So I just installed IE7 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx), and I must say it’s quite nice. I can already say I’m used to it.
Because it’s basically Firefox.
Of course, mebbe I’m just behind on the times. I haven’t used IE in quite awhile, but from what I ‘member, it was quite lacking. I then switched over to FF, which has the incredible tabbed browsing, quick searches, hundreds of plug-ins, with the benefit of better security by obscurity (yes, I know that’s now real security, but it still counts for something).
Microsoft might be a big, slow corporation, but at least they try to reel ppl back from the competitors (can you say Zune?). Tabbed browsing and quick searches have made a pretty prominent advance in my mind, and I’m sure that as ppl have more experience with it, the plug-ins that made FF so good will come as well.
Now, seeing as I’ve just explained why IE7 is just as good as FF, you might wonder why I seem so excited. Well, basically, IE7 is pretty.
Shallow, I know, and I’m sure there are more customizable features on FF to make it look just as good, but this is kind of nice. People have this image for technology and computers of giant, towering behemoth skyscrapers, angular, metallic, and perfectly pragmatic, sacrificing aesthetics for it. Well, my computer definitely needs that last characteristics. If I’m going to stare at it for at least an hour a day, it should look appealing.
So the rounded corners, cleaner text, and general layout are nice. I always worked to shift around favorites and toolbars so that it took up minimal space, being as clean as possible. Well, another little feature is that all those messy menus are gone (File, Edit, Options, etc). Everything pretty much got condensed into a little area in the top right, where, if you need it, you can hopefully find it. Minor, but it looks nice.
Right now, I’m trying to figure out whether I really want to use it now, though. It’s very slick, and I’d like the hands-on with it, but Microsoft does have a little history with newly released software. I’ll mull this one over.
(Story blog will be updated by the end of the week.)
(And if you haven’t seen it, I updated quicker than normal, so my HC post is just below.)
2 replies on “IE7; the new… Firefox?”
Just in case ‘ne of you care, FF 2.0 is apparently coming out on Tuesday.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/289490_firefox21.html
In theory, I should be unbiased, but I really hope that the FF2 beats up on IE7.
I haven’t stepped up to IE, and, for that matter, am still back at IE6. I’m using Firefox 1.5, because I’ve heard that some plug-ins don’t yet work at v2.0, and I prefer to not lose productivity.
As for IE, the key reason that I don’t use it as my default browswer is that Firefox doesn’t come with Active-X enabled, and I don’t install that plug-in. There are lots of security issues associated with Active-X, so I want to know when the browswer is doing something other than just browsing.
I do keep IE6 on my machine, and use when Firefox doesn’t work, but that probably doesn’t happen more than once per week. I use IE6 when I’m on microsoft.com . As for disabling Active-X on IE … that would be heresy, and I doubt that IE would work after that!