help people using IE's new browser tab functions, which let a user view more than one Web site from within one window, using multiple "tabs."

This is Microsoft's third beta of Internet Explorer 7 made available to the general public, and Hachamovitch said there are plans for one more. The new version comes amid growing competition from browsers such as Firefox, which has long offered functions such as tabbed browsing. Some also consider other browsers to be more secure, since IE, with its market dominance, is a popular target for attacks.

Tabbed browsing, what an advancement! I wonder how long it took them to come up with that one? What is next, a seach engine box in the corner? I would kill for that one. Right on the bleeding edge those microsoft people. I also love the "some also consider other browsers more secure" line. Some people, like everyone in the world except Bill Gates.

[Draft Dodger]

Some people, like everyone in the world except Bill Gates.

I agree with what you are saying overall, but, to be fair, firefox and opera and the others have vulnerabilities as well.

[Deattribution]

The article already sums up one of IE's biggest problems, it's the biggest target - no browser is completely secure... but - the virus waiting to happen called activeX certainly doesn't do IE any favors.

[Maple Leafs]

I use Firefox at home (after IE was infested with adware), but I never saw the appeal of tabbed browsing. I'm so used to alt-tabbing through windows that I never saw the need.

[VPI97]

I've been using Avant Browser (http://www.avantbrowser.com/)for the last few years since Firefox doesn't play well with laptops...it's basically IE with all the extras (tabbed windows, etc) tacked on.

[Vince]

At first I didn't understand the appeal of tabbed browsing, but after a few weeks with Firefox, I love that I can just click the mousewheel over a link and open the link in a new tab.

[Young Drachma]

Yeah, I didn't mind the new IE. I downloaded the beta last week and it's not as annoying as FireFox has been lately with crashing randomly.

[Passacaglia]

I like how they put "tabs" in quotation marks.

[cthomer5000]

At first I didn't understand the appeal of tabbed browsing, but after a few weeks with Firefox, I love that I can just click the mousewheel over a link and open the link in a new tab.

I've been using Firefox for a while and didn't know that trick... thanks!

[Franklinnoble]

Ditto the Avant endorsement... gives me just about all the cool features of FireFox, but it's native IE, which I need for work.

I still think FireFox is the best browser around, and I think it's hilarious that Microsoft has to copycat such a small upstart.

[Vince]

I've been using Firefox for a while and didn't know that trick... thanks!

Anytime -- I think I stumbled upon it on accident one day.

[MJ4H]

Firefox doesn't play well with laptops

huh?

[dixieflatline]

Huh part II as I am writing this message with firefox on a laptop.

[Schmidty]

I hate Firefox. Tabbed browsing does nothing for me.

[Draft Dodger]

At first I didn't understand the appeal of tabbed browsing, but after a few weeks with Firefox, I love that I can just click the mousewheel over a link and open the link in a new tab.

the funniest part is on rare occasions I need to use IE, and I invariably end up middle clicking a link and sitting there wondering why it's not working.

[finkenst]

I've been using Avant Browser (http://www.avantbrowser.com/)for the last few years since Firefox doesn't play well with laptops...it's basically IE with all the extras (tabbed windows, etc) tacked on.

What the heck?

I use firefox ALL the time on the laptop i'm on now.

I use firefox at work as much as possible except for things I have to use IE for...the work PC is also a laptop.

it runs perfectly on these two computers.

[ISiddiqui]

re: tabbed browsing. To be fair, MS hasn't released a new version of IE in quite a while. IE6 was released right before tabbed browsing exploded, IIRC.

[clintl]

To be fair, MS hasn't released a new version of IE in quite a while. IE6 was released right before tabbed browsing exploded, IIRC.

I think all that indicates is that Microsoft doesn't care as much about browsers now as it did back in the days when it was obsessed with exterminating Netscape.

[Rizon]

Tabbed browsing is the bomb. I cannot live without it. Firefox + bombass extensions + bombass themes = bombass. Now the only thing IE means to me is "in other words".

[dixieflatline]

To be fair, MS hasn't released a new version of IE in quite a while. IE6 was released right before tabbed browsing exploded, IIRC.

I'm sorry but this does nothing for me. What kind of an excuse is it in the business world that your product is the worst one out there because you haven't updated it recently? MS is rich enough to pay lots of programmers big bucks to update these things and there is no reason for them to be in the back of the pack. Seriously, if I could run the games I play on linux I wouldn't even have windows installed.

[Daimyo]

re: tabbed browsing. To be fair, MS hasn't released a new version of IE in quite a while. IE6 was released right before tabbed browsing exploded, IIRC.
Microsoft didn't even have plans to release an IE7 until Firefox caught on. I don't really blame them... no reason to innovate if there is no competition.

[Franklinnoble]

The whole industry has gotten complacent. Its not until some upstart begins taking their lunch that the big boys start making a better product.

[daedalus]

VPI may have been referring to the fact that Firefox does not seem to play nice with older machines and the fact that he was attempting to use it on a laptop that was older. I find myself using Firefox more now since I am having more problems at different websites with Opera day-by-day (for example, I cannot get the time to show in Hattrick in Opera), even though I prefer Opera (more than likely because I am more used to it). Unfortunately, my computer is not the most powerful (my euphemism for the fact that it's a piece of dried up dung) and I end up with problems in Firefox sometimes. Mainly with "lag". Using an example we would be familiar with, I would click on the drop box to switch between forums and it would take 3-4 seconds for the drop box to appear. Yes, I understand that complaining about "3-4 seconds" sounds more retarded than attempting to make logic out of a HornsManiac online conversation. But it IS slower than it should be.