Internet Explorer 9 Beta

For the past several weeks, I've been quietly using beta versions of Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft's next web browser. It's better than you think it is, much better in fact, and I've had to suppress laughter as a few leaks occurred, prompting charges that Microsoft was somehow copying Chrome with the new, minimalist IE 9 user interface. Not so, as it turns out. In fact, IE 9 is unique, innovative, and, in a dramatic twist, the first time where Microsoft's OS integration plans actually makes sense.
That is quite a turnaround. Looking back over the past 15 years, my biggest and longest lasting complaint against Microsoft was the artificial and disastrous way it "integrated" IE into its then-untouchable NT OS, forever tarnishing the product and setting up Windows for over a decade of easily avoidable security vulnerabilities. The lie of Windows/IE integration was laid bare during Microsoft's epic antitrust trial, but by then the damage had been done: IE was part of Windows, and would forever be tied to the OS.
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