Next version of IE to be IE 8

As if it should come as any surprise the next version of the famous tied-to-your-operating system Internet Explorer will be version 8.0.  This version is not expected much before Windows 7 as Microsoft likes to release web browsers with their operating systems though I’m sure a version for Vista and maybe XP will be released.

It may surprise you to learn that IE 8 wasn’t the only name considered, according to a post over on the official IE Blog several names were considered,

E 7+1
IE VIII
IE 1000 (think binary)
IE Eight!
iIE
IE for Web 2.0 (Service Pack 2)
IE Desktop Online Web Browser Live Professional Ultimate Edition for the Internet (the marketing team really pushed for this one ;-)
Ie^2.079 (we might still use this for the Math Major Edition)

The feature set has not been announced yet and Dean Hachamovitch, General manager of the IE team assures us that they are busily working on the browser which I say will most likely debut on Windows 7.  Bill Gates was even caught calling the next version of IE “IE 8″ at an event on the Microsoft campus.

Perhaps Windows 7 with IE 8 will be advertised something like this “The power of 7 plus the power of 8, Windows 7 with IE 8, your full experience begins now.”

• Final version of Windows XP SP3 now available on MSDN, other sites
• New version of Windows XP released due to lack of activation keys
• Microsoft stripping IE from Windows 7 just for Europe
• Microsoft updates IE 7, drops WGA validation requirement for Windows XP
• ZuneHD firmware version 4.3 released