August 27th, 2005
Hands-On Review of Internet Explorer Beta
By “Oldster” - Guest Reviewer, RealTechNews
Alice Note: I asked Oldster to weigh in because he was the first to download and test out the IE7 beta. He called a it a “Big Yawn.” Here’s why:
“The “yawn factor” of IE7 comes from the fact that it has the usual soft, mushy feel of the “old” IE, likely because of bloated code, and really doesn’t offer anything that FireFox hasn’t had all along in the form of extensions that the user can choose rather than being force fed. Microsoft has always had the policy of making the user’s decisions, almost always to the detriment of the user. IE7 is not an excepton.
The interface is not as intuitive as either FireFox or Opera and the Links bar is hidden off to the right by default—bad for me because I prefer the Links bar to the Favorites dropdown. I also had trouble placing links on the Links bar. It simply refused to accept dragging and dropping them.
I have no way to test the security of this new version but am skeptical, given MS history and the bloated code of IE7. (The RAR file is 10 MB and RAR is an efficient compression method. The unpacked code must be around 28 MB. FireFox, as I have it installed ,complete with several extensions, is less than 16 MB) Bloated code means holes and it won’t be long before they are found and exploited.
So, yawn sums it up. Same old, same old with maybe more security, maybe not. Firefox still wins. Source: Oldster
Rob says:
Strange that the codebase would be so large when it’s already half “integrated” into Windows.
I’m no MS fanboy, but from what I’ve read the bigger changes are supposed to come with Beta 2. That includes (thank the heavens) all the CSS fixes…
August 27th, 2005 at 8:09 am
Nizam Rahman says:
And hopefully better support for PNGs for cryin’ out loud.
August 27th, 2005 at 11:33 am
Crunch says:
I don’t have the technical skills that most RTN readers have but I know what I like. In trying out IE 7 I felt my “powers” had left me. I couldn’t kill the ads, I couldn’t avoid registration requirements, etc, I could only do what Bill decided I could do. It seems as though Microsoft hasn’t noticed the reasons for the growing popularity of Firefox which is “user friendly”. I’m from a forgotten time when user friendly was important. I am underwhelmed by Microsoft’s offering.
August 28th, 2005 at 7:22 pm
nels says:
Today may be the day I leave firefox, I hate to revert to IE but FF crashes WAY too often, and usually at the worst times (like at the end of filling out a web form). I will miss many of the features of firefox but the crashes drive me nutz. It’s not just my system, I have it installed throughout my home and office, all are plagued with crashes. If anyone has advice on a fix I’d love it, or any reviews of opera, please let me know.
August 29th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
Crunch says:
nels,
Firefox itself is not likely to be the problem but if you want to try Opera today is the day. Free licensing for a few more hours. I think you should stay with Firefox but to each his own.
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