The future's not all Firefox, Deer Park and Camino, insists Microsoft. At its Mix '06 conference in Las Vegas, reports Microsoft Watch, company execs insisted. that there's a bright future for IE.

The important thing about this release is that no further layout changes will be made for IE 7.0," said Microsoft developer Cyra Richardson during a recent online chat on IE. "The attendees at MIX will receive several items (tools & builds) at the show that will allow them to better test IE compatibility. We will be striving to allow attendees to start testing with the layout complete version of IE7," Richardson added.

Microsoft released in January what it designated as a preview build of IE 7.0 Beta 2. Company officials have not given a firm date for when they plan to distribute the full-fledged Beta 2. The final IE 7.0 - which will be available both as an integrated part of Windows Vista and as a standalone browser for Windows XP Service Pack 2 - is expected to ship before year end. Windows Vista is expected to launch in November.

Microsoft will be hosting an "IE7 Compat Lab" at Mix '06, where developers can test their applications for compatibility with the latest IE test builds. As Microsoft itself has acknowledged, there could be app-compatibility hiccups with IE 7.0. As Microsoft acknowledges on the Mix '06 Web site, "reduced need to hack around quirks in older browsers, however, means that existing pages written specifically for older browsers may render differently in IE7. In addition, IE7 includes a number of new security features which may have impact on binary extensions such as toolbars, browser helper objects, and ActiveX controls."