There’s a new browser war brewing, and it’s not between Microsoft and Mozilla. Internet Explorer is in a state of conflict with itself and Web standards.
The conflict will expand next month, when Microsoft sends enterprises an Internet Explorer 7 Valentine. On February 12, IE 7 will dispatch through WSUS (Windows Server Update Services). The days of enterprises blocking the browser will end.
Desktops running Windows XP and IE 6 will get the update. Those running Windows Vista already have it. IE 7 is notorious for breaking applications and some Web sites, and the reasons for both calamities are somewhat different. Security architectural changes, mainly around ActiveX controls, are the compatibility killer for many homegrown applications and for some Web sites.
Microsoft’s efforts to make Internet Explorer a standards-based browser has caused Web site compatibility problems.
The standards push opens up yet another area of IE conflict. The European Union has launched an antitrust investigation into browser bundling tactics and standards support, based on a complaint filed by Opera.
Well, it’s good drama, anyway, with all three elements of conflict defined by literature: Browser against itself, browser against browser and browser against nature.
In a long blog posted overnight, Chris Wilson, Microsoft’s IE platform architect, comes clean about efforts to achieve some kind of balance between standards compliance and backwards compatibility. It’s an ugly story that he tells. But they say that confession is good for the soul—or perhaps software development.
Full story at Microsoft Watch.
Tags: Browser, IE, Internet, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Security, Software, Vista, Web Standards, Windows Vista, Windows XP
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