Internet Explorer 8 to finally be standards-compliant?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1057&tag=nl.e539

I sure hope that it’s true and not just a marketing/legal defense strategy...

I read the same news this morning. I hope it is true and that IE8 doesn’t take forever to be released and adopted. When it comes to MicroSoft it may not be the time to celebrate just yet

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/12/19/internet-explorer-8-and-acid2-a-milestone.aspx

I read it too, interesting ! But we’ll have to wait for the end of 2008 :s

The beta is supposed to be released in the first half of 2008. But even if that happens, it’ll probably be months before the final version comes out. And then we’ll need to wait years before all those IE6 die-hards finally give up the ghost (let alone those who use IE7).

[begin Off-Topic]
The worst is that you’re right !
I just have been asked (2 weeks ago) to change my IE6 to IE7 (genuine Windows XP, moreover). And it’s been months IE7 exists ! Maybe in 10 years, people will abandon IE5
[end Off-Topic]

I’ll believe it when I see it

To Microsoft’s credit, they have been aware of their non-compliance for some time now and although it is pure hackery, providing us with conditional comments is a great tool as it keeps my pages valid XHTML while still letting me add style and structural elements to make my pages look as beautiful in IE as they do in good browsers.

<rant: begin>
The root of the problem will still exist (people will use whatever comes on their PC) until Microsoft is forbidden from bundling IE with their OS. That is the only real solution, but unfortunately, they (Microsoft) are under the mistaken impression that their browser is something other than sub-standard, amateur quality rubbish.
</rant>

-sD-
Dr. Scotty Delicious, DFPA.

I know that it’s a heretical idea, but I actually think that IE7 is a perfectly good browser. I don’t use Windows anymore, but when I did I used IE7 more often than Firefox. IE6 is an oozing pustule on the fetid arse of the internet, but IE7 works well enough.

Ha, I won’t disagree with you, as I truly only ever open it to test sites (never for pleasure), but I do believe that anyone who thinks IE 7 is a "perfectly good browser" should not be allowed to consider themselves a heretic. There is just too much honor in the long tradition of heretical thought to allow you to attribute them to this idea. Imagine the peasants thanking King Arthur rather than yelling, "Help! Help! I’m being repressed!" Oh, the horror...

But just one man’s opinion...

Context is everything, and in my context I can assure you that is a heretical opinion. Nowhere near as heretical as the rest of my beliefs, but it does provoke reflexive negative reactions from those around me. One can be heretical within a certain subculture or limited environment (say a child within a family that belongs to a marginalized religious cult), even if the ideas that make you so in that context would be reflexively accepted in a different one.

I find that I’m usually considered a heretic in any context, which either makes me an independent thinker or an ornery argumentative bastard (depending upon your point of view).

But of course I neglected to mention that in order to use Internet Explorer 7 you first have to be running Windows, which is certainly not a perfectly good operating system (for many reasons that are probably not worth listing). Well, you can kinda sorta run it in Linux, but that’s not how most people use it. And that’s essentially the original sin of the tech world, and not even Saint Ubuntu can absolve you of that.

Not only do you have to be running Windows, but you have to be running XP or better (well, if you consider Vista as "better"). I have an ancient (legal) copy of Windows98 that works fine for my purposes, but it can’t do IE 7.