Honestly can you blame MS? lol. They're adding features that every other browser has been using for a year or two now, it's called trying to keep up. Although from what I've read about IE7 so far, it sounds like they're really trying to take all of the features they add up a notch compared to where they're getting the feature idea from. An example is the ability shown above to select multiple search engines from the search box; it's a small thing but makes a big difference. Supposedly it's looking to be a really nice browser.
Really they're not just taking from Firefox anyway, there are little bits of other browsers and features in there that are inspired by the likes of Safari, etc.
The interface, while it might appear to be a blatent rip-off of Firefox, is actually the new
Windows Vista interface. You'll find that every application window in Windows Vista looks pretty much the same as that.
http://www.winsupersite.com/images/show ... 70_087.jpg
http://www.winsupersite.com/images/show ... 70_081.jpg
The Windows Vista version of IE7 is going to have a feature not present in the stand-alone Windows XP browser released. It's going to have the ability to "demote" itself to run as a restricted user account that has no access to the system other than the Temporary Internet Files folder. Effectively sandboxing, it will supposedly make it the most secure browser ever invented. The idea is sound, but we wont tell until a few years down the line if it'll really work.