Launch, as in end of product, it's "finished", it's in the wild, you're on your own we will now work on IE 10?<p>Or launch like the rest of the software development world now operates and push out updates on a regular basis, with new features and better standards support, leading to something that actually has a chance of competing with the browsers the rest of us love to use?<p>'Cause I think it was around 2000 that people started realizing that monolithic development and release cycles lead to failed products. Software needs to be, and can be, updated constantly, or it falls behind. If this launch is like all other IE launches, it will be a day we will all look back on with disappointment. Don't get me wrong, I would <i>love</i> to see Microsoft actually become a modern development house, but I have huge doubts that it could ever happen.
As someone who hates IE, I must say that I'm actually really looking forward to IE9. The "worst" of the major browsers just closed the gap (and surpassed?) with fast JavaScript and gpu acceleration.<p>Hopefully, there's more to come.
People will debate endlessly whether IE9 is a "modern" browser based on its HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, etc support.<p>The real smoking gun that it still isn't modern is that it doesn't include a spellcheck by default. You can't claim to be doing what users want while ignoring that elephant in the room.
Is it true that it won't work on Windows XP? I know XP is like a decade old, and I really don't wanna start an upgrade-your-browser-you-noob flamefest, but it seems kinda lame to exclude the people still on XP from having a modern browser and I can't figure out what the rationale might be for that.
The Channel 9 video is at: <a href="http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/IE9-RTW-Due-Date-A-Big-Thank-You-MIX11-and-a-Unicorn-Named-Frank" rel="nofollow">http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/IE9-RTW-Due-Date-A-Bi...</a>
<i>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.</i><p><i>twelve months</i><p><i>twelve months</i><p><i>twelve months</i>