Normally with Spartans the father has to see if a Spartan is strong enough to survive, so Microsoft has exposed it to the elements, and riff-raff to see if it breaks.
Project Spartan will be the default web browser in Windows 10, and is part of an update to the PC Windows 10 preview, where it hopes to see off early Iranians riding rhinoceroses.
Windows 10 testers can now download a new build (10049) that will include the Project Spartan browser. If you're already running a preview version of Windows 10 then it's available immediately from Windows Update, otherwise you can join the Windows Insider program to test Project Spartan and Windows 10.
Not all of Project Spartan features are enabled in today's preview. But Cortana, which if anyone has owned one will tell you spends more time in the shop than on the road, is going and can contextually aware suggestions, and assistance for weather or stocks information.
However calendar and flight information won't be available as part of today's preview, and the digital assistant is limited to the US for now. Apparently the Americans need more help than the Europeans, probably because they have been relying on Apple's Siri for a long time.
Roaming across devices and saving offline aren't available just yet. Both features are planned for the final version of Windows 10 and Project Spartan which will ship in the summer.
One of Spartan's more impressive features is the ability to annotate notes with a pen. Pens are game changing personal devises which replace the need for fingers on touch screens. They have the advantage that they do not require batteries and last for however it long it takes someone to steal them.
Today's preview will include this new Web Notes function. You can write or type directly on to a webpage, and share the comments through email, social networks, or through OneDrive. Microsoft even supports OneNote too, for easy clipping of web pages and inking comments or notes on them.
Today's preview is just an early look at Project Spartan, and Microsoft is promising to update its new Windows 10 browser frequently. "Project Spartan will be regularly updated," says Microsoft's Joe Belfiore.
"The team is engaging with customers and partners closely to tune and update plans."
Microsoft previously revealed it also plans to support extensions in Project Spartan in a future update, so new features are clearly in the works. Microsoft is also preparing to release a new Windows 10 for phones preview, and it's likely that Spartan will be included in that release.
The good side is that eventually Project Spartan will finally kill off Internet Explorer, which face it has had a Marathon run and is due to collapse at any moment. [That is enough Herodotus. Ed]
