Finally Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 for non-Vista users! I downloaded and installed it immediately. I miss IE, it was surely faster and more comfortable to use than Firefox, but during the last year it surely become technologically obsolete.

So, what I like about Internet Explorer 7?

• New toolbars, no menubar: it's great. It's neat, simple to use, leaves a lot of space for the pages. Who needs a complete File, Edit, View, Window, Help menu in a web browser? Finally someone understood that! A+!
• Tabbed browsing: I do NOT use it in Firefox, because I always get lost in tabs. I think its a nice feature, and IE surely makes it simple to use and seamlessly integrated. QuickTabs are great, although Firefox have a similar extension (foXpose).
  (BTW, I don't really get tabs: why? They are even more confusing for inexperienced users, because the system already has another tab-bar, the application bar)
• Search box (finally!). It is possible to add engines, but the number is still scarce: no Webster, no Wikipedia... MSDN is here, fortunately.
• Search also from the address bar: Mozilla had it, why did they remove it from Firefox I will never get. And it uses the default search engine, too.
• (Unchanged form IE6, but impossible to have with Firefox) Opening a new Tab/ Window: you can choose to open it showing exactly the same page you are watching now. In Firefox I am forced to open a blank page, then copy/paste the address between address bars.

And what is still behind Firefox? Or, what I hate of IE7

• First, the most horrible think: ALIASED FONTS.They look terrible on my monitor, why if I disabled them in the control panel IE must impose its will and use aliased fonts? They are orrible to see in my opinion, make me wonder if there is fog in the room..
• Download boxes: one box for download is surely better than Firefox download manager (awful, IMO) but fortunately firefox have a great extension, Download statusbar

• Extension: if I don't like something in Firefox, there is an extension to modify it. I love extensions, and if IE7 will be programmable using .NET (maybe JScript.NET) I will be the first to use it and to write a lot of extensions.
• One of the features I love in Firefox and Visual Studio: incremental search. Guys, you made such a nice work with the tool-bars and the notifications (the yellow ribbon), why ruin the user experience prompting a search box? (or a download dialog, btw)
• On the same line: download files in the right place from the beginning. Why put them in the cache and then move them? I incidentally clicked "cancel" during this move operation (I was typing) and I had to download the file again.

Well, at the end of the list.. I still prefer Firefox. The only hope of IE is to be programmable, and then it will be mine.