By George Norman - Software News Editor
Added on 20 Nov 2008(1993 Views)
Now that the second Beta version of Internet Explorer 8 has been out for almost two months and that support for the software has been extended until the end of the year, Microsoft has come out and announced what it plans to do with its browser in 2009. According to Microsoft’s Dean Hachamovitch, we can expect to see an IE 8 release candidate in the first quarter of the next year, which coincides with the release of the Mac OS X 10.6, the Snow Leopard.

Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of the Internet Explorer team, says that just one more public version of IE 8 will be released before the software product reaches RTM status (RTM is short for Ready To Manufacture or Ready To Market). In layman’s terms, Internet Explorer 8 will surpass its Beta development phase sometime in the first three months of 2009 with the release of RC1; once that is out, Microsoft will move towards mass marketing the product. If one were to compare the upcoming RC1 and the final IE 8 version, one would be hard pressed to spot any significant changes between the two.


“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,” says Dean Hachamovitch.

The release candidate is not out just yet, but if you would like to download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 and put it to the test, a download location is available here.

Regarding the recently released Windows Mobile 6.1.4 operating system emulator, which features Internet Explorer 6, Microsoft has come out and said that upgrading to this browser version is not an option unless you give up on your current smartphone and purchase one that is “more powerful” and “advanced”. Only new phones will get to use IE6 as it will not be available as a direct download or upgrade for current smartphones.





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