Platform Preview 2 coming in mid-May 2010

Apr 8, 2010 07:32 GMT  ·  By

The first public taste of the next iteration of Internet Explorer is closing in on the first-million-download mark. The Windows Internet Explorer Platform Preview has already been downloaded in excess of 700,000 times, according to sources familiar with the situation, although Microsoft has yet to offer any official confirmation of the figure, or to deny it, for that matter. The 700,000 downloads of Internet Explorer 9 Build 1.9.7.7.45.6019 come in less than a month since the first development milestone of IE9 went live in mid-March 2010, on the second day of the MIX10 conference. The Redmond company did, however, confirm that IE9 Platform Preview 2 was right on track for mid-May 2010. (via Mary-Jo Foley)

Early adopters and developers that are currently test-driving Internet Explorer 9 will be able to take Microsoft’s browser beyond all previous releases of IE. Build 1.9.7.7.45.6019 brings to the table support for HTML5, CSS3, DOM, SVG, but also a new JavaScript engine codenamed Chakra and hardware-acceleration capabilities. Still, IE9 is in no way ready for the general public, although it can easily be installed alongside IE8 on Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7 for those that want to get a taste of what’s coming in the next version of IE.

According to Dean Hachamovitch, IE general manager, IE9 1.9.7.7.45.6019 is enjoying a positive reception. Hachamovitch revealed that users in the US were top downloaders of the Windows Internet Explorer Platform Preview, followed by those in Brazil, India, the U.K. and Germany. Taking into consideration the feedback data received by Microsoft, it appears that the vast majority of testers are focusing on assessing the browser’s speed and performance. No less than 50% of them were interested in the speed demos offered for the Platform Preview, with 27% looking to the graphics tests, and 22% trying out the new web standards support demos.

Obviously, with the availability of IE9 Platform Preview, feedback has started pouring in. Hachamovitch notes that Microsoft is hard at work fixing bugs already reported by testers, with the most consistent number of problems impacting the new graphics and SVG enhancements, compatibility and the Trident rendering engine, but also Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

The next Platform Preview of Internet Explorer 9 is scheduled for availability within eight weeks since the release of Build 1.9.7.7.45.6019, namely in mid-May, 2010. Hachamovitch says there won’t be nightly builds of IE9 Platform Preview 2, after the open source development model, and that the second development milestone of the browser will be synonymous with the evolution of speed, performance and benchmark tests, but will still not feature a graphical user interface (GUI).

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview is available for download here.