Microsoft made a decision over a month ago that Internet Explorer 8 will not use their “super standards” mode by default. They said that websites would be able to opt-in to having IE 8 render sites in a standards-compliant way, but they thought it would be best if they broke as few sites as possible.
According the IE Blog Microsoft has switched their way of thinking. They will now be enforcing the “super standards” mode by default, and making it so that developers can specify in the code whether they want the site to be rendered like it was in Internet Explorer 7. They try to say that this decision came because of the feedback from the community, but they also mentioned that it will help them avoid any legal issues:
Microsoft recently published a set of Interoperability Principles. Thinking about IE8’s behavior with these principles in mind, interpreting web content in the most standards compliant way possible is a better thing to do.
We think that acting in accordance with principles is important, and IE8’s default is a demonstration of the interoperability principles in action. While we do not believe any current legal requirements would dictate which rendering mode a browser must use, this step clearly removes this question as a potential legal and regulatory issue.
I think that this is the best move by Microsoft because it will help push for more standards-compliant websites to be produced. It will be interesting to see how fast websites are to converge to the standards implemented in Internet Explorer 8. I’m guessing that we won’t really see the effects of it for 5 or so years after its release which is when a majority of users will have IE 8 on their computer.
Read more about this at the IE Blog and the Microsoft Press Release
Well that is some good news! I wonder if the Opera filing a complaint in Europe had anything to do with this.
so they finally decided to display webpages as they are supposed to be displayed?
finally i guess; with his advancement rate, i will be waiting for IE12 to support Acid3
I think IE12 is about right as i tested IE7 on XP Sp2 and its not pretty – screenshots in the forum
[forum.cybernetnews.com]
I have a strong feeling that it did have something to do with it. Especially since they mentioned that this may have to avoid the legal issues.
Yeah, it’s definitely not pretty right now.
Internet Explorer is not so relevant to me anymore since I discovered there are other browsers available the other month and you so don’t have to wait 5 years to get something like tabbed browsing or a speed dial for example, you can just use one of the other browsers instead.
Microsoft have only themselves to blame for forcing me to use Opera. I was going to download IE7, but then found out that it doesn’t work on Win 98 or XP SP1, so I looked for alternative modern browsers and found Opera and after using Opera, going back to IE6 is like going back to the stone age.
I’m glad, this should definitely help to speed up standards adoption.
Kudos to Microsoft. I think it’s a huge win for the Web developers and more importantly for the Web itself.
Daniel
Opera Software
From what I can see only good can come of this. Now I’m glad that you (Opera) lit a fire under their butt.