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Firefox 3's rival is preparing to launch midway next year.

Mozilla Foundation just launched Firefox 3 Beta 2, the second beta candidate of the third iteration of its popular web browser.  It will likely release the final version of Firefox 3 within a month. 

On the other side of the field stands browser industry leader Microsoft, whose current offering is Internet Explorer 7, released in October of last year.  IE7 represented a marked improvement for the Internet Explorer series, adding features like tabbed browsing and shoring up security.  However, faced with a hungry new 'Fox, Microsoft is hard at work preparing the next iteration of its IE line.

Now major news is coming from Microsoft as it speaks publicly for the first time about IE8 on its development blog.  It says the first beta candidate would be delivered in the first half of 2008.  Microsoft has announced that it will focus its efforts on multi-platform support and compatibility.  It also says it will fix the Cascading Style-Sheet (CSS) issues that crept up due to improvements to CSS in the IE7 release.

The development team for IE8 is already trumpeting a major milestone -- the browser in standard mode survived the "Acid2 Browser Test" which is a well respected test for web standards compatibility.  The development team acknowledges that Acid2 is not an official standards test, but is a good example of the browser's growing maturity.

The Microsoft Development team is headed by Dean Hachamovitch, the general manager for the Internet Explorer team.  He explained the reasoning behind the team's silence until this point, stating, "We're posting this information now because we have real working code checked in and we're confident about delivering it in the final product. We're listening to the feedback about IE, and at the same time, we are committed to responsible disclosure and setting expectations properly."

Microsoft has recently traded jabs with Mozilla and has found itself the target of antitrust allegations from Opera.  Its continuing prosperity is very much dependent on the success of IE8 and its no small surprise that with the impending release of Firefox 3, Microsoft is finally going public with its progress.

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multi-platform support and campatibility
By phatboye on 12/27/2007 11:43:53 AM , Rating: 2
Can someone clarify this statement?
quote:
Microsoft has announced that it will focus its efforts on multi-platform support and compatibility.
Multi-platform? That could mean anything from win98 to linux support (which I doubt either would be true) and even mac support.




RE: multi-platform support and campatibility
By FITCamaro on 12/27/2007 12:25:04 PM , Rating: 4
Internet Explorer already exists on the Mac. This new version will probably add to that support. As far as Linux, doubtful. Same with Win 98x support.

If you're still using Windows 98 over XP, that's your problem.


By TomZ on 12/27/2007 12:32:19 PM , Rating: 1
IE support for the Mac (and Unix et al.) was dropped several versions ago, after IE4.

I think Jason misinterpreted some of Microsoft's statements regarding IE8. What Microsoft meant, AFAIK, is that they want to futher improve their adoption/compliance to open web standards. So far I have seen no indications from Microsoft about supporting other platforms (even Mac) with IE8.

In fact, the official product name is Windows Internet Explorer (used to be Microsoft Internet Explorer).


By Shark Tek on 12/27/2007 12:37:46 PM , Rating: 2
With the help of crossover office you can run IE 6 in linux using wine. And the installation is very straight forward and easy to do.


RE: multi-platform support and campatibility
By smitty3268 on 12/27/2007 1:28:25 PM , Rating: 2
The most recent version of IE on the Mac is IE5, which is quickly approaching the point of irrelevance. Maybe they'll port IE8 to it, but I doubt it. By cross platform support and compatibility, I think they just mean supporting standards so that sites that work in Firefox/Opera/Safari will also work in IE without any specific hacks.


By Yames on 12/27/2007 2:23:31 PM , Rating: 2
It used to be the other way around, where you had more problems opening web sites in IE than Firefox. I thinks its great that consumers are forcing MS to submit to standards.


