Netscape is dead, long live Internet Explorer?

Microsoft finally settled the antitrust suit AOL brought on behalf of its Netscape division for $750 million, more than enough money to pay AOL's outstanding debts. Microsoft received some added perks for its money, AOL promises to open up the AIM protocols, support Microsoft media formats and the real kicker, AOL commits to renewing its royalty-free license for IE for the next seven years. So IE will remain at the heart of AOL's client software. As NeoWin points out this is hardly a ringing endorsement for Netscape.

At the same time, WinInfo pointed out a interesting snippet from a TechNet discussion. It appears that IE6 will be the last stand alone version of IE, as "Legacy OSes have reached their zenith with the addition of IE 6 SP1. Further improvements to IE will require enhancements to the underlying OS". IE is at its zenith? Really? Are MS using the same IE internally as the rest of us? The IE with almost monthly security bugs, slow rendering, no fine grained ActiveX control, no popup control, no granular imaging control, no tabbed browsing? Are MS saying now that any security bugs are really in the OS? That lack of tabbed browsing or pop-up control is because the OS can't support it? What of IE7? Will we now have to upgrade the OS to upgrade the browser?

IE is nowhere near a zenith, it's sitting midway up the browser mountain snacking and becoming bloated instead of muscled. IE has slipped back from its glory days against Netscape 3 and 4. Now Mozilla based browsers are overtaking in terms of speed and safety. Even basic features such as only allowing window.open() on user clicks, only allowing image loading from the same domain, fine grained cookie control and tabbed browsing aren't in IE. Add those features, speed up the rendering so its faster than FireBird and give us the ability to block ActiveX control installation on a "one click and never ask me again" and then see if you're near the browser zenith.

While you're at it Microsoft, live up to "Microsoft believes very strongly in Internet standards and the standards process, and is committed to implementing appropriate standards when driven by customer demand.". How long have people been requesting proper PNG support? Up to date DOM support? Proper CSS/2 positioning? All standards, all commonly requested or complained about. All still missing or incomplete.