Microsoft to release IE 8 beta 1 in first half of 2008
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Microsoft plans to release the first beta of the next version of Internet Explorer in the first half of 2008 and said Wednesday that IE 8 has passed a key Web standards test that ensures the browser won&#39;t &quot;break&quot; the Web.IE8 has passed the &quot;Acid2 Browser Test&quot; from the Web Standards Project, which shows whether a browser renders a Web site in a certain way. If the browser renders the site correctly, it means the browser supports certain accepted Web standards.Microsoft posted a video about the browser passing the test on its Channel 9 Web site.Microsoft developed IE before some Web standards, such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and RSS,&#160;were developed, and so older versions don&#39;t support some current standards. Developers would write applications to work with IE rather than to support Web standards because the browser was the de facto standard for surfing the Internet for so many years. Microsoft also was lax in updating IE to meet the demands of Web standards because there was little competition in the browser market for years.With the release and subsequent popularity of open-source browser Mozilla Firefox three years ago, a browser&#39;s need to stay current with Web standards once again moved to the forefront. When Microsoft developed IE7, released in October 2006, the company had good intentions and decided to improve support of Web standards with the new release.However, Web sites that were created for older versions of IE didn&#39;t work properly on IE7. Microsoft hopes to remedy this problem so the situation is not repeated with IE8, according to an IE Blog posting attributed to Dean Hachamovitch, a Microsoft general manager on the IE team.&quot;With respect to standards and interoperability, our goal in developing Internet Explorer 8 is to support the right set of standards with excellent implementations and do so without breaking the existing Web,&quot; according to the blog posting.Hachamovitch said Microsoft is taking a cue in lessons learned from making improvements to CSS in IE7 that &quot;made IE more compliant with some standards and less compatible with some sites on the Web as they were coded.&quot; The key design goal for IE8, he said, is compatibility with existing Web sites and Web standards supported in other browsers to provide a premium user experience.&quot;As a developer, I&#39;d prefer to not have to write the same site multiple times for different browsers,&quot; according to Hachamovitch&#39;s post. &quot;Standards are a (critical!) means to this end, and we focus on the standards that will help actual, real-world interoperability the most. As a consumer and a developer, I expect stuff to just work, and I also expect backwards compatibility. When I get a new version of my current browser, I expect all the sites that worked before will still work.&quot;Microsoft said the final release of IE8 depends upon feedback received from the beta process.
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To help ensure that Windows Server 2008 won't lack for compatible software, Microsoft released a beta version of a tool that can check whether applications will work with the upcoming OS.
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Microsoft will releaseWindows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)&#160;on Monday, Feb. 4, according to reports Friday from Tech ARP.com, a Malaysian Web site.Vista SP1 will make RTM on Monday, said Tech ARP, with computer makers receiving media later in the week to install the updated operating system on new laptops and desktops. Bits will also be posted for download on Monday, the site claimed.&quot;Microsoft will be deploying SP1 in two &#39;waves,&#39;&quot; said Tech ARP. The first, on Monday, will include just five of the 36 available language packs -- English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. The second wave, slated for one to two weeks later, will include all 36 language packs.Previously, Microsoft has said it would break SP1 into two stand-alone installers for businesses: a 450MB package that includes the five packs and a 550MB installer that offers three-dozen languages. Both are expected to be available for download from Microsoft&#39;s Web site.SP1 will also be offered to users through Windows Update, Microsoft Update and presumably Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). That update will weigh in at around 65MB. Microsoft explained the smaller size in a change log posted to its support site: &quot;Windows Update ... utilizes an efficient transfer mechanism to download only the actual bytes changed.&quot;Microsoft last issued an SP1 build on Jan. 24, when it updated the code offered to an invite-only group of approximately 15,000 testers. That build, along with one the week before, gave credence to accounts that SP1&#39;s pace had quickened, and that the service pack&#39;s release was imminent. At that time, a report out of Taiwan pegged SP1&#39;s RTM as Feb. 15.Microsoft repeated Saturday what it has said all along: Vista SP1 would go final in the first quarter of 2008, which ends March 31.&quot;We are targeting to deliver SP1 RTM in Q1 CY08,&quot; a spokeswoman said in an e-mail. Representatives of the Windows Server team, however, were not available for comment. The company has previously announced plans to launch Windows Server 2008 on Feb. 27 at an event in Los Angeles.Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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Microsoft's upcoming Internet Explorer 8 browser has passed a widely-used Web standards test, news that was released after complaints from developers about a lack of information about its support for standards.
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InfoWorld - When Microsoft unveiled the long-awaited details of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 on Wednesday, the company also quietly pushed back the release date for another highly anticipated product, Windows Server 2008.
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A fix for a serious flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer has been released early to combat escalating attacks.
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Blog: Tucked inside Microsoft's agreement to change Vista's desktop search is word that a beta of the first service pack for Vista will come this year. No word on when the final version will ship, however.
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Microsoft hopes to balance backward compatibility with Web standards in the Internet Explorer 8 browser by enabling a new, optional "super standards" mode, a Microsoft official says.
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Microsoft will announce Thursday morning the release of Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2. According to Scott Guthrie, the general manager of Microsoft's Developer Division, the release will be nearly feature complete  and will likely be the last major release before the product is released to manufacturing in preparation for its launch on February 27, 2008.
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On the same day that Microsoft announced that the first service pack for Windows Vista would come out later than some had expected, it also quietly announced that the release of Windows Server 2008 has been pushed back to the first quarter of next year.
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The release of the Web browser by the Mozilla Foundation prompted Microsoft to break its silence about Internet Explorer, which won't get an overhaul until the next version of Windows is released in 2006.
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Opera Releases New Talking Web Browser  Opera 8 Beta 1 has been in development since a long time. With long preview cycle of the version 7.6 series, it looks like Opera decided to rename the latest version as Beta of Opera 8. No Changelog is out yet from the company but ...
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Microsoft Corp.  said on  Wednesday it plans to release the first major update to its  Windows Vista operating system early next year.
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BREAKING NEWS - In the clearest sign to date that not all is well in the state of Redmond, Microsoft cheerfully announced this morning that the release date for Windows Server 2008 is being pushed back to Q1 2008.
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Microsoft on Wednesday released an update to Internet Explorer (IE) to fix a security flaw that was discovered a month ago and has since been exploited to attack users.
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News.com reports in the article: Microsoft fixes date for desktop search tool, that the company will offer up a beta release of a desktop search by the end of this year.
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Microsoft releases a refresh of its first service pack for Vista to beta testers, indicating the final release might be near.