IE7 has been on a lot of peoples minds, especially desktop users and IT administrators, both wondering how IE7 will function as a web tool in the near future. There is an interview with Gary Schare, Director of IE Product Management with Microsoft, in which he discusses the development of IE7 and other things related to it. Schare mentions their primary focus for IE7 was security, which is sorely needed and will be appreciated by many should it pan out well:
"The primary driver behind expanding the reach of IE7 to Windows XP was security. That was the core of the message that we delivered last year at RSA and remains true to this day. The nature of the attacks you're seeing on the Internet, along with the nature of just how things have evolved and the worries that our customers have, made it a very easy decision to bring that technology to Windows XP for security reasons."
Another significant thing he mentions is that they plan to continue development of IE7 at the same pace, even after it has gone gold, to continue to improve and update it. Meaning, hopefully, that as problems are discovered, people no longer have to wait weeks or even months for a problem to be fixed. A revamping of how ActiveX is handled is also mentioned, a critical part of IE security. He also mentions committment to not dropping support for IE6, with security fixes still being provided for it as time goes on. If you are interested in the development of IE7 or what it will be like when it reaches you, check it out.