Today at RSA, Bill Gates talked about Internet Explorer 7. As the guy responsible for IE, I wanted to say a couple of things about it. First, some basics: were committing to deliver a new version of Internet Explorer for Windows XP customers. Betas of IE7 will be available this summer. This new release will build on the work we did in Windows XP SP2 and (among other things) go further to defend users from phishing as well as deceptive or malicious software. Why? Because we listened to customers, analysts, and business partners. We heard a clear message: “Yes, XP SP2 makes the situation better. We want more, sooner. We want security on top of the compatibility and extensibility IE gives us, and we want it on XP. Microsoft, show us your commitment.” I think of todays announcement as a clear statement back to our customers: “Hey, Microsoft heard you. Were committing.” Why are we talking about it today? Because our customers and partners have asked us, with increasing urgency, what our plans are. We want to convey our intentions to our customers and partners clearly and in a timely way. Ive gotten questions about the ship date. Yes, we have a date in mind. Ill talk about the date after we get feedback from customers and partners. Were going to release a beta and listen, then refresh the beta and listen some more. Well ship when the product is ready. Ive also gotten questions about support for Windows 2000. Right now, were focused on XP SP2. Were actively listening to our major Windows 2000 customers about what they want and comparing that to the engineering and logistical complexity of that work. Thats all I can say on that topic. Please know that the IE team is working hard. Were eager to improve and better secure the web experience for the hundreds of millions of IE users around the world. We delivered on our part of XP SP2. We are actively delivering on our part of a great 64-bit Windows client. We continue to deliver on security updates for customers (across several versions of IE (back to IE 5.01) and Windows). Were going to deliver on IE7. |