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Windows Vista & IE7 Beta 1 Released

Posted by Zonk on Thu Jul 28, 2005 07:49 AM
from the and-so-it-begins dept.
gdsotirov writes "Today on the IE blog the availability of two new beta tests - Windows Vista Beta 1 and Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 - was announced. These tests are mainly targeted to developers and IT professionals. Thus the betas are only available to MSDN subscribers. Tom's Hardware has details as well." From the article: "While the code also includes an early look at the new user-interface design, the majority of end-user features in Windows Vista will not be included until Beta 2. In addition to these fundamentals, Windows Vista Beta 1 also includes the Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 built into the platform. The technical Beta of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP SP2 also is available today." Any early thoughts, MSDN subscribers?
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  • by hendridm (302246) on Thursday July 28 2005, @07:51AM (#13184550) Homepage
    Any early thoughts, MSDN subscribers?

    Nothing to see here, please move along.

  • THis again (Score:5, Funny)

    by Marc Desrochers (606563) on Thursday July 28 2005, @07:52AM (#13184556)
    Windows Vista Beta 1 also includes the Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 built into the platform


    So they're trying this again are they?
  • by quokkapox (847798) <quokkapox@gmail.com> on Thursday July 28 2005, @07:53AM (#13184563)
    I, for one, can tell you that this new beta is fantastic! I have only been using for about 10 or 15 minutes, but already I am quite impre^D

    HELO
    MAIL FROM: aspammer@zombiesareus.biz
    RCPT TO: billg@microsoft.com
    DATA

  • by Mostly a lurker (634878) on Thursday July 28 2005, @07:53AM (#13184568)
    Just curious. I would not do anything illegal like making use of one.
  • by AtlanticGiraffe (749719) on Thursday July 28 2005, @07:54AM (#13184573) Homepage

    "Any early thoughts, MSDN subscribers?"

    Do those actually read Slashdot?

  • by network23 (802733) * on Thursday July 28 2005, @07:54AM (#13184575) Journal

    For the first time I agree with John C Dvorak.

    pcmag [pcmag.com]

    "Vista? As in "Hasta la Vista, baby?" That name might be appropriate as a symbolic goodbye since it might be the end of the line for Microsoft's dominance in the OS business."

    "The new OS is getting zero buzz. Zero. now the name Vista, along with the new Microsoft Vista logo, has made it worse. Could anything be less exciting?"

    "THE FUTURE OF DESKTOP COMPUTING: Apple. Vista will open the door to what I believe will be a radical change in the computing landscape. The trends are clear. Once the new Mac OS appears next year it will gravitate toward the existing x86 community much more rapidly than anticipated..."

    "Right now, and as much as x86 users do not want to admit it, the Mac OS is already better than Windows in its modern look and feel as well as its functionality. I see too many smart people with Mac laptops nowadays."

    "...it is always possible that Apple doesn't understand the power play position it's in and might actually believe that it's better off somehow keeping its OS in a small niche rather than the big market. If the world changed tomorrow to 85 percent Mac "OS x86" its laptop sales alone would triple overnight. Apple didn't put together what many consider the finest in-house industrial design teams in the world to fool around with piddly sales and more redesigns of the iPod."

    "That said, how much more of Steve Jobs can we handle? Do we really want to hear him say "I told you so?" If it gets some excitement back into desktop computing, yes, we do. I think we can take it."

    • Uhhh... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Crash Culligan (227354) on Thursday July 28 2005, @07:57AM (#13184590) Journal

      A Slashdotter agreeing with John C. Dvorak, who is saying nice things about Apple?

      Quick, can someone post a current weather report for Hell, please?

      • Re:Uhhh... (Score:5, Funny)

        by Ford Prefect (8777) on Thursday July 28 2005, @08:05AM (#13184661) Homepage
        Quick, can someone post a current weather report for Hell, please?

        Here you go [bbc.co.uk] - apparently it's cold and rainy there today, but improving by next week.

        ...

        Oh, hang on, you said Hell? Surely the two are synonymous? ;-)
      • Re:Uhhh... (Score:5, Funny)

        by revery (456516) <charles.cac2@net> on Thursday July 28 2005, @08:35AM (#13184931) Homepage
        Quick, can someone post a current weather report for Hell, please?

        It's windy here right now, Craig, but as you can see on the horizon, the storm clouds are gathering. As we go to the satellite, you can see in the southern region of Hell, Dvorak's comments have unleashed a massive cold front, which is quite different from the hot air that we're used to from him. That by itself wouldn't be a huge problem, but to the North, in Gehenna, we've got the fallout caused by the Slashdotter agreeing with Dvorak. We've never seen that before, and Craig, I don't have to tell you, nobody knows what these two systems will do when they get together. In the mean time I'll be here. Back to you, Craig.
  • Seriously... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by alvinrod (889928) on Thursday July 28 2005, @07:55AM (#13184577)
    FTA:

    The privacy statement for Internet Explorer 7.0 beta lists a "phishing filter," which is said to be capable of warning users about the possibility that the Web site currently being visited is impersonating a trusted Web site. This feature is turned off by default

    Why bother creating a feature like this and having it turned off by default. The people most likely to be taken in by a phishing scam seem to me to be the same people who won't know enough about a computer to turn this feature on to protect themselves. The more tech and internet savvy people could turn this off if it annoys them.

    but in order for it to be used properly, the Web site's address and other information about the user's computer, are sent to Microsoft for automatic evaluation.

    Then again it does scare me a little that MS would be taking a peek at my browsing habits. Hopefully it just asks a big database full of bad websites whether or not this one is good. I'd like to think that MS wouldn't be keeping tabs on my online activity. Makes me wonder if this is why that bought Gator... I mean Claria.