RE: multi-platform support and campatibility
By thartist on 12/27/07, Rating: 0
By thartist on 12/27/2007 5:36:21 PM , Rating: 2
...case :)


$$$ = motivation
By vailr on 12/27/2007 11:25:22 AM , Rating: 2
MS is interested in preserving the $$$ derived from a built-in web search function. For the same reason Apple offers a Windows version of their Safari browser. For me, Opera is a good backup for Firefox, in the occasional instance of a web page not working correctly.
I prefer the navigation button function of IE6, compared to IE7. Maybe IE8 will offer an "IE6 look-and-feel" option??




RE: $$$ = motivation
By Screwballl on 12/27/2007 11:34:52 AM , Rating: 2
It would be nice of they had the option "Classic IE" which looks like IE6 or "Updated IE" which is liek 7 and then "Standard IE" for 8.... this is the biggest fault of 7 and why so many people uninstalled 7, they don't like change so they need the option to use what is familiar to them.


RE: $$$ = motivation
By FITCamaro on 12/27/2007 12:22:42 PM , Rating: 2
There is the option to put back the old menu items in IE7. It also moves a few things back to their old locations.

Ignorance is not an excuse for not liking a product.


RE: $$$ = motivation
By Anosh on 12/27/2007 1:02:03 PM , Rating: 3
quote:

Ignorance is not an excuse for not liking a product.


I totally disagree. At least in this case.

I would say that the majority of the people who use windows are used to not being able to change the appearance of programs and neither are they accustomed to searching google for something they aren't aware is possible.


RE: $$$ = motivation
By MrWho on 12/27/2007 6:14:02 PM , Rating: 1
I'm sorry, but *any* excuse is a valid excuse for liking or disliking something. If and why I like/dislike something is something that matters entirely to me and no one else.

In that specific case, it matters not if I'm able or not to switch back to the old interface. The fact that they put the new one by default is enough for me to dislike it.

The new interface is clunky, clumsy, not practical and I truly dislike needing to dig deeper on it to find out how to put the old back front. It's also why I prefer Office 2003 instead of 2007 (or OpenOffice for that matter) and Windows XP over Vista (spent lots of time looking for the Mac address to the wireless adapter, and had to use ipconfig since the GUI is so badly thought up).


Security !!??
By Webreviews on 12/27/2007 10:57:55 PM , Rating: 4
Standards for CSS are all well and good, but considering that the browser is the gateway to the internet (and all that implies) making IE8 more secure SHOULD be high on everyone's list.

1. Firefox NO-SCRIPT is one reason I use it for browsing any "questionable" sites

2. Ad-Block is another reason, not only is the constant barrage of ads annoying and nearly impossible to turn off under MS IE, but it is possible to get drive-by spyware from embedded sub-frames going back to malicious sources.

3. Both of the above means MS needs to focus on X-Site scripting issues.

4. SSL certificate/site spoofing has gone down with the advent of the colored address bar, but there is still room for improvement in getting people to understand when something is probably not safe.

5. MS ought to make use of its AV acquisitions and build-into the browser a file download scanner.

6. Safari has a nice feature that allows you to browse in "safe mode" a kind of stealth mode that doesn't accept cookies or allow any mods. Great for browsing for pictures of prospective Russian brides.

7. And while not security, I love Firefox's built in spell checking for forms (like posting this message!).

Let's see MS step up to the plate.




RE: Security !!??
By DandDAddict on 12/28/2007 1:59:38 AM , Rating: 2
1. ,2. ,3. I havent seen an ad or had a script run without my permision in IE ever since they did those much needed updates with sp2 in xp, so no idea what youre doing wrong there.

4. Id say its more the site and users responsibility but yes the browser itself doing this is kinda nice, nothing wrong with redundancy.

5. Windows Defender possibly does this. I know the second I plugged in a usb key with some infected files to test it, it started freaking out and demanding something be done about said infected files. So I assume that it would do so about a downloaded file as well at worst once it completed. So I would say they already have this covered. Side note defender actualy looks inside isos, bins, and other containers I havent seen most other AVs look inside so that was a nice surprise.

6. IE has had safe modes for awhile you could enable. Also cookies for awhile have been able to be set to accept/reject/ask in general and you can set whitelist/blacklists for both options.

