Looks as though Microsoft has started to tinker with the Longhorn sidebar once again. Paul Thurrott is reporting that a few recent 5200 series builds of Vista contain the sidebar which is not enabled by default:
"Despite having previously announced that it was removing the Sidebar from Windows Vista, Microsoft this week returned the feature to its post-Beta 1 (e.g. 5200-series) builds. It"s not on by default, and is surprisingly similar to the Dashboard feature in Mac OS X Tiger, according to my sources. But it"s in there. And that"s all that counts."
Critics of the sidebar complained that it used up a significant portion of the screen, while not offering any significant functionality. In another article posted by Thurrott today, he suggests that we boycott Internet Explorer until Microsoft cleans up its act:
My advice here is simple: Boycott Internet Explorer. It is a cancer on the Web, and must be stopped. IE is insecure and is not standards-compliant, which makes it unworkable for both end users and Web content creators. However, because of user base, Web developers are hamstrung into writing to it at the expense of established standards which work equally well in all other browsers. You can turn the tide by demanding better from Microsoft and using a better alternative Web browser. I recommend and use Mozilla Firefox, but Apple Safari (Mac only) and Opera 8 are both worth considering as well.
Update : ed - just to keep it moderately balanced, I suggest readers take a peek here as well.