According to various news sources around the interweb, Bill Gates announced that Microsoft will be releasing their newest version of Internet Explorer this summer.
CNET News offers the following tasty morsels:
A beta, or test, version of Internet Explorer 7 will debut this summer, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect said in a keynote address at the RSA Conference 2005 here. The company had said that it would not ship a new IE version before the next major update to Windows, code-named Longhorn, arrives next year.
Analysts attributed Microsoft's change of heart to the progress of the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser, which has made incremental but steady market share gains against IE in recent months. In a survey conducted late last year, Firefox nudged IE below the 90 percent mark for the first time since the height of the browser wars in the 1990s.
Reversal: Next IE update divorced from Windows [CNET News]
Microsoft to Release New Internet Browser [Yahoo News]
UPDATE:
A few more interesting sources for the same information:
Internet Explorer 7 beta due out this summer [Ars Technica]
Bill gates announces a security push and a new Internet Explorer [UberGizmo]
And, in other browser related news...
Ask Jeeves wants Firefox browser [Ars Technica]
IE Is Costing You Money - An Angry Rant [Gizmodo]
Update redux:
Misinformation about the IE7 announcement [Digital Web Magazine]
And speaking of the Redmond juggernaut, a buddy of mine sent me this a link to this really good article:
Silicon Insider: R.I.P. Microsoft? [ABC News]
After Dominating the Technology Industry for Years, is Microsoft Poised to Collapse?