I like Firefox a lot, but I’ll be the first to admit that some FF zealots sound a lot like — well, Mac zealots, or sports team zealots, or TV show zealots, or zealots of any stripe that probably have one or more serious points in their favor but who go so far overboard that you almost begin to discount everything they say.
On the other hand, Micro$oft seems to have awakened and smelled the coffee, realizing that FF has been getting an inordinate amount of press of late, not to mention a small but increased share of The Browser Market Which Must Be Micro$oft’s (And, Dammit, I Thought We Had It Locked Up Already!). Which is why M$ is trotting out their standard tactic: the FUD Factor, whose tactics (first pioneered by IBM) include pre-pre-pre-announcing stuff way, way, way in advance so as to (a) get some free publicity, and (b) cast doubt on the long-term compatability or viability of a competitor.
First, some basics: we?re 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 today’s announcement as a clear statement back to our customers: “Hey, Microsoft heard you. We’re 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.
… before our customers decide that some other browser might be more to their liking.
And when is this new star in the browser firmament to arrive?
I’ve gotten questions about the ship date. Yes, we have a date in mind. I’ll talk about the date after we get feedback from customers and partners. We’re going to release a beta and listen, then refresh the beta and listen some more. We’ll ship when the product is ready.
In other words, it may be a long time, and several betas, away, probably out in 2006 or further. But we’ll continue to tout it as the new coming of Micro$oft, and as a present solution to a problem that we opened up by giving the browser so many hooks into the OS to begin with.
Of course, that time lag also gives them time to continue to try and get folks to convert over to XP SP2, which has been a long, slow grind because of various compatibility issues.
M$ had previously said it wouldn’t ship a new version of IE until the new version of Windows (codenamed Longhorn) shipped. The reversal — and the reversal of ties between the OS and the browser (at least just a smidge) shows that M$ is facing a lot of pressure, reflected in some degree by the number of folks trying FF (and Opera, and other browsers). As CNet puts it:
Analysts attributed Microsoft’s change of heart to the progress of the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox browser, which has made incremental but steady market share gains against IE in recent months. In a survey conducted late last year, Firefox nudged IE below the 90 percent mark for the first time since the height of the browser wars in the 1990s.
“I think it’s a response to both the delay of Longhorn and the challenge of Firefox,” said NPD Group analyst Ross Rubin, who added that Firefox was probably the sharper spur. “Were there no Firefox, they’d have more leeway to sit on it until Longhorn.”
Which, whether you like Firefox or not, is probably a good thing.