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Mary-Jo Foley
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Private IE 8 beta 1 test build coming soon

By | February 23, 2008, 10:57am PST

A number of Microsoft enthusiasts this week received invitations to a “limited technical beta program” for Internet Explorer (IE) 8 Beta 1.

According to the invitation, Microsoft is planning to make IE 8 Beta 1 available to the general public, as well. But before that happens, an invitation-only tet program will be conducted. The invitation describes IE 8 Beta 1 being focused on developers.

(ActiveWin is running the full text of the note Microsoft sent to some IE 8 beta invitees this past week.)

Microsoft officials have said they plan to show off IE 8 at Microsoft’s Mix ‘08 conference in early March in Las Vegas. Officials also have said they are planning to add a developer-selectable “super-standards” mode to IE 8 that would enable the browser to qualify as more standards-compliant.

Microsoft still has not offered a final-delivery target date for IE 8.  Microsoft released IE 7 in 2006. Microsoft officials have said they are shooting to deliver more frequent, regular builds of IE.

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Topics

Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corp., Beta, Invitation, Web Browsers, Internet, Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

Talkback Most Recent of 44 Talkback(s)

  • Even though I'm a Microsoft-enthusiasts, I'm not invited by Microsoft.
    However, I do love to test Internet Explorer 8 when it's available as a public beta.

    I can't wait to get my hands in it.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Grayson Peddie
    23rd Feb 2008
  • You should have asked Mikey about it...
    I'm sure he's running the pre-alpha with Windows 7 pre-alpha just fine.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    nix_hed
    25th Feb 2008
  • I feel cheated
    They have deprived me of the chance to say
    NO!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Ole Man
    23rd Feb 2008
  • I definitely want to give IE8 a try
    Chances are, MS understands that other browsers are slowly pulling more users to their side, because they technically are better.

    So now MS has probably revamped IE with more features, extending it to more platforms, and making it actually better.

    Can't wait to see it. I've got a feeling it will be something.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    quikboy
    23rd Feb 2008
  • I'll Try IE8
    When Firefox goes away...

    Which is never.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    itanalyst
    23rd Feb 2008
  • Heard the same about Netscape
    But good to see you're taking a "stand" against something truly evil. You probably spend an hour a day worrying about the next Microsoft conspiracy, but not a minute about global warming or something actually important or real. Get a life.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    jackbond
    24th Feb 2008
  • Actually I Do
    Yesterday I planted a tree, kissed a baby, saved a baby seal...

    Then I woke up.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    itanalyst
    24th Feb 2008
  • Puzzled
    I looked for mention of global warming in Ms. Foley's original post and couldn't see anything. In fact, the post was on IE8. How surprising then to see a comment related to IE8. You were right to take this person to task for making a comment that's actually related to the topic of the post.

    The nerve of some people.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    burningbird
    24th Feb 2008
  • Why puzzled?
    We should all do our part to help public libraries!

    TripleII
    ZDNet Gravatar
    TripleII-21189418044173169409978279405827
    24th Feb 2008
  • Message has been deleted.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    jackbond
    25th Feb 2008
    • Flagged
  • Message has been deleted.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    jamesrayg
    25th Feb 2008
    • Flagged
  • ******* sensorship
    What the **** is the point of having forums if someone can't ******* point an offensive message? Is this site visited by ******* morons who are so easily offended by the ******* f word. What a ******* joke. Every one of the fire ******* fox morons messages are offensive, and yet they aren't deleted. This is America ********.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    jackbond
    25th Feb 2008
  • wait...
    You're saying Global Warming, the ludicrous idea that humans are severely affecting the temperature of the Earth is real?
    I'll make three points on that, then go back to the tech points:
    1: Mars is heating up at a similar rate (per distance from the sun) as Earth, and the sun has gotten hotter
    2: Thermo readings for the Earth have only become reliable since the mid 70's, and at THAT time, they were touting global cooling. It was a big thing even in NewsWeek. As well as cities throw off average Earth temperature because they are hotter than humans should be. More people, doing hotter things, makes it *SEEM* to be hotter everywhere.
    3: The polar ice caps, as well as greenland HAVE ACTUALLY GAINED ice in the past couple years. Al Gore's mockumentary got ripped to shreds even in the UK, and Europe is KNOWN for it's ridiculous liberalism on ridiculous ideas.

    Back to tech:

    Bill Gates forever was Microsoft. Bill Gates is more of a philanthropist that anyone else I know of. Microsoft hurt some start up companies. Yes. Given. Apple stole the idea for Macintosh from IBM and from Xerox. No one cares. They let them have it, and everyone benefitted. Apple stole the idea for the iBook/PowerBook/MacBook. I can't remember the original creations name, but since no one was seriously doing it they did. Microsoft is the same. No one had a cross platform media system that worked with everything, so they made one. No one had a cross system browser that came installed on most machines, so they made one. Microsoft brings technology to people who never get it, even if they have hurt some people along the way. Some of what they did is wrong. Yes. Fully understood. At the same time, show me a business that doesn't.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    evilkillerwhale@...
    25th Feb 2008
  • And cigarettes don't cause cancer
    I can only hope you are a heavy smoker, and your end is near.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    jackbond
    25th Feb 2008
  • Message has been deleted.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Sluggo Fishmonger
    28th Feb 2008
    • Flagged
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