Internet Explorer 9 Beta Due Slated for September

Most of us here behind the scenes roll through the Web with Firefox or Chrome, but for those of you still clinging to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, you'll have a new browser to play with in September. That's when the Redmond software juggernaut will push out the first fully fledged beta (as opposed to that highly limited Preview release floating around) of its next-gen browser, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner said during a financial keynote.

We have little reason to doubt Turner's time frame for IE9. Following the release of the first developer preview back in the middle of March, Microsoft has been pumping out updated test builds every 8 weeks.


There's still no word on when the final version of IE9 will ship, but when it does, XP users won't be invited to the launch party - only Windows Vista and Windows 7 users need apply.

For those of you wanting to get a sneak peek, you can test drive the developer preview right here. By doing so, you'll find that Microsoft has put a lot of work into promoting HTML5 and JavaScript performance, two areas browser makers have been fixated on in recent times.

What browser do you use to race through cyber space?