On the Soapbox

I'm typing this entry using IE7b2 (the 5299 build that was leaked a couple of days ago)...

• It seems like that the CSS issues that I would've like to see fixed (support for the opacity syntax, :before, and PRE blocks inappropriately stretching the width of parent blocks) are still not fixed since IE7b1. Grrr.
• It seems like certain other CSS issues were fixed since IE7b1, like the parent>child syntax, which breaks many CSS filters, including the one that I use to work around IE's other bugs. Damnit!
• Microsoft turned on ClearType in IE7b2... even though I have ClearType turned off for Windows... and there's no option in IE7b2 to turn ClearType off in IE. ClearType doesn't look very good on flat-screen CRTs; what happened to letting the user control stuff like this?!
• There's no menu bar. There's a kind of iconic drop-down toolbar that replaces it. It's an interesting concept worthy of merit, but for someone who isn't used to it, it's pretty distracting and inconvenient. I'm just trying to picture the Average Joe who is used to working with a menu bar suddenly having this foreign interface thrust in front of him. Oh, and you need to dig in the menus to find the options to change this; no more easy access via a right-click.
• IE7b1 included Google Search in its quick-search box in the upper-right corner. IE7b2 does not include it (only MSN Search), and there doesn't seem to be an easy way (at the moment) to add it.
• The new icons are very attractive, though.
• The RSS reader looks nice (something that's missing in Firefox), but this was already there in Beta 1.
• Microsoft sent me a CD of Beta 1, but it wouldn't install because the Genuine verifier was somehow fubared even though my OS is genuine (I ended up having to download a crack for Beta 1). Looks like this problem is fixed with Beta 2, as it installs just fine without a crack. I think that this (along with the icons) are the only things I like about Beta 2 over Beta 1. How pathetic is that?

Verdict? I think I liked Beta 1 more than Beta 2 (I still like Firefox more, though). And I'm not looking forward to finding new ways to work around IE's buggy CSS.