Next "beta" of IE8 to ship in August, cater to IT pros

Microsoft said it would ship the next beta version of Internet Explorer 8 in August and promised that IE8 will eventually be slipstreamed with Vista so they can be deployed in tandem. This, Microsoft contends, is a nice gift it is giving to IT pros who, according to the IE blog where this information was announced, have been complaining about how difficult it is to roll out IE 7 with XP. A story in Network World also reports that IE 8 will be easier for IT pros to manage, from application compatibility to support for group policy settings:

"The company also is updating the IE Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) and the IE Administration Kit (IEAK), and said it will use Group Policy settings to aid in application compatibility and add enhancements to help recover faster from crashes. The vendor plans to include all the IE 8 updates in Beta 2 of the software due out in August."

Some IT pros laugh at Microsoft's position that IE 8 will be IT friendly. One wrote as a comment to this Network World article:

"The browser is the single biggest threat to IT, network management and business operations. I'm not surprised that MS is touting it as the opposite. They are moving towards Google's advertising model and want to urge users everywhere to adopt their philosophy. Any wise manager or executive will simply ignore them."

The idea of slipstreaming IE8 with Vista is shades of the kind of thing that got Microsoft in anti-trust trouble with the Department of Justice a few years ago -- bundling the two together so to speak. On the other hand, making IT pros endure an agonizing process to roll out the latest IE with the latest Windows OS also makes no sense either. A rock-and-a-hard-place for Microsoft -- unless it wants to consider streamlining its software altogether. Maybe Windows 7 will come to the rescue there.

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