Feb 15, 2005 — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O> will release a new version of Internet Explorer, the world's most popular Internet browsing software, with new, built-in security features, Chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday.

In a speech at a major security conference here, Gates said Internet Explorer 7.0, with new anti-spyware features, will be released for preliminary testing this summer.

The move comes three years after Microsoft, the world's biggest software company, launched a major initiative to improve the reliability and security of its software, which runs on about 90 percent of all personal computers.

ABC News.

Meh, I'll still stick to Firefox. Even though we don't always get along..

I wonder if it'll support transparent pngs...

That is just an attempt to kill FF. There will be many patches and updates to fix the holes that were left behind from a drunk code writer. GO FF!

That's very doubtful. The majority of places, including government/council offices here use IE mostly is because of two things usually...

1.) The IT Techs here can't be bothered putting something better and free such as FireFox on the computers.
2.) It comes built into windows.

Anyway, IE 7.0 will end up becoming IE 7.99999991 before it is stable enough for the likes of us to use.. and it likely won't even get to that point as MS would already be working on IE 10.0 or something, with just as bad security holes.

Well Gates is wrong, it's not the "world's most popular software" it's the MOST USED, not popular, difference. And I just got a email about 30 mins ago from FF saying it has just reached 25 millions downloads w00T!

And it's only entering testing? WTF? It should already be somewhate past that stage. Might be one of the reason's Longhorn's not out yet. (can you believe Microsoft, they're already code-naming their OSs, let's see Longhorn, then Blackclomb and then I forgot the next one...but it has a name)

When Longhorn comes out, I'll rush to get it.

Similarly that was what that lawsuit was about. Netscape or some company sued microsoft for incorporating their IE into their OS, I mean if you think about it it was a frivilous lawsuit.. Its their software they can stick whatever they want in it, but thats not the point. The point was that most joe shmo users aren't going to download and use another program that competes with one already installed on their computer. I saw the thread of like iWork... "the challenger to ms office"... well I'd hate to say it but no way, you can't compete with it. Maybe if MS said Office was the most popular program.. then they would be telling a truth... (I guess I should read the topic first)

As for longhorn, once it comes out, I'm opting for full time Linux. (with firefox of course)

"Popular - Frequently encountered." Depends on which definition you personally think relates to his statement, but he isn't wrong.
Even if you think of popular as "regarded with great favour, approval, or affection especially by the general public" than he still isn't far off the mark. Windows has the largest share of the OS market at the moment, and the number of users of IE greatly outnumbers those using FF. Generally because most users don't care. Businesses and average people don't need anything other than what they already have, and there's many people who still think of the Internet as "that blue 'e' icon", and not IE as a browser, knowing that there are other browsers out there.

Longhorn may not even have that large an effect on Microsoft’s current situation, seeing as though Mac OS X Panther has most of what Microsoft is promising, and is already out. Many developers and IT professionals won't want to be waiting till mid 2006 for something similar to what they can have now.
And everyone knows Windows always rips off Mac.. *Points at windows 95*

Hey, Linux has FireFox pre-installed you know?

EEErrrr... Wrong. Steve Jobbs would love to say that his software had the first GUI, but actually the UNIX project is the proper owner of that title. Yep, thats what my college java professor told me. *pokes single mouse button*

If anything, the OSes are inately similar because they are made with similar technology and the same user base telling them what they want. I've used Mac OS X, and to say windows copied off X with XP is just horrible.. XP is WAY better than that horrible obscurity. I actually love seeing microsoft stuff on Macs.. IE, Word, Office things like that. Its soo funny that the alleged "copycat" OS found its way into the "original" OS.

My only beef with XP is its difficulty to customize it's look and feel. You know in KDE (a GUI for Linux) you can change the text at the top of windows, the background of the borders, the colors, the buttons, choose from different schemes of colors and 3D stuff, and one of the coolest aspects was that scroll bars have the windows and mac style of scroll buttons... Its so excellent! Heck, if you didn't like your window manager theres other out there too you can install, namely Gnome.

If Linux becomes easier to install, and easier to get, I am 100% sure that people will be checking out the best FREE OS more and more. And I guess the only remaining problem is to get rid of the stigma that console like programs are evil.

IE 7 is completely seperate from Longhorn, actually. It will be released pre-longhorn...and without any big updates (ie, it will not come with SP3). So...er...Longhorn's only being held back because its the next big OS. It has...a LOT to have worked out. There's a LOT of stuff they need to fix and change and get rid of and add.

Silly rabbit...trix are for kids.

*Pops in out of nowhere*

That is, if Linux not only becomes easier to install, but a program that can fully emulate Windows so that ALL Windows games can be played on Linux is released. While I'm sure the large user base that use computers for business, word proccessing, music, the internet, etc wouldn't care about that, the group of people who use computers to play Ccomputer games would still need an emulator like that to completely switch to Linux. Otherwise, thsoe people will have to continue with dual OS setups.

Also, for Linux to succeed farther it needs to become more centralized. As it is there are literaly dozens of Linux distributions. For the casual user, or even the less casual user who wants to try Linux out, they have to wade through all the various distributions just to chose the one with the feature set they need and want. In order for Linux to really succed, there needs to come out one "primary" distribution, with other current distributions acting as customizable add-ons, like Firefox's extensions.

As for the Mac vs Windows issue, let's just say that I prefer not to get involved in that kind of argument. Especially since I haven't even tried OS X yet, though I plan to get a Mac Mini and/or Powerbook someday to try it out. Geeze, that Mac Mini is just plain awesome *drools*

According to a GUI timeline I found, Unix didn't support GUI until 1987, yet Apple Lisa was running a GUI in 1984.
Well unless there was a Unix project that was out non-commercially and was not too well known before '84, Mac would of been the first GUI. But then again you could also say the first GUI was made in the 60's, but it wasn't an OS.