The reviews I read say IE 7 has the following con’s:
*defaults to Microsuck’s search engine
*“find in this page” function bites
*is an MS product, with poorer security
Overall conclusory comments are along these lines:
[quote]IE 7 is a huge improvement over IE 6. There is evidence of really good effort and innovation here - but there are also traces of the old IE that just do not fit. It seems like the IE team was pressured to release the tool (because of what Firefox is bringing out) before they had a chance to rethink and redo everything. Hopefully the shortcomings will be cleaned up in IE 8 - and that we won’t have to wait another five years before it comes out!
The bigger question is how does IE7 compare to Firefox 2.0 and is it enough to hang on to IE’s huge market share? This is a tough question to answer… but in terms of performance, cohesiveness of features and availability of add-ons - Firefox 2.0 is in better shape right now.[/quote] SOURCE
CNET editors’ review: "Mozilla Firefox 2 is a winner, beating Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on security, features, and overall cool factor and deserving our Editors’ Choice award. "
From the same reviewers:
[quote]CNET editors’ review (IE 7)
Very good – 7.0 out of 10
The good: IE 7 includes built-in tabbed browsing; antiphishing technology; an RSS reader; and a redesigned Favorites Center.
The bad: IE 7 is limited to Windows XP SP2 users only; installation requires reboot; reuses old IE 6 code and doesn’t yet comply with current Web standards; doesn’t match all the features found in Firefox or Opera; carries a Microsoft legacy of not patching its IE flaws quickly enough.
The bottom line: IE 7 was Microsoft’s one chance to leapfrog ahead of the competition, but the company has only barely caught sight of the current front-runners. For more features and greater security, switch to Mozilla Firefox. [/quote]
[quote]New in Firefox 2 is session restore; if Windows crashes and you have several tabs open in Firefox at the time, you can now relaunch Firefox with all the tabs intact…
Mozilla remains very responsive to fixing its vulnerabilities, pushing out updates within a few days of public notice. Microsoft, on the other hand, parses out its vulnerability fixes a little at a time. In the five years since its release, IE 6 has accrued a large deficit, and we see no sign that Microsoft is addressing new vulnerabilities found in IE 7 any faster. …[/quote] source
SO BOTTOM LINE IS – IE7 is a big improvement, but Firefox still has the edge.