14 DAY TRIAL // There is one more additional development milestone between Beta 2 and RTM for Internet Explorer 8, revealed Dean Hachamovitch, general manager, Internet Explorer. Microsoft is gearing up to make available the first Release Candidate for IE8 in the first quarter of 2009. In this context, IE8 will be released to manufacturing sometime in the first half of 2009, after the delivery of Beta 1 and Beta 2 this year, and of the RC Build at the start of the next. Hachamovitch has indicated that there are no major changes planned for the transition from RC to RTM and that the two builds are expected to behave very similarly.
“We will release one more public update of IE8 in the first quarter of 2009, and then follow that up with the final release. Our next public release of IE (typically called a 'release candidate') indicates the end of the beta period. We want the technical community of people and organizations interested in web browsers to take this update as a strong signal that IE8 is effectively complete and done,” Hachamovitch explained.
On November 14, 2008, Softpedia was the first to signal that Microsoft had extended support for the Beta 2 Build of IE8 until December 31, 2008, suggesting that the company did in fact push back the deadline for the RTM of the browser. Initially, the support cutoff date for the development milestone was set for November 1, 2008. This prompted speculation that IE8 RTM would be delivered by the end of this month, which is obviously no longer the case.
Hachamovitch underlined that web content developers needed to “test their sites and services with IE8, make any changes they feel are necessary for the best possible customer experience using IE8, and report any critical issues (e.g., issues impacting robustness, security, backwards compatibility, or completeness with respect to planned standards work). Our plan is to deliver the final product after listening for feedback about critical issues.”
In this regard, the Redmond company is simply providing an extended timeframe for web developers to adapt their content to the next iteration of IE. The successor of IE7 comes to the table with superior modern standards support, making it a release closer to rivals Firefox and Opera.
“We will be very selective about what changes we make between the next update and final release. We will act on the most critical issues. We will be super clear about product changes we make between the update and the final release,” Hachamovitch added. “Please prepare for final testing with public update so you can let us know – quickly, loudly, and clearly – if you find absolutely critical issues with it before the release of the final product.”
Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) Beta 2 is available for download here.