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IE 8 Will Be Released On The Third Quarter of 2008

Microsoft will soon release the beta 2 version of its newest browser, Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), in third quarter this year. This is confirmed by Nick MacKechnie’s blog. Nick Mackechnie is the senior technical account manager of Microsoft in New Zealand.

Trial of this browser version beta 2 is aimed for end-user community, bear in mind that FIrefox 3 is also in final stage to be launched publicly. IE 8 can be installed in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) (X64), Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP2 and Windows Server 2008 (x64)

Microsoft also adds meta tag in IE8 to make sure that the web page that can be opened in IE7 will not be crashed if runs with IE8. This is important because IE8 has a new layout engine that support HTML 5 and CSS 2.1, while layout engine of previous IE does not support the internet standard correctly.

IE8 is claimed to be run perfectly under various web standard and supports Ajax programming. There is also a feature called “Webslices”, which the user can share a webpage into some parts. Another new feature is called ACR (Automatic Crash Recovery), a data recovery feature in browser tab if any hang or crash happens. So, which one turns out to be the winner, IE8 or Firefox 3? We just have to wait and try

Tomorrow is ‘Shutdown Day’

Tomorrow it’s Shutdown Day. Can you be able not to touch any gadget or technology a whole day? This might be difficult. In relation with a day without technology, aka “Shutdown Day”, a group of Canadian who called themselves Geek, have asked people to shutdown their technology equipment such as television, computer, etc.

Shutdown Day celebrated every 24 March, in order to raise people’s conscience about the effect of irresponsible technology usage. Geek also said that in this modern life, our life is affected by technology, therefore we become stranger to our neighborhood. Even so many people who have addicted and it is hard for them not to be with technology. It is said that around 1.6 million people around the world would like to participate on that day.

How Open Source Has Changed Microsoft

Even though Google is considered as one of very competitive threats for Microsoft, but the bigger scary thing that face Microsoft today is open source. This is at least what Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie said at the Sanford C. Bernstein Strategic Decisions conference in New York. According to Ozzie, Google is a strong competitor, but the main threat for Microsoft business model is the open source. Open source programmers have greater power in software market nowadays.

So, why is open source considered as bigger threat for Microsoft? There are two reasons said Ozzie, first is that open source has strong foundation to face Microsoft. Google, Facebook, Yahoo are among open source’s ‘children’, and they are Microsoft competitors too. Second, the presence of open source change consumers perspective about a software value, to become US$0 aka free. Nevertheless, Ozzie said that open source has make Microsoft a stronger company. Want it or not, Microsoft has to change their business model to adapt with open source, such as making compatible softwares with open source products.