Turns out that the rumors were right and the final, stable version of Internet Explorer 9 will be rolled out today, the 14th of March. Earlier this month we were reporting that rumor on the web has it that IE9 will be rolled out this March. The only problem at the time was that the date when IE9 Final would be rolled out was still a bit fuzzy.
Download Squad cited “a source that’s intimately familiar with the situation” and said that IE9 Final would be released on the 14th of March – that would be today. This rumor was backed by the fact that the IE team announced it will be holding a party at SXSW and by the fact that a 14th of March release goes hand in hand with the six-week release cycle that Internet Explorer has followed. A tweet sent by MSDN India confirmed that IE( Final would be rolled out this March, but it said that IE9 would be released on the 24th of March.
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Turns out that Download Squad and its source were right. Ryan Gavin, Senior Director, Internet Explorer Business and Marketing, confirmed that IE9 Final will be rolled out today, the 14th of March.
“I mentioned last month that we would be down in Austin, TX for SXSW. Since then there has been plenty of speculation and interest as to what might be happening. Exactly twelve months from the first Platform Preview of IE9, on Monday March 14th we will celebrate the developers and designers who are making a more beautiful web for all of us. We will release the final version of Internet Explorer 9 for download beginning at 9 p.m. Pacific,” announced Gavin.
If you don’t know what IE9 has to offer, here’s the lowdown:
A fresh new UI (user interface) that, as Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for Internet Explorer, Dean Hachamovitch said, is meant to put the focus on the site, not the browser.
Pin websites to the Windows 7 taskbar.
The New Tab Page displays the sites you visit most often (like Opera's Speed Dial).
All notifications are displayed at the bottom of the page.
Tear-off tabs feature that allows you to snap pages side-by-side using Windows Aero Snap.
Tabs that are related are color coded.
Add-on Performance Advisor identifies add-ons that may be slowing down your browser.
New, faster JavaScript engine.
Support for HTML5.
Tracking Protection Lists – a do not track feature that works much like the “Do Not Call” telephone registry and enables users to control how their information is shared
ActiveX filtering – feature that allows the user to block all ActiveX content and then selectively activate it on a per-site basis.
Please note that IE9 does not support the now quite old Windows XP operating system. It only works on Vista and Windows 7.
At the time of writing this the Beauty of the Web site, which Microsoft set up to tout the browser’s capabilities, and the windows.microsoft.com site are still serving IE9 RC. The final version will be rolled out at 9 p.m. Pacific, just like Gavin said.
UPDATE: The abovementioned sites now serve the final version of IE9.
Turns out that the rumors were right and the final, stable version of Internet Explorer 9 will be rolled out today, the 14th of March. Earlier this month we were reporting that rumor on the web has it that IE9 will be rolled out this March. The only problem at the time was that the date when IE9 Final would be rolled out was still a bit fuzzy. 