The tech pundits are getting lots of bits typed and hyped about the release of Windows Vista on Thursday morning, a “new day†for Steve Ballmer. I’ve already blogged about the interface that has nothing new to bring to Linux or Mac users, we’re seeing parts from both the Mac and Xwindow system along with ideas lifted from the Looking Glass project incorporated into Vista, and mostly just wondering what took them so long to catch up.
Internet Explorer 7 is starting to become a PITA for me at times. From a web development HTML standpoint it’s been no problems so far, other than not being able to test web pages with it. A couple attempts have been made getting it to run on the Windows XP box upstairs to no avail, and the help sites are no where nearly as helpful as the Linux forums are when things go wrong to try to figure out what is wrong with this particular configuration.
Ran into a problem with IE7 on a new Dell as well. It was already installed this time so it worked for browsing the web, but I was treated to having to re-find the needed buttons to do anything as they aren’t located in the same places as on a Mac, Linux, or IE6 browser windows. The pundits are saying this gives one more real estate for their browser view port, but this box was a Dell, any extra space gained was taken up with the addition of extra real estate like the Google Toolbar.
Cosmetic problems like not being able to change the home page from the Dell start home page, (think the setting is hidden in the hosts or registry file), are annoyances to be sure. In this case it went beyond that though, the person that had just bought a new computer and was unable to do their job because an Intuit software program (Quick Tax) would not run. No matter what settings were made with Internet Options and the Control Panel etc., a script debugger type of alert box kept popping up and keeping them from going on and getting their work done.
Google to the rescue of course, the first result was from the Intuit web site and the solution? Un-install Internet Explorer 7! This long awaited round of OS and browser upgrades from Microsoft is going to cost some people a lot of money and frustration, this person had gone a couple days already not making any income and wondering if her new purchase was a humongous mistake before I came along with the Google goodness.