Where my mind was 1999-12-03...
Đ 2000 Per Johansson All rights reserved
1999-12-03
Funny. I did merely manage to download Internet Explorer 5.01
( excellent ), before I received word that Microsoft already had a beta
out for download at msdn.microsoft.com
of the next browser generation: Internet Explorer 5.5.
Slated for release as a part of the next gen. Win 9x OS named
"Millenium" ( that means it wonīt be a part of Windows 2000,
expected to be released february next year ). Microsoft has no word about
the download at their public developer pages, only in the members section.
But as the terrific site "Betanews"
wrote about it, people found ways to develop their own download
scripts and Microsoft found for good to let out a publicly functional
installer for download at "Betanews"
and others. No guess I had to try the download. One have to choose the
custom option during install to get a full browser update, and itīs several
meg:s bigger than IE 5.01. My update weighed in at 21,5 meg:s.
The reason for that is, that the code also contains some Win 9x OS enhancements
Microsoft wants to have tried before the release of "Millenium" which
will contain those and others unspoken of. One strange thing I noted was
that the size of my "Windows" and "System"
catalogues at my C:\-drive actually shrinked notably, compared
to the IE 5.01 install. After some half hour of testing the browser
( and the OS ), the explanation was quite clear: IE 5.5 is
dressed for speed. Itīs really very much faster than IE
5.01 and speeds up the OS ( filehandling etc. ) as well. Mabe Microsoft
wantīs to kill off the Mozilla Navigator 5.0 before itīs even
arrived ( one main feature of Navigator 5.0 is said to be speed
). Of course thereīs some minor bugs, as this is a beta release, and the
code will also shrink before final. But generally speaking, Iīll eat
my shoes if the browser war is not totally over now. If you spend
a lot of time on the net; download it ! Instructions
found at: http://www.betanews.com/
. And for the developer: of course thereīs some new
web-techniques on display in this browser release i.e. new scripting abilities
and extended XML support.
Have fun/Per
