Reversal of policy: Next IE divorced from new Windows
Reversing a longstanding Microsoft policy, Bill Gates said Tuesday that the company will ship an update to its browser separately from the next major version of Windows.
A beta, or test, version of Internet Explorer 7 will debut this summer, Microsoft’s chairman and chief software architect said in a keynote address at the RSA Conference 2005 here. The company had said that it would not ship a new IE version before the next major update to Windows, code-named Longhorn, arrives next year.
In a reversal of policy, Microsoft will ship the next update of Internet Explorer separately from the next version of Windows.
Bottom line:
The move acknowledges that the browser has become the target of virus and spyware writers.
The important thing here is that Microsoft is finally removing IE from Windows, and _if_ done correctly, would mean that IE flaws would no longer also be Windows flaws due to (as is currently) IE being ‘an integral part of Windows’.
2 Comments for "Reversal of policy: Next IE divorced from new Windows"
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» JBlanch
02/23/05 @ 8:09 pm
It’s extreamly rediculus to think that microsoft make a good choice in making IE part of the Operating System. I mean, its laughable to think that it wasn’t just a plot to make people keep IE. The Internet Explorer rendering engine is a joke, and its taken way to long already for windows to get rid of it completely. Honestly? The downfall of the browser market is this summer.. people are doing to download it, realize that they either left things out, didn’t make it much better, still have exploits, or just are already so sick of it (like me) that they don’t even bother to try it out.
Boo to you microsoft, it is very, very poor of you to bring internet explorer to us even after all this.
» Diane Vigil
04/11/05 @ 5:22 am
Yes, indeedy. Microsoft has even opened up communications with the community at the IEBlog — the Microsoft Internet Explorer Weblog — in order to see what we’d like in IE.
See IE and Standards. The good news is that MS doesn’t seem to be editing the comments — but better bring your electron microsoft in order to find the scrollbar.