E.Webscapes Design Studio

The much anticipated final release of Microsofts Internet Explorer version 7 finally happened today. The release today is for Windows XP. The reviews I’ve read thus far are mixed:…

- Better performance
- Nicer user interface
- CSS Support is still dissapointing, but improved over IE6
- Addressed MANY of the CSS bugs we’ve come to hate about IE
- Improved support for CSS 2.1
- Roger likes it
- Now supports transparent PNGs (yay!)
- Now has a built-in RSS reader

A full feature listing can be found here.

I have tested several of my own sites in IE7 (though I have not downloaded the product, or upgraded yet) and am happy to find that the sites I have tested came through just fine. No ugly green monsters jumped out of my monitor, or anything!

This is a major update from Microsoft, and their own IE Blog has been a frequent visit of mine over the last year, watching the discussion and development talk about the new browser. Today, on the IEBlog, they make mention of already developing future improvements on the product, which is exciting.

It is easy to be a critic of the browser – as a developer, it has been the absolute BANE of my existance for years. It will continue to be – however, this new release is a step toward progress and improvement and makes me hopeful that Microsoft will continue to listen to developers in future development of their product.

I’ve had several conversations about IE7 and the popular statement made is “Why not just use a browser that works? If you don’t like IE – then use something else! Set Firefox as your default browser.. or opera. Or better yet – switch to a Mac!”

Personally, my vote was lost to Firefox a long, long time ago. As a designer, however, we have to work in ALL environments and make sure our product renders correctly in all browsers. That bit of the design process is what makes designers everywhere wish for some kind of WorldWide Council of the Almighty Web Browser (WWCAWB™ – heh) whereby that council decides on ONE browser that is safe and good for the entire world to use – making all other browsers illegal, punishable by the removal of all internet priviledges for life.

A designer can dream, can’t she?

IE7 is, admittedly, an improvement for web designers and developers, but it is worth mentioning that IE7 is still very much behind their major competitors with regard to the latest and greatest web standards and features. Allow me to join the chorus of others on giving congratulations the IE team on a job well done, while, at the same time, politely reminding them that we anxiously await future improvements, as always.

Update
SlashDot and PCAdvisor are already reporting a major security vulnerability and exploit in the new IE7 browser released by Microsoft.

Note – E.Webscapes Blog Design Studio has updated our Terms of Service to reflect our policy on client projects completed prior to 10/19/06, as it relates to IE7 rendering.