[This was originally published on the OSVDB blog.]
Microsoft Opens IE Bug Database
Microsoft has established a public database to allow Internet Explorer users to report bugs in the Web browser.
To post or view bugs, users must sign up for a Passport account on the Microsoft Connect Web site.
Microsoft plans to allow non-registered users to view reported bugs in a couple of months, according to a post on the Internet Explorer Weblog.
[..]
Microsoft is only accepting bug posts for Internet Explorer 7 and future versions.
The last line is curious. I understand a vendor’s motive for not supporting a product it considers old, and not updating it. I even understand a vendor saying “from here on out, no updates, including security updates”. However, MSIE6 will be heavily used for years to come, and will remain a large part of personal and corporate user installations. MSIE6 consists of a lot of code and represents a decade of work from Microsoft. Pointing out bugs in security or functionality should be of interest to them, even if they plan to completely ditch version 6. Such bugs would help them learn more about how the code is used and abused, and help them from making the same mistakes in future releases.