John Lamansky

Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 was released today. The SuperSite for Windows review concludes:

Internet Explorer 7 RC1 is faster, more stable, and better looking than previous IE 7 betas, so it’s a required update for any users who installed IE 7 Beta 3 or earlier. As for IE 6 users, I think it’s both safe and prudent to migrate to IE 7 now: You’ll be able to upgrade to the final version fairly effortlessly and the security enhancements and new functionality should win over even the most jaded. It’s not a perfect browser, but IE 7 is hugely improved, and even in this prerelease version is worth considering. I don’t think there’s enough there to sway Firefox users quite yet–maybe IE 8?–but IE 7, even in RC1 garb, is looking good. Recommended.

I don’t know about you, but I had never even heard of the concept of “Internet Explorer 7+” until I read a post from the MSBLOG that explains what IE 7+ is and what the difference is between it and regular IE 7:

Vista has a core of security - I mean the whole thing is based on security and making everything incredibly secure. Having the 7+ identifies that the Vista copy of IE7 has extended features that integrate with the operating system itself, such as Parental Controls which restricts what specific users access, and Protected Mode which helps virtualise areas of the disk so that if anything harmful access the machine, then it won’t attack the computer.

So basically, the 7+ version is the Vista one and will harbour some of the core security features of the operating system, whilst 7 is just for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 which won’t be less secure in anyway [sic] and will still have all the same features as 7+ except not have the core operating system parts.

In the middle of the Browser Wars 2.0 between Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox, a new application war appears. But it’s not about browsers. It’s about podcatchers. And it seems that history is repeating itself.

We start off in 1994 in the browser world and 2004 in the podcasting world. At these times there existed Mosaic and iPodder, respectively. Mosaic later changed its name to Netscape because of legal disputes. In the same way, iPodder later changed its name to Juice because of legal disputes concerning the iPod trademarks.

Anyway, in the beginning both iPodder and Netscape were dominant. Everyone used them. Even though the user interfaces weren’t the greatest. I mean, you can’t even listen to podcasts from within iPodder, and to me Netscape’s interface looks really ugly. But who didn’t use iPodder for podcatching, and who didn’t use Netscape for Internet browsing?

Yes, there were some other programs. iPodderX (now Transistr) was the Opera of the podcatcher world. Both were commercial programs and both had a much smaller user base.

Then one day in June 2005, Apple became Microsoft. Just as Internet Explorer usage shot up after Microsoft bundled it into Windows in 1997, so did iTunes usage as a podcatcher shoot up after Apple incorporated podcatching into that program.

Why did this happen? The simple answer for both cases: hardware. Microsoft Windows could be used on the prevalent PC. iTunes was used with the iPod. Bundle IE with the popular Windows, and IE’s share skyrockets. Bundle podcatching with the popular iTunes, and up shoots iTunes usage for podcatching.

Now we’re in 1998 in the browser world, and late 2005 in the podcatching world. Who uses iPodder and Netscape anymore? iTunes and Internet Explorer have taken over.

iPodder development has branched off into other projects, such as the PodNova client. Netscape development had branched off into other projects, such as Nvu, the Mozilla Suite, and SeaMonkey.

We arrive at the year 2004 in the browser world and 2006 in the podcatching world. Firefox, a descendant of Netscape, has come on the scene, quickly eating away at Internet Explorer usage share. Now almost everyone’s talking about Firefox, and Microsoft has responded by kicking IE up a notch with the upcoming release of version 7.

But where’s the podcatcher that will become the next Firefox?

As I was thinking about this browser/podcatcher war coincidence, I was surprised at how my plans to build a podcatcher coincided with this repeating history. I was planning to make a podcatcher, which is currently codenamed “Salamander.” Hmm, an animal name, kinda like Firefox and Firebird. I wanted Salamander to be easy to use while having really cool features. Hmm, kinda like Firefox. I wanted Salamander to be the program that would eat away at the usage share of the dominating program (iTunes). Hmm, kinda like Firefox.

Will Salamander become the next Firefox? Time will tell. One little difference, though. Salamander does not have its roots in iPodder, in the way that Firefox has its roots in Netscape.

Oh, and iPodder did not start out as a paid program in the way Netscape did.

But besides those things and few other small differences, the history of 10 years ago has indeed repeated itself. And it just might continue to do so.

Ouch. According to a CNet article:

For people who use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to browse the Web, the picture wasn’t good. In 2004, IE was “unsafe” a total of 358 days of the year, meaning that the browser contained a publicly known, remotely exploitable hole for which there was no patch available. That means IE was “safe” only seven days, or 2 percent of the year, according to David Wagner, an assistant professor and well-known cryptography researcher. Wagner’s team compiled the data from Scanit and Secunia.

Quite surprisingly, Opera and Firefox didn’t score much better: Opera and Firefox scored much better:

In contrast, Opera was “safe” 300 days, or 82 percent of 2004. None of the bugs for Opera’s browser went without a patch and it would take 93 days total to fix them.

Firefox scored best. It was “safe” 339 days, or 93 percent of the year. Only two of its bugs went without a patch and it would take 43 days to install its fixes, according to the data summary.

But this time, it’s a public release! Head on over to the Microsoft IE7 page if you’re interested in downloading the beta 2 preview. You might also be interested in checking out the feature table even if you don’t want to download.

But there’s one catch: IE7 Beta 2 Preview will only run on Windows XP Service Pack 2.

About three months ago, the Microsoft RSS Team posted a request for feedback on various proposed RSS icons.

About two months later, Microsoft announced that they would be using the same RSS icon as Firefox.

I’m excited to announce that we’re adopting the icon used in Firefox. John and Chris were very enthusiastic about allowing us (and anyone in the community) to use their icon. This isn’t the first time that we’ve worked with the Mozilla team to exchange ideas and encourage consistency between browsers, and we’re sure it won’t be the last.

Actually, the icons aren’t identical, but they are very close:

Firefox 1.5:
Internet Explorer 7:

Shortly after the Internet Explorer announcement, the Outlook team announced that they’ll be using the same icon in the next version of Outlook (currently known as Outlook 12).

I find it surprising that Microsoft would be willing to work together with its biggest competitor in the browser market — and vice versa. The only possible explanation for such cooperation that I can think of is a genuine attention to the needs of the end-user on the part of Microsoft and Mozilla. Which is really good; it means a further step towards XML feed identification consistency, something sorely lacking as evidenced by the array of XML buttons available today.

I found an interesting blog post by a former Microsoft employee who has recently switched to the Mozilla Firefox browser. He talks about the good things about Firefox as well as ways he thinks the browser can be improved. What makes the switch (and review) especially interesting is the fact that he had worked on developing Internet Explorer (mostly in interface design) from versions 1.0 to 5.0.

I read this article at the Microsoft Watch website, and it seems Microsoft revealed some features on privacy notices intended for beta testers. This list and the many other lists of features are making my jaw drop… it looks like Windows is finally going to be a real competitor to Mac OS X and Linux.

Some of the Windows Vista features mentioned are:

• An audit feature allowing administrators to monitor the system and create security logs.
• Microsoft Rights Management Services (RMS), which is a Digital Rights Management (DRM) client for applications.
• “Speech Recognizer” speech recognition system that will be available to any application choosing to use it. The Speech Recognizer will adjust to the speaking and grammatical style of the user.
• Driver Protection that will prevent drivers from loading that are listed on a Microsoft database of drivers known to cause problems. This will result in less blue screens of death.
• A “Games Explorer” that will list games installed on the user’s computer, keep track of information (such as the last time each game was played), and receive metadata from Microsoft.
• Peer Name Resolution Service that will allow on-the-fly P2P collaboration.

Some Internet Explorer 7 features:

• Tab support (finally!).
• Phishing Filter.
• Add-on management, which will allow you to manage add-ons such as ActiveX controls, toolbars, etc.
• Add-on crash detection, which will determine which add-on, if any, caused an Internet Explorer crash.