I’ve recently upgraded to IE7 and I want to share my feedback about Microsoft’s latest development. As an avid Mozilla Firefox user, I was pretty discriminatory as Firefox was the next best thing on the web, but I still gave Redmond a chance.
One thing I did enjoy is that IE defaults to turning ClearType on. This makes reading easier; the drawback is that it is still nice to have crispy tight fonts like Verdana and Tahoma to not be anti-aliased. The tabbed browsing is decent, I find enticing the user to click the extra tab a little much. I noticed that a novice user has all these new controls and Microsoft did a poor job explaining the features their new “Blue Internet” has. Perhaps a flash video during the install would be nice. On the other hand, a streamlined web experience is certainly the goal of IE7 that their former counterparts never had. Less toolbars, no preloaded BHOs and Google built right in.
Will I still use Firefox – definitely. I’m not a big fan of Active-X anyhow and Firefox runs leaner in my opinion. Is IE as bas as it once once – No. IE7 is more of an accepted choice if someone mentioned they use it. Some people like Chevys, and some like Ford. It’s still the same stuff, just made slightly differently.