IE 8 standards mode return to evil?
Mike “Isofarro” Davis noticed that Microsoft have quietly gone back to their original position, requiring developers to use a meta tag to opt-in to having their sites render in IE 8 standards mode, with an extra twist. There will now be a blacklist of sites that will by default be rendered in IE 7 “compatibility mode” (that is, not taking advantage of the extra standards support in IE 8.
The gist of it is if you want to be sure your site renders in standards compliant mode in IE, you have to explicitly opt into it. Otherwise you risk being blacklisted and thrown into IE7 Compatibility mode.
I fought this before I became an employee of Opera, a Microsoft competitor, and speak as a standards advocate and web developer: this is an atrocious state of affairs. Coupled with the resurrection of IE 6 as the new mobile Internet Explorer, it makes Microsoft’s claims to a Damascene conversion to standards seem very empty and insulting.
4 Responses to “ IE 8 standards mode return to evil? ”
Words fail me. This is just so typical of Microsoft. Back down while everyone is screaming blue murder and then just sneak it through while nobody is looking. OK, so where is the posse this time? I’m saddled up and ready to ride.
It’s appalling how they will go back on their promise to the world.
I have a suggestion to all readers of this blog… start sending personal e-mails to authors, urging them to write a followup to the story of Microsoft finally committing to using IE8 Standards mode as default.
I’ve personally written to a few authors already … but if we all send out 5 emails, this story might get some traction and put the spotlight back on web standards and IE8.
Internet Explorer 8 is so much better than the previous version of internet explorer browser. it is more stable and loads faster
It’s good the everyday consumer doesn’t have to deal with this stuff.
It’s too bad the everyday consumer doesn’t have to deal with this stuff…
…and rage against the machine.