Microsoft has delayed the Internet Explorer "platform preview" 4.0 once again, this time for an indefinite period of time. Though no new release date has been set, a Microsoft representative described the situation as "day-to-day" and hinted it might be more than a week.
"It is not ready for prime time for developers yet," she said. "They are making sure it is ready when they post it." Notice the comment about developers: the first release of IE 4.0 is aimed at developers hoping to take advantage of the new push features in the product, not at end-users, who have loudly been clamoring for IE 4.0 in the Microsoft newsgroups.
Internet Explorer is more than a simple upgrade to Microsoft's popular Web browser: it completely replaces the Windows user interface, if you let it, with a new Web browser-like experience and an "Active Desktop" that will host live "push" content. IE 4.0 was delayed in mid-March for two weeks so that Microsoft could examine potential security holes. Apparently, this is taking longer than expected.
Microsoft still expects to ship the final version of IE 4.0 by mid-year