7. There are spell checker addons for IE7 but yes a included one would be nice.

A few of those like the AV and spell checker thing tho some one might find a way to sue them some how over them so you also have to consider that when they decide not to include some features.


RE: Security !!??
By Webreviews on 12/28/2007 11:01:16 PM , Rating: 2
What setting are you referring to that can strip ads from MS IE?

I'd like to be able to kill ads and specific flash animations at will like I do with Adblock on FF.


RE: Security !!??
By DandDAddict on 12/30/2007 5:46:51 AM , Rating: 2
My appologies there, I thought you ment the annoying talking ones, slide in ones and other crap. No it doesnt natively remove the things you mentioned. However Adblock is an addon itself and not a native part of FF I believe, I could be incorrect there tho. So I really dont count it a native feature, plus such blockers are avalible for IE as well or atleast the one I was using preSP2 to control popups also took care of the imbeded ads, so I am assuming such things still exist for it.


Thank you Firefox
By Chaser on 12/27/2007 10:41:03 AM , Rating: 5
Competition as always is a good thing. Firefox and other alternative browsers helps to keep our browsers better for all of us.




RE: Thank you Firefox
By MrBungle on 12/27/2007 7:20:50 PM , Rating: 2
I agree. It's also very nice to see that maintaining a competitive edge now requires better observance of Web standards. While Web standards aren't as mission-critical as, say, automobile safety standards, they are certainly important in keeping the suicide rate among front-end Web developers down.

Honestly, I think the adherence to Web standards has much less to do with end-user demand (most browser users probably have no idea what they're about) and more to do with developers constantly and loudly bad-mouthing Microsoft's browser releases (and rightfully so). I think Firefox's surge in market share has a bit to do with its friendly, efficient interface, features, and extensions, and a bit to do with its use as the foremost development browser among front-end developers.

Let's cross our fingers and hope that IE8 will be the first Microsoft browser to truly "play nice" with the standards-compliant browsers.


Microsoft's prosperity
By jtesoro on 12/27/2007 11:04:21 AM , Rating: 2
Can anyone explain what this statement in the last paragraph is talking about?
quote:
Its [Microsoft's] prosperity is very much dependent on the success of IE8...

Sounds like a bit of a stretch to me.




RE: Microsoft's prosperity
By lukasbradley on 12/27/2007 11:49:45 AM , Rating: 2
The only thing I can think is that IE is integrated with *some* other products, and the basis of HTML rendering can be utilized by other MSDN toolkits. If those products wish to have the fastest, most up-to-date support, then the IE "core" should also continue.

Then again, I also feel it is a bit of a stretch.


RE: Microsoft's prosperity
By MrBungle on 12/27/2007 7:25:00 PM , Rating: 2
Maybe it's just referring to Microsoft's prosperity in the browser market. While I don't see the IE market share dropping below critical mass anytime soon - regardless of quality, features, etc. (since it's bundled with the OS and the default for most computer users) - IE8 may be a critical response to FF3, depending on the latter's success.

In other words, if FF3 is wonderful and IE8 is not at least a healthy step forward, IE8's market share could certainly continue to decline.


By PAPutzback on 12/27/2007 10:01:23 AM , Rating: 2
I didn't think the tabbed browser - IE7 was ever going to get here. Hopefully this version is streamlined a bit. Although I don't see any difference in performance between IE and Firefox. Basic browsing that is. I am sure FF has add ons that suit other peoples needs and make it a better browser for them.




watching
By Screwballl on 12/27/2007 10:53:27 AM , Rating: 2
I am watching this develop. Hopefully IE8 uses the proper web coding instead of its previous/current jacked up modified standards that make web designers have to modify their page just to work properly under IE.
I am sticking with Firefox and Opera until something better comes along (and it will not come from MS).




RE: watching
By TomZ on 12/27/07, Rating: 0
"If you can find a PS3 anywhere in North America that's been on shelves for more than five minutes, I'll give you 1,200 bucks for it." -- SCEA President Jack Tretton

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