  • by Ray Alloc (835739) on Thursday July 28 2005, @07:55AM (#13184578)
    Finally I will be able to shut the mouth of my Mac OS 9.1 using neighbour !
  • by ninja_assault_kitten (883141) on Thursday July 28 2005, @08:04AM (#13184648)
    Protected Mode. Available in the Windows Vista beta 2 release and beyond, Internet Explorer Protected Mode will provide new levels of security and data protection for Windows users. Designed to defend against "elevation of privilege" attacks, Internet Explorer Protected Mode provides the safety of a robust Internet browsing experience while helping prevent hackers from taking over the browser and executing code through the use of administrator rights. In this mode, Internet Explorer 7 is completely unable modify user or system files and settings. All communications occur via a broker process that mediates between the Internet Explorer browser and the operating system. The broker process is only initiated when the user clicks on the Internet Explorer menus and screens. The highly restrictive broker process prohibits workarounds from bypassing the Protected Mode. Any scripted actions or automatic processes will be prevented from downloading data or affecting the system. Specifically, Component Object Model objects will only be self-aware and have no reference information by which to identify and attack other applications or the operating system. Internet Explorer Protected Mode helps protect users from malicious downloads by restricting the ability to write to any local machine zone resources other than temporary Internet files. Attempting to write to the Windows Registry or other locations will require the broker process to provide the necessary elevated permissions.
  • OS redundancy? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Iriel (810009) on Thursday July 28 2005, @08:07AM (#13184678) Homepage
    "...the majority of end-user features in Windows Vista will not be included until Beta 2"

    So in other words, beta 1 is just XP with RSS? They already yanked everything else out of the system as is. The reason they call it Vista is because that's all that's left of the OS; a view.
  • by altan (519377) on Thursday July 28 2005, @08:09AM (#13184696)
    This is from the actual page for Vista:

    - Glass and new Window animation. The Windows Vista desktop experience will deliver a new visual identity -- translucent glass with more animation. Because it is visually intuitive, the glass helps users focus on the task at hand, whether reading a document, viewing a Web page or editing a photo.

    Apparently the best way to develop a "visually intuitive" user interface is glass and more animation!

  • Paul Thurrott Review (Score:5, Informative)

    by Avatar 888 (256911) <markNO@SPAMmarkwheeler.net> on Thursday July 28 2005, @08:20AM (#13184789) Homepage
    Paul Thurrott has a fairly comprehensive (and probably quite rose-tinted) review [winsupersite.com]of the Vista beta over at his SuperSite for Windows.

    It goes through the vast majority of new features, although doesn't go into a great deal of depth at this early stage. Seems there are no great surprises here - Vista is still very much watered down from initial promises - but apparently things are at least moving along noticably now.

    -----------
    www.markwheeler.net [markwheeler.net]
  • by trawg (308495) on Thursday July 28 2005, @08:23AM (#13184829) Homepage
    Heh, with the exception of "Dynamic security protection", that just reads like Firefox's feature list. Tabbed browsing, 'inline' search from address bar, support for RSS feeds, transparent PNG support... revolutionary!
  • So far so good (Score:5, Informative)

    by KE1LR (206175) <ken...hoover@@@gmail...com> on Thursday July 28 2005, @08:25AM (#13184840) Homepage
    I have Vista B1 on a Thinkpad T40. Not enough time to really dig into it yet but here is a quick list of stuff I've noted so far:
    • Setup has been MUCH improved. Far easier to follow. Installation took about an hour and 10 minutes. (1.6GHz Pentium-M and 1GB of RAM)
    • The new UI, after a few minutes of adjustment, is a big improvement... a good blend of new-and-improved as well as the old-familiar-stuff.
    • Cleaner GUI with lots of OSX influence and visual "bling". The overall effect is much more modern but has a strong resemblance to XP with the "silver" UI theme applied.
    • Performance seems fine - same or better than XP pro on the same machine. Have't done any "real" tests.
    • Installing the SAV 10 client caused a bluescreen on the next boot but the system recovered on its own after a power-off and restart. Attempting to uninstall SAV failed and left SAV in a nonfunctional-and-nonremovable state. I'm wiping the machine and reinstalling.
    • Thunderbird 1.0.6 and GAIM 1.4 worked fine. IMO, Thunderbird looks a lot better with the new visual theme.
    • The Atheros-based 802.11a/b adapter only works in 802.11a mode. Probably a driver limitation. Fortunately my home network is 802.11a. :-)

    If I feel brave enough (and our webmasters think they can survive a potential Slashdotting ;-) ) I'll put up some blog entries about my experiences over the next few days.

  • Wow, next time my manager tells me I need to stay over and work on a project, I'm telling him "hell no!" and giving him this link [microsoft.com]!

    Thank you Windows Vista!

    • by Flibz (716178) on Thursday July 28 2005, @08:04AM (#13184647)
      Tabbed browsing is in IE7 standalone, and works nicely (is doing as we speak).

      Also includes some kind of "phishing site checker", RSS support (picks them out from page and can display from a single button), pop-up blocking, easy history deletion.

      Seems pretty stable and not too memory hungry... so far
    • by PurpleXanathar (800369) on Thursday July 28 2005, @08:46AM (#13185017)
      6. Feeding generations of inept developers. check. [re: C#, anything .net, VB, ...] ... I wonder why anything .net feeds generations of inept developers and python or perl or java or any other language don't.

      Oh let's return to the good old days where programmers had two big keys with 0 and 1 written on them and programmed opcodes like playing bongos..