After over a year and a half, IE7 has been released to the public as of Monday afternoon. Download it directly from: http://www.microsoft.com/ie. Word hit the streets after several mangers of the IE division posted on the IE blog:
Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager of IE, wrote a blog post outlining their ups and downs while creating IE7. "The Phishing Filter and the architectural work in IE7 around networking and ActiveX opt-in will help keep users more secure. IE7 also delivers a much easier browsing experience with features like tabbed browsing (especially with QuickTabs), shrink-to-fit printing, an easily customizable search box, and a new design that leaves more screen real estate for the web site you’re viewing."
Kellie Eickmeyer, Lead Program Manager of IE, followed up with a blog post outlining ways to get support in case you run into any problems using IE7. "The Internet Explorer7 support page is an excellent resource for assistance. Here you will find a list of FAQs, contact information for phone support and links to Microsoft discussion groups. In addition, Web Developers can visit The Microsoft Internet Explorer Developer Center for the latest information on IE Web Development or to participate in the IE Web Development forum."
Tony Chor, Group Program Manager of IE, then posted links to download IE7 in other languages besides English. "The short version is that we will be releasing IE7 in all languages available for each version of Windows – twenty-four fully localized languages in total. In two to three weeks, we’ll ship the Arabic, Finnish, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish language versions. The remaining languages will be released in phases between November and January."