I'm a firefox user, as are many of my friends because I have either convinced them of how much better firefox is than internet explorer, or because I use their computers and installed it my self, but when I caught wind of the fact that Microsoft has made the first release canidate of IE 7 available for download, I was slightly intrigued. 

Now, I haven't actually installed this or any of the previous betas yet, and I don't see myself making the permanent switch back to IE, but this is at least a step in the right direction for a browser that has been a real annoyance from both a design and usablitly standpoint.  According to the Microsoft website:

A quick rundown of the new features that may be a little easier to understand include:

• A redesigned interface to cut down clutter
• tabbed browsing
• improved printing from within IE
• RSS feed integration
• better search
• increased security features like phishing filters and spyware prevention.

Some of the best news comes from the design front because they have finally made IE more standards compliant.  That means that IE actually does what it is supposed to when it comes to webdesign, for the most part.  

I'm sure that there will be many things that still need to be worked out, but at least it is an improvement, and it will be interesting to play around with and see how they handle some of the features that I've grown custom to in firefox.  Check it out and see how it works for you, and let me know of any problems you may encounter in the comments.

Posted under: Internet Explorer, Software, Web Design, Windows XP