14 DAY TRIAL // Forget about IE8, IE7 and most of all about IE6, Internet Explorer 9 will launch later today at SXSW, as announced last week.
UPDATE: IE9 RTW will be available for download at 9:00 PM PDT via BeautyOfTheWeb in 39 languages. According to Microsoft, IE9 RTW (release to web) downloads will be given green light at 9 p.m. Pacific Time, but the actual launch event will be held a tad sooner, namely starting with 5:30 PDT.
The Redmond company will be streaming the event live, allowing users around the world to watch it. They will be able to do so via this link.
“Web browsing is the No. 1 thing people do on their Windows-based PC, and as such, they increasingly expect the same experience they associate with their PC applications from their favorite Web-based e-mail service, photo site or social network site,” the company said.
“This kind of immersive experience does not occur on the Web today, and using a browser is often associated with limited performance and interactivity. Microsoft developed Windows Internet Explorer 9 to help change this.”
There isn’t much more that can be said about IE9 that hasn’t already been said ahead of the RTW deadline.
However, Microsoft did manage to put together a video, the one embedded at the bottom of this article, with a few views on the next generation of Internet Explorer.
I’m also quoted in the video at some point, so I’m entirely subjective when I say that you must watch it.
IE9 Platform Preview 1 was offered to early adopters and developers in March 2010, with the Beta following in mid-September 2010, and the first Release Candidate (RC) on February 10, 2011.
Given the fact that the RC bits were released just a little over a month ago, I wouldn’t expect IE9 RTW to suffer any major changes, but nonetheless, there will be a few announcements that will make it worthwhile to watch the launch event.