From Microsoft Watch: Microsoft didn't want to release a standalone version of its Internet Explorer (IE) browser for a lot of reasons. But when big customers (like Ford Motor, we hear) started threatening to switch to Firefox and other alternatives because they were unhappy with the buggy, insecure IE releases they were going to be stuck with until 2006, Microsoft finally caved. Call it listening to customers, rather than doing an about-face, if you'd like. The end result: There will be an IE 7.0 for Windows XP Service Pack 2 users in the coming months, as Chairman Bill Gates announced at the RSA Conference on Tuesday.