IE7 beta 2

Microsoft has released IE7 beta 2 and they really want you to try it. If you are running IE (45% of people visiting here still are), even I want you to try it, because it fixes most of the problems IE6 has with these pages.

That's most, not all. IE 7 still has some remaining display glitches, but it's a heck of a lot better than it was.

It also now has tabs, popup blocking, phishing filters and even "addons" (http://www.ieaddons.com). It recognizes and lets you subscribe to RSS feeds. It has a Firefox-like search box, and although it defaults to MSN search, you can quickly and easily change it to use Google.

Here's a neat feature: open a few pages in tabs and then hit CTRL-Q to get an Expose like view of all the tabs - so OS X'ish (and no doubt a preview of Mac OS X-like features to come in Vista).

The whole interface and look of IE has changed. I see some old hands are complaining, but I think it's much improved.

Ok, really: I'd rather you were running a Mac or Linux. But you may have your own reasons for using Windows, including the best excuse of all: no choice due to corporate policy. If so, you really, really want to upgrade to this browser. Yeah, yeah, it's beta. But Microsoft so badly wants you to try it that they are offering no charge phone support (North America, Germany and Japan only). How can you ignore that? No charge phone support! What's to lose?

Plus, if you are a regular reader here, these pages will look better. As a Unixy/Linuxy website, I've always ignored IE6 browser issues and concentrated on Mac, Mozilla and Firefox users. Now IE7 fixes most IE6 display problems, so you benefit from that too. Just one example: after installing IE7, mouse over one of the menu bars at the top of the page here.. bet you never knew that was there, did you? IE6 didn't understand CSS well enough to show you those, but IE7 does.

Try it. You'll like it.

